Results have been finalized for the November general election and shows the three forerunners in the Redmond City Council races have kept their leads.
Three seats were up for election this year, marking the most competitive city council races in years.
In Position 2, Steve Fields beat out incumbent Byron Shutz.
“I’m excited about the results of the election, I think that I’m happy with what the voters chose and I think that having at least two new council members is really exciting,” Fields said. “It will create, I think, a better dialogue than what we had in the past.”
Fields said all the candidates this year were strong contenders. He said he hopes to represent the people of Redmond and provide a broader voice for his constituents.
Some elements of his campaign included raising analysis standards when evaluating projects, mitigating traffic congestion and developing a vision on how to manage development and growth.
Fields garnered 55.55 percent of the vote.
In Position 4 Tanika Padhye beat Eugene Zakhareyev with 62.18 percent of votes cast.
Padhye was appointed to the council earlier this year to fill a vacancy and said her experience on the council will help her navigate her coming term.
“I feel like it enabled me to connect with residents and kind of solidify the reasons why I wanted to represent the people of Redmond,” she said.
She hopes to continue addressing issues like managing issues related to growth, creating affordable housing and creating a safe and welcoming environment in the city.
Working with regional organizations and other municipalities is also a top priority.
“It’s always nice to have partners and really leverage all our resources,” Padhye said.
Jeralee Anderson won the Position 6 seat, beating out challenger Jason Antonelli.
Anderson secured 65.91 percent of the vote.
In an email, she said she is looking forward to serving on the city council.
The race for the 45th district Washington state Senate seat took center stage in this year’s election.
Democrat Manka Dhingra won the seat with 55.38 percent of the vote, beating the Republican candidate Jinyoung Lee Englund in the most expensive Senate race in state history.
With the victory, Democrats now control a majority in both houses of the Legislature, along with the Governor’s office.
Two 48th Legislative seats also went to Democrats, with Patty Kuderer beating Libertarian Michelle Darnell for another Senate seat, and Vandana Slatter securing a House seat over Libertarian Ciaran Dougherty.
At the county level, incumbent King County Executive Dow Constantine retained his seat against Bill Hirt.
Sheriff John Urquhart was unseated by Mitzi Johanknecht, who won 56.75 percent of the vote.
Full election results are available at http://results.vote.wa.gov/results/20171107/king/.
