Politics & Government
Gardiner Takes Slim Early Lead Over Incumbent Sternoff in City Council Primary Race
With 17.84 percent of the vote counted, Jason Gardiner took 47.28 percent to Bob Sternoff's 46.2 percent. Incumbent Dave Asher takes a comfortable lead in the other city council race on the ballot, while incumbent Jane Hague leads her county council race.
Newcomer Jason Gardiner of Kingsgate jumped to a slight lead over incumbent Kirkland City Council member Bob Sternoff of the Moss Bay neighborhood in early returns posted by King County Elections from Tuesday’s primary election.
With just 17.84 percent of the vote counted (8,514 out of 47,724 registered Kirkland voters), Gardiner captured 47.28 percent of the votes (3,566) compared to Sternoff’s 46.2 percent (3,485). Chuck Hinson, who had dropped out of the race but not in time to have his name removed from the ballot, got 0.65 percent of the early vote total (49).
Most of the votes remains to be counted, however, and the early Gardiner lead might not hold. The primary is designed to narrow the race to two candidates for the Nov. 8 general election anyway, so it would appear certain Sternoff and Gardiner will square off again then for the city council’s Position 2 seat.
One other Kirkland City Council race was on the primary ballot, and incumbent Dave Asher of Rose Hill took a comfortable early lead, with 51.35 percent of the Position 6 vote (3,942 votes). Next was James A. Hart of Houghton with 26.89 percent (2,064) of the vote, followed by Martin Morgan of Rose Hill with 21.17 percent (1,625). Again, the top two in the race will meet in the November general election.
In the other big race for Kirkland voters, King County Council incumbent Jane Hague of Bellevue took an strong early lead with 20.24 percent of the vote counted (24,517 votes of 121,139 registered District 6 voters). Hague took 39.39 percent of the early vote total (9,054), while Richard Mitchell of Mercer Island was next with 27.8 percent (6,420), followed by John Creighton of Kirkland with 25.15 percent (5,795) and Patsy Bonincontri of Bellevue with 7.3 percent (1,681).
King County Council District 6 includes Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Mercer Island, Medina, Clyde Hill, Hunts Point, Beaux Arts, and Yarrow Point.
For profiles of each candidate, see Kirkland Patch’s primary election story from earlier this week here.
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