A Sammamish native will run as an independent against Republican Dave Reichert in the 8th Congressional District.

James Windle, who grew up in Sammamish and graduated from Redmond High School in 1994, said he would be an independent voice that could break the gridlock in Congress.

Windle, 36, said additional tax revenue and entitlement reform – the sacred cows of Republicans and Democrats, respectively – are needed to balance the federal budget and stimulate the economy.

Windle said only a political independent is capable of bridging that gap between the two parties.

“I don’t have to worry about the party pulling the carpet out from under me if I do something they don’t like,” he said.

Windle said the so-called Simpson-Bowles plan, crafted by a bipartisan commission in 2010, should serve as framework for fixing the country’s budget deficit.

The plan projects to trim the deficit by $4 trillion through a mixture of spending cuts and higher taxes, but has failed to garner support in Congress.

While he’s not beholden to a party platform, Windle is no stranger to the inner machinations of Washington, D.C.

He went east after graduating from the University of Washington, attended graduate school at Boston University and worked in the Office of Management and Budget in George W. Bush’s White House and on the Appropriations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

He recently left a position educating members of the military as an Associate Dean of Admin-istration and Finance at the National Defense University to move back to Washington State and run against Reichert.

Windle said Reichert hasn’t done enough to become a big player within Congress.

“I haven’t seen him weigh in on the big issues,” Windle said.

Though he recognizes that he’s fighting an uphill battle by not aligning with a party during the campaign, he said he’s hopeful that he can raise enough money independently to place second in the state’s Top 2 primary. If he makes it to the general election, Windle said he’s confident that he’ll receive donations from sources all over the political spectrum.

“We’re pushing the envelope with our approach to this campaign,” he said.

Windle and his wife Anh-Thu Mai-Windle now own a home in Snoqualmie Pass.

Reporter Caleb Heeringa can be reached at 392-6434. ext. 247, or cheeringa@isspress.com.

In the 45th District, which covers the north half of Sammamish, Democratic Rep. Roger Goodman has drawn two opponents in his search for a fourth term.

Joel Hussey, CEO of a Redmond-based aircraft leasing company, will run as a Republican.

Jacob Bond, a 27-year-old former U.S. Marine, has filed as a Democrat in his run against Goodman.

Fellow Democratic incumbent Larry Springer, going for a fifth term, has drawn a Republican opponent in Jim Thatcher, a program manager at Microsoft and Redmond resident.

In the 41st, Republican Sen. Steve Litzow will face a challenge from Democrat Maureen Judge, a Mercer Island resident and former executive director of the Washington Toxics Coalition. In the House, incumbent Democrat Marcie Maxwell will face Republican Tim Eaves. No one filed against incumbent Judy Clibborn.

On the national front, incumbent Dave Reichert has drawn challengers from both sides of the aisle as he seeks a fifth term in the newly redrawn Eighth Congressional District, which now stretches across the mountains to Wenatchee.

Puyallup resident Keith Swank, a Seattle Police Sergeant, and Issaquah resident Ernest Huber have filed as Republicans to face Reichert.

Auburn resident Keith Arnold, an accountant with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Issaquah resident and management consultant Karen Porterfield will challenge the incumbent as Democrats.

James Windle, who grew up in Sammamish and lives in Snoqualmie Pass, has filed as an independent in the race.

John Urquhart, who retired last year after 24 years in the agency and 36 years as a police officer, pledged in a press release to increase accountability, oversight and responsiveness in the agency.

“The citizens of King County want many things from their Sheriff’s Office,” Urquhart wrote in the release. “They want a police agency that is tough on crime, but understands you can’t arrest your way out of every problem in society … Citizens don’t care about so-called ‘business plans’ or ‘strategic plans.’ They want a police department that is responsive and treats them with respect.”

If elected in November, Urquhart said he plans to increase staffing for internal reviews of citizen complaints about deputies and use-of-force reviews.

Steve Strachan, who was handpicked to serve in the post by outgoing Sheriff Sue Rahr until November, has also announced that he will run for the elected office.

The filing deadline is mid-May.

Urquhart grew up in North Seattle and graduated from the University of Washington.

He started an electrical construction material business before moving into law enforcement. He lives on Mercer Island.

The Kirkland Democrat, currently the deputy majority leader in the Democrat-controlled state House of Representatives, announced his decision April 23, saying he intends to continue to focus on boosting the state’s economy.

“I am eager to return to the Legislature and continue working to help Washington climb out of this economic recession,” he said in a press release. “We have made progress the past two years but there is much left to do.”

Springer, who calls himself a “moderate, fiscally conservative Democrat,” has been endorsed by several Eastside politicians, including the mayors of Redmond, Kirkland and Woodinville and Sammamish City Councilman Don Gerend.

Springer, a lifelong Eastside resident, served 11 years on the Kirkland City Council, four of which were as mayor.

He owns The Grape Choice, a wine store in Kirkland.

No one has announced a run against Springer, though the official filing period is not until the week of May 14 to May 18.

As of November, Litzow will represent the southern half of Sammamish, along with the rest of the 41st District.

Democrat Maureen Judge, a Mercer Island resident and former Washington Toxics Coalition executive director, entered the race against Litzow.

“As a mother, I deeply value education funding as a force to protect our state’s future competitiveness and economic health,” Judge said in a statement. “During his 2010 campaign, Litzow promised he would fight for education funding. But this legislative session he demonstrated that he’d rather toe the Republican Party line than fight for our kids, our state and our future.”

In 2010, Litzow defeated appointed incumbent Randy Gordon by 192 votes to represent the 41st Legislative District in the Senate.

Litzow and Gordon battled to fill the unexpired term of former Sen. Fred Jarrett, the current King County deputy executive.

Republican Joel Hussey announced April 3 that he will run for the seat currently held by three-term incumbent Democrat Roger Goodman. Hussey, CEO and President of Redmond-based aircraft leasing company Tailwind Capital, said he’s running to help develop a sustainable budget and make the state a good place to live for his four high school and college-aged children.

“They’re all reaching the age where they are going to be making decisions about whether to stay here or go elsewhere,” the 49-year-old Hussey said. “I want to make sure (Washington State) is someplace they want to stay and work and raise their families.”

The 45th District currently covers a small part of the north end of Sammamish, but will consist of the entire north half of the city when a new electoral map goes into effect in November.

If elected, Hussey said he would look at “long-term solutions” that would help balance the state’s budgets without leading to tax increases. He said he supported recent Republican measures to make reforms to the pension plans of state employees and consolidate the health insurance plans of K-12 employees. Both measures have drawn the ire of public employee unions and Democrats in the legislature, leading to a stalemate in recent weeks over how to close the $1 billion shortfall remaining in the budget.

Hussey knocks the Democrats’ proposed delay of payments to school districts and cities and counties as “budget gimmicks” and said more fundamental structural changes are needed.

“At some point we can’t sit around waiting for revenue numbers to increase again,” he said.

Hussey said he’s confident that the budget could be balanced without raising taxes or cutting anymore funding to K-12 or higher education, which he said should be at the top of the state’s priority list.

“Education has taken a beating during recent budget negotiations – it can’t continue to be the whipping boy for the budget,” he said.

He said the legislature’s recent legalization of gay marriage was “not the best use of the state’s time” given the still unsolved budget issues. He said he would not have supported gay marriage if he were in the House and that he’s glad the matter is going before voters in November.

This would be the first elected office for Hussey, who is the current Board President at Bellevue Christian School and former President of the Lake Washington Youth Soccer Association. Hussey grew up in Everett, received an accounting degree from Seattle Pacific University and a masters of business administration from the University of Washington.

Several local Republicans have endorsed Hussey, including King County Councilwoman Kathy Lambert, former state representative and current Kirkland City Councilmember Toby Nixon and Andy Hill, who currently represents the 45th District in the state Senate.

Hussey is the second person to announce they are running for Goodman’s position after Democrat Eric Laliberte filed in November. Goodman is running for the 1st Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, but recently said he was reconsidering his candidacy and would run for reelection in the 45th if he dropped out of the Congressional race. The deadline to file is May 18.

Reporter Caleb Heeringa can be reached at 392-6434. ext. 247, or cheeringa@isspress.com.

‘A real grassroots conversation’
Organizers at Discovery Elementary set up additional folding tables and chairs as more than 400 caucusgoers — a standing-room-only crowd — filed into the cafeteria. Some participants gathered at tables set up in poster-lined hallways and the gymnasium.
“Our only problem is that there are too many people that care about democracy this morning,” organizer David Irons, a former candidate for King County executive, said to participants before the caucuses opened.
(The crowd included ex-state senator and Sammamish resident Dino Rossi, a former GOP candidate for governor and U.S. Senate.)
Issaquah resident Brandon Slater, another Romney supporter, and other caucusgoers spent about 30 minutes discussing candidates at Discovery Elementary before the precinct agreed to support Romney.
“Of all the candidates, he’s in a league of his own as far as fixing fiscal problems,” Slater said.
Participants in the Sammamish-area caucuses said most participants arrived prepared to discuss a chosen candidate.
“There was almost no discussion,” Issaquah political consultant Terry LaBrue said as the caucuses concluded at Discovery Elementary and organizers collected results in manila envelopes. “They came with their minds made up — and everybody was polite, of course. It was that real grassroots conversation of, ‘This is what I think, this is who I want to support and this is why.’ The overwhelming reason was that they think Romney has the best chance to beat Obama in the fall.”
LaBrue, precinct committee officer for the Brookshire area, said the 11 participants from the precinct supported Romney in a landslide.
“Turnout was terrific, and the people are really fired up about this,” LaBrue said. “They really want a change in government.”
Though the top candidate can claim victory in Washington based on the nonbinding straw poll, the delegate elections from the precinct caucuses matter more in the long run. Republicans narrow the delegates elected at the precinct level at legislative district and county conventions. The state GOP determines Washington’s 43 representatives to the Republican National Convention at the state convention in late May and early June. Still, the long nomination battle raised interest among local Republicans. (In 2008, U.S. Sen. John McCain emerged as the presumptive Republican nominee long before the Evergreen State caucuses.)
“We have a chance to have a say more than usual this year,” Slater said.

District results
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney received a critical boost in the 5th Legislative District and King County — and topped the state GOP caucuses’ straw poll. In the district overall, organizers said 1,589 caucusgoers participated in the straw poll. (The district includes most Sammamish neighborhoods.)
Mitt Romney: 843 votes (53 percent)
Ron Paul: 263 votes (17 percent)
Rick Santorum: 246 votes (15 percent)
Newt Gingrich: 195 votes (12 percent)
Others: 42 votes (3 percent)

An analysis of precinct results from the Nov. 8, 2011 general election released by the King County Elections office shows that 71.6 percent of Sammamish voters were in favor of Initiative 1183, which allows private stores 10,000 square feet or larger to sell hard liquor.

In the City Council race between Kathy Richardson and Nancy Whitten, Richardson drew a lot of support from lakefront property owners. Map by Dona Mokin

That’s significantly more support than the initiative got statewide, where 58.7 percent of voters were in favor.

And though Sammamish is likely home to a large amount of commuters on state Route 520, its voters were even less likely than those statewide to be in favor of eliminating variable tolling on the bridge.

A bit more than 57 percent of voters checked “No” on Initiative 1125, compared to just over 53 percent around the state. The initiative would have also put state legislators in charge of setting tolling rates and unraveled plans to put light rail on the Interstate 90 Bridge.

Support for Initiative 1163, which would have increased training and licensing requirements for long-term care workers, lagged a bit in Sammamish – 58.4 percent of plateau voters supported the measure, compared to 65 percent of statewide voters.

Opponents questioned the wisdom of adding millions in costs to an already cash-strapped state budget.

City council races

The precinct numbers also cast some light on Sammamish’s city council races.

Kathy Richardson, a Lake Sammamish shoreline property owner, predictably garnered solid support from her shoreline neighbors in her candidacy against the incumbent Nancy Whitten, who has pushed for more stringent shoreline development regulations in her time on the council.

Richardson won all six of the precincts that border the shores of Lake Sammamish, as well as several other precincts scattered around the city.

Whitten said the results don’t surprise her. She theorized that some Lake Sammamish residents are still sore from her first campaign in 2004 when she advocated heavily for opening up the East Lake Sammamish Trail to the public, despite protests from nearby homeowners about the added pedestrian traffic near their homes.

Richardson also beat Whitten by three votes in Whitten’s own precinct, which covers the north end of Pine Lake. Whitten said some of her neighbors are less-than-keen on her advocacy for vegetated buffers around Pine and Beaver lakes, which makes lakefront recreation difficult.

Whitten did win the precincts around Beaver Lake by a healthy margin.

Ramiro Valderrama garnered solid support from around the city in his campaign against Jim Wasnick, winning all but three of the city’s 46 precincts. Wasnick won one Lake Sammamish precinct – between Southeast Eighth Street and Southeast 25th Street, as well as two precincts in the southeast corner of the city, roughly between Klahanie and Beaver Lake west of Duthie Hill Road.

Tom Vance, who cruised to victory with 67.6 percent of the vote over Jesse Bornfreund, won every precinct in the city.

Reporter Caleb Heeringa can be reached at 392-6434. ext. 247, or cheeringa@isspress.com.

Nancy Whitten, Ramiro Valderrama and Tom Vance all appear to be on their way to seats on the Sammamish City Council in 2012.

Vance cruised to victory by the largest margin, garnering 67.9 percent of the votes cast compared to 31.7 percent for challenger Jesse Bornfreund as of Wednesday night. Valderrama, organizer of local advocacy group Citizens For Sammamish, leads challenger Jim Wasnick 56.6 percent to 43.1 percent. Incumbent councilwoman Whitten appears to have beat planning commissioner Kathy Richardson by a 53.3 percent to 46.5 percent margin.

Vance, who ran for council in 2009 and lost to John Curley, said he was optimistic going into election night, but still nervous “having been down this road before.” Vance thanked his supporters and said he was looking forward to being one of two new faces on the council.

“I’m humbled and grateful to the voters and my supporters,” he said. “I think we’re going to have a good council for the next two years.”

Bornfreund said he was glad that he and Vance’s race was not as “contentious” as the other races and stayed focused on the issues. He said he would continue to keep an eye on the council as it grapples with issues like Town Center and a potential community and aquatic center.

“I ran because I was concerned about the direction the city was going,” he said. “Now that I’ve run I’m even more concerned than before.”

Valderrama, the second new face on the 2012 council, said he expected the support he received on Election Day given the similarly solid results during the primary. Valderrama received 46 percent of primary votes while Wasnick and local activist John Galvin had 28 percent and 25 percent support, respectively.

Valderrama pledged to do more to involve the public and be fiscally responsible when it comes to a potential community and aquatic center and Town Center.

“It’s humbling to be supported by this large of a percentage of the city,” he said. “I appreciate the support from the public and the people that worked on my campaign.”

Wasnick said he was hopeful that the support he garnered would send a message to the upcoming council.

“I think voters liked my straight-forward approach … and don’t want to see the city spending a bunch of money on items like the aquatic center,” Wasnick said. “Despite the numbers, 43 percent of voters agreed with my message. I think that sends a pretty strong message to the council.”

Whitten said she was thankful for the support for a third term on the council.

“I had a lot of people coming up to me during the campaign and thanking me for one thing or another,” Whitten said. “I’m looking forward to the next four years.”

Though Whitten said she mostly filed for reelection out of concern about Richardson’s effect on the council when it came to property rights and environmental protection, Whitten spoke highly of her opponent after election results were in.

“I have a lot of respect for her – she’s smart and articulate,” Whitten said. “Hopefully she’ll run again two or four years from now, because she’d make a good councilmember. I’m glad she’s on the Planning Commission.”

Richardson said she knew that the race would be close, given that she was running against a two-term incumbent. She said she would continue to devote herself to public service on the commission, where she is vice-chair.

“I’m very comfortable with what the voters decided,” she said. “Either way going into it I knew the worst possible outcome was that I’d still get to serve the community – it was just a matter of whether that was on the council or on the commission.”

Though campaigning was a lot of work, Richardson said it was surprisingly fun at times.

“I loved meeting voters,” she said. “Even sign waving was actually a lot of fun, which I didn’t expect it to be at all.”

Two candidates who benefited from a last minute mail campaign funded by the Building Industry Association of Washington came up short in the end. The Affordable Housing Council, the political action committee arm of the BIA, spent $3,000 on mailers for both Richardson and Wasnick. Their expenditure was posted with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission on Oct. 30.

The Sammamish numbers reflect 8079 ballots out of 27117 registered voters in the city, or about 29.8 percent turnout. King County Elections officials will be updating results in the coming days.

School Board and Port of Seattle

Two incumbents will keep their seats in both the Issaquah School Board and Port of Seattle Commission races

Brian Deagle cruised to victory over challenger Patrick Sansing, garnering 65 percent of votes; Suzanne Weaver got 64 percent of votes to keep her seat from challenger Brian Neville. Lake Washington School Board members ran unopposed.

At the port, Bill Bryant beat challenger and Sammamish resident Dean Willard 62 to 37 percent. Gael Tarleton also won reelection over Richard Pope, 56 to 43 percent.

More liquor, keep the tolls

At the state level, voters kicked the government out of the liquor business and rejected a measure to put road tolling in the hands of politicians.

Initiative 1125, Tim Eyman’s tolling measure, is failing by a 48.6 to 51.4 percent margin.

Initiative 1183, which would privatize liquor sales in the state, garnered affirmative votes from 59.6 percent of the electorate.

Initiative 1163, requiring more training for long-term care providers, is garnering solid support, with 66.2 percent of voters in favor.

Two amendments to the state constitution appear on their way to passing. Senate Joint Resolution No. 8205, regarding residency requirements to vote in the state, has 71.8 percent of voters in favor. Senate Joint Resolution No. 8206, which calls for larger-than-expected revenues to be put into the state’s rainy day fund, had 66.8 percent of voters in favor.