One week ago, King County Elections released the initial returns for the 2021 November general election, which showed that incumbent Republican King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert was well behind her Democratic challenger, Sarah Perry. Since then, thousands of additional ballots have been tallied, but neither Perry’s nor Lambert’s percentages have changed much. Perry continues to have a more than ten point lead as of today, with 55.8%. Lambert is stuck at 43.87%.
Lambert released a statement on November 8th saying that while disappointed in the results, she will work with Perry to plan a “thorough and complete transition.”
“I am hopeful that our next County Councilmember will have success while navigating the many issues currently facing the county and will do so in a way that represents all voices — from our largest cities to our most rural and unincorporated areas,” said Lambert in a statement provided to NPI.
“I am incredibly proud of the work that we have accomplished together over the past two decades; from establishing the Department of Local Services to help our unincorporated communities receive the services they need, to the many programs to help our youth and reduce incarceration, like the community court program, the SAFE, TRACE, and FIRS programs,” Lambert added.
“I am also extraordinarily proud of the work we accomplished during this pandemic, which included securing over $1.6 billion in federal funds to help our small businesses, marginalized groups and families weather the effects of the lockdown measures,” Lambert continued.
“It has been an honor to serve District Three for the past 20 years and it is wonderful looking back at all of the things we were able to accomplish together — from the development of the department of local services, judicial reform and child protective programs — King County and district three have a history of proactively leading from the front and being a model for our nation.”
Sarah Perry’s campaign responded to the concession in an update to supporters:
I was pleased to receive a call from Kathy Lambert on Sunday conceding the election. I would like to thank Kathy for her years of service to the county and state, and wish her the best.
I would also like to send a thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to each of the 1,034 individual supporters who contributed from $5 to $2,000 for a total raised of over $340,000.
As well as to those who knocked on over 25,000 doors, or drove me around as I talked with thousands of community members, or made 5,000 calls, or sent 50,000 texts, or hosted one of the twenty House Parties, or attended any of the twenty Sign Wavings, or supported us with social media or data research, or help in any other small or large way that, together, brought this win!
Please don’t hesitate to reach out at anytime with questions, or if you would like me to join your community organization for a meet & greet.
Now I cannot wait to get to work with you, and for you, whether you voted for me or not, to tackle the issues of transit, the environment, safe communities and so much more.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Now… let’s get to work!
Lambert is the third incumbent King County Councilmember to have been sent into retirement by voters in the last six years. In 2015, voters in the 6th District ousted Republican Jane Hague from the Council, replacing her with Democratic challenger Claudia Balducci. And in 2019, voters in the 2nd District replaced longtime Councilmember Larry Gossett with fellow Democrat Girmay Zahilay.
Perry’s win will create a 7–2 Democratic majority on the Council.
Councilmember-elect Sarah Perry addresses supporters at her Election Night victory party (Photo: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)
Officially, the Council is “nonpartisan,” owing to passage of a Republican-crafted charter amendment several years ago. But in practice, the Council remains as partisan as before the charter change, because politics is inherently partisan.
The remaining Republicans on the Council are Pete von Reichbauer and Reagan Dunn, representing the 7th and 9th Districts, respectively. Each of them is easily winning reelection, so they will serve through the 2025 election unless they were to resign. As of next year, the Democratic councilmembers, by district, will be:
- Rod Dembowski, 1st District (just reelected)
- Girmay Zahilay, 2nd District (up in 2023)
- Sarah Perry, 3rd District (just elected)
- Jeanne Kohl-Welles, 4th District (up in 2023)
- Dave Upthegrove, 5th District (just reelected)
- Claudia Balducci, 6th District (up in 2023)
- Joe McDermott, 8th District (up in 2023)
Lambert has been on the Council for over twenty years. She previously served in the Washington State Legislature prior to joining the Council. Until this year, she had not faced a strong Democratic opponent when seeking new terms.
After a poor showing in the Top Two round, Lambert and her consultant began looking for attack fodder to use against Perry in the hopes of tearing her down. They tested over half a dozen potential attacks in an online poll that fielded after the Top Two election, then ended up creating a horrible, racist mailer that disgustingly portrayed Perry as a puppet of Councilmember Zahilay.
To Lambert’s dismay, the attack backfired and resulted in her campaign losing the support of many endorsers and donors. It also had the effect of portraying her to the district’s mostly Democratic voters as a Trump Republican.
After repeatedly defending the mailer, Lambert abruptly changed course and severed ties with her consultant. But by that point, her reelection prospects had been fatally wounded. Her credibility as an elected official was also severely damaged. Within days, the King County Council unanimously voted to remove her from all committee chair and vice chair positions.
Now the voters have removed Lambert from office. Lambert will have a few more weeks left to wrap up her work on the Council and then Councilmember-elect Perry will take over as the district’s new representative.
NPI thanks Councilmember Lambert for her many years of public service. We wish her the best in her next chapter, and hope to have the opportunity to team up on causes like finding funding for our rural roads.
Tuesday, November 9th, 2021
Kathy Lambert has conceded the 3rd King County Council District race to Sarah Perry
One week ago, King County Elections released the initial returns for the 2021 November general election, which showed that incumbent Republican King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert was well behind her Democratic challenger, Sarah Perry. Since then, thousands of additional ballots have been tallied, but neither Perry’s nor Lambert’s percentages have changed much. Perry continues to have a more than ten point lead as of today, with 55.8%. Lambert is stuck at 43.87%.
Lambert released a statement on November 8th saying that while disappointed in the results, she will work with Perry to plan a “thorough and complete transition.”
“I am hopeful that our next County Councilmember will have success while navigating the many issues currently facing the county and will do so in a way that represents all voices — from our largest cities to our most rural and unincorporated areas,” said Lambert in a statement provided to NPI.
“I am incredibly proud of the work that we have accomplished together over the past two decades; from establishing the Department of Local Services to help our unincorporated communities receive the services they need, to the many programs to help our youth and reduce incarceration, like the community court program, the SAFE, TRACE, and FIRS programs,” Lambert added.
“I am also extraordinarily proud of the work we accomplished during this pandemic, which included securing over $1.6 billion in federal funds to help our small businesses, marginalized groups and families weather the effects of the lockdown measures,” Lambert continued.
“It has been an honor to serve District Three for the past 20 years and it is wonderful looking back at all of the things we were able to accomplish together — from the development of the department of local services, judicial reform and child protective programs — King County and district three have a history of proactively leading from the front and being a model for our nation.”
Sarah Perry’s campaign responded to the concession in an update to supporters:
Lambert is the third incumbent King County Councilmember to have been sent into retirement by voters in the last six years. In 2015, voters in the 6th District ousted Republican Jane Hague from the Council, replacing her with Democratic challenger Claudia Balducci. And in 2019, voters in the 2nd District replaced longtime Councilmember Larry Gossett with fellow Democrat Girmay Zahilay.
Perry’s win will create a 7–2 Democratic majority on the Council.
Councilmember-elect Sarah Perry addresses supporters at her Election Night victory party (Photo: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)
Officially, the Council is “nonpartisan,” owing to passage of a Republican-crafted charter amendment several years ago. But in practice, the Council remains as partisan as before the charter change, because politics is inherently partisan.
The remaining Republicans on the Council are Pete von Reichbauer and Reagan Dunn, representing the 7th and 9th Districts, respectively. Each of them is easily winning reelection, so they will serve through the 2025 election unless they were to resign. As of next year, the Democratic councilmembers, by district, will be:
Lambert has been on the Council for over twenty years. She previously served in the Washington State Legislature prior to joining the Council. Until this year, she had not faced a strong Democratic opponent when seeking new terms.
After a poor showing in the Top Two round, Lambert and her consultant began looking for attack fodder to use against Perry in the hopes of tearing her down. They tested over half a dozen potential attacks in an online poll that fielded after the Top Two election, then ended up creating a horrible, racist mailer that disgustingly portrayed Perry as a puppet of Councilmember Zahilay.
To Lambert’s dismay, the attack backfired and resulted in her campaign losing the support of many endorsers and donors. It also had the effect of portraying her to the district’s mostly Democratic voters as a Trump Republican.
After repeatedly defending the mailer, Lambert abruptly changed course and severed ties with her consultant. But by that point, her reelection prospects had been fatally wounded. Her credibility as an elected official was also severely damaged. Within days, the King County Council unanimously voted to remove her from all committee chair and vice chair positions.
Now the voters have removed Lambert from office. Lambert will have a few more weeks left to wrap up her work on the Council and then Councilmember-elect Perry will take over as the district’s new representative.
NPI thanks Councilmember Lambert for her many years of public service. We wish her the best in her next chapter, and hope to have the opportunity to team up on causes like finding funding for our rural roads.
# Written by Andrew Villeneuve :: 5:36 PM
Categories: Elections
Tags: WA-Counties
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