SNOHOMISH — City Council incumbent Steve Dana and challenger Karen Guzak outpaced challenger Tabitha Baty in the primary for City Council Position 7.
In the other City Council primary, David Flynn led Kari Zimmerman in polls.
Meanwhile for mayor, City Council President Linda Redmon led incumbent Mayor John Kartak in the polls. Third-place candidate Sam King took less than 5 percent of the vote.
Additionally, a majority of voters said yes to continuing a city sales tax for funding road projects and paving.
Some 2,523 of Snohomish’s 6,795 registered voters are included in this tally from Friday, Aug. 6. Turnout exceeded 35% of voters.
City Council Position 7
In the City Council primary between Baty, Dana and Guzak, Dana led the race with 991 votes to Guzak’s 900 votes as of Friday, Aug. 6. Baty had 552 votes, which was about 22 percent of the vote. Dana had 40 percent while Guzak had just under 37 percent.
Guzak and Dana have both established themselves on council, each serving three terms.
Baty, who is president of the group Snohomish For Equity, said in an interview that when Guzak entered the race, it made an uphill battle to advance in the primary.
She has no regrets. “I still feel like the conversations and change are what I can still have as a community member,” Baty said.
Baty said she entered the race specifically to challenge either Dana or Councilman Larry Countryman. Countryman already had a challenger in Lea Anne Burke, so Baty filed to run against Dana when it looked like he had no challengers. Late in the candidate filing week, Guzak switched from running against Councilman Felix Neals to also challenge Dana. Neals ended up unopposed this year.
Baty said she learned a lot running for council, and would try again if the opportunity came up in the near future. That would happen if a vacancy on council opened.
City Council Position 5
In the council primary that wasn’t, for Position 5, David Flynn held 51 percent of the vote to Kari Zimmerman’s 34 percent as of Friday, Aug. 6’s results. Third candidate Becky Perkins formally withdrew her campaign but was too late to file papers needed to remove her name from ballots. Perkins took 14 percent of the vote.
This election is for the council seat held by Redmon. Redmon months ago began a run for mayor instead of defending her council seat.
From left to right: Incumbent John Kartak, Linda Redmon and Sam King.
Redmon leads for mayor
In the race for mayor, Linda Redmon led incumbent Mayor John Kartak 1,244 votes to 1,129 votes as of Friday, Aug. 6. It put Redmon at about 5 percentage points ahead of Kartak. The gap was as wide as almost 10 percentage points earlier last week.
They’ll advance. King will not. King ran a self-funded, campaign with the goal of changing Snohomish into a “direct democracy” where the public at-large is polled to determine city policies, instead of having elected City Council members making these decisions under the traditional “representative” form of government.
Transportation Benefit District
Voters said yes in the public decision whether to continue a 0.2 percent sales tax for road improvements. The vote is currently almost a 60-40 split in favor. The measure needs a simple 50% majority to pass.
The next tally of ballot results come out Wednesday, Aug. 11 after press time.
