Osman Salahuddin, Angie Nuevacamina, David Carson advance in Redmond

Vot­ers in NPI’s home­town of Red­mond are coa­lesc­ing behind sev­er­al can­di­dates to be the autumn final­ists in the only two coun­cil races that attract­ed mul­ti­ple can­di­dates, ini­tial Top Two elec­tion night results show.

For Red­mond City Coun­cil #1, the posi­tion held by Coun­cilmem­ber Var­isha Khan, who decid­ed not to seek anoth­er term, the clear fron­trun­ner is Osman Salahud­din, a staff mem­ber to King Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Sarah Per­ry, who worked extreme­ly hard and gar­nered a whop­ping 66.83% of the ear­ly vote. That’s more than many incum­bents get! It’s cer­tain­ly a tes­ta­ment to Salahud­din’s work eth­ic, fundrais­ing prowess, and cam­paign organization.

“I have been for­tu­nate to call Red­mond home for near­ly all of my life,” Osman­’s cam­paign web­site says. “I’ve gone to school in the city, got­ten involved with local non-prof­its, and nav­i­gat­ed the growth that the city has under­gone in almost three decades. Red­mond has pro­vid­ed me count­less oppor­tu­ni­ties to suc­ceed, and I want to give back to the com­mu­ni­ty that has shaped me.”

“Hav­ing served as an elect­ed pub­lic ser­vant as Stu­dent Body Pres­i­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton along with my cur­rent role serv­ing res­i­dents of Dis­trict 3 as staff mem­ber to King Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Sarah Per­ry, I bring my own knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence that will be invalu­able in serv­ing the res­i­dents of Red­mond. I have seen first-hand just how much impact can be made at the local lev­el and I am pas­sion­ate about this oppor­tu­ni­ty to serve the City of Redmond.”

In sec­ond place is Nate Nieder­hausern, who has 17.71% of the vote.

“I am eager to rep­re­sent you on the Red­mond City Coun­cil,” he writes on his cam­paign web­site. “As a long­time res­i­dent for over twen­ty-five years, I have had the priv­i­lege to live and work in our thriv­ing community.”

“Microsoft ini­tial­ly brought me to Red­mond, and it became the place I chose to raise my fam­i­ly, with my chil­dren attend­ing Horace Mann Ele­men­tary, Red­mond Mid­dle School, and Red­mond High School. My pri­ma­ry focus as a pub­lic ser­vant will be to rep­re­sent you, the peo­ple of Red­mond, using a com­mon­sense approach to serve on your behalf. I firm­ly believe in pro­mot­ing bal­anced growth that pre­serves our com­mu­ni­ty’s char­ac­ter while ensur­ing eco­nom­ic opportunities.”

“I will work to see that we receive bet­ter val­ue for the tax­es we pay, and I am com­mit­ted to fos­ter­ing safe neigh­bor­hoods by col­lab­o­rat­ing with law enforce­ment and imple­ment­ing effec­tive strate­gies to keep us safe.”

In third place is Paul Stepanov, who has 15.1% of the vote.

“I have been a Red­mond res­i­dent for years as I am rais­ing my fam­i­ly here and my kids go to school in Red­mond,” his web­site says.

“I am an immi­grant from the for­mer Sovi­et Union and I have lived in Amer­i­ca for almost three decades know­ing that we live in one of the best places on Earth, yet we do have some issues to work on together.”

“As your City Coun­cil mem­ber, I want to bring more account­abil­i­ty and trans­paren­cy to the city gov­er­nance. At the same time I want to ensure that we all live in a safe, pros­per­ous and clean city. I will work with all city agen­cies equal­ly and respect­ful­ly. I am a law school grad­u­ate and also a small busi­ness own­er, and I am ready to bring my edu­ca­tion and expe­ri­ence to the City Council.”

Nieder­hausern prob­a­bly has the best chance of get­ting the sec­ond place spot in this race, but his lead over Stepanov isn’t robust enough for us to project with con­fi­dence what’s going to hap­pen. We’ll know more by the end of the week.

Here are the ini­tial results for Posi­tion #1:

	Osman Salahud­din Non­par­ti­san | 3,992 votes	66.83%
	Nate Nieder­hausern Non­par­ti­san | 1,058 votes	17.71%
	Paul Stepanov Non­par­ti­san | 902 votes	15.1%

For Red­mond City Coun­cil Posi­tion #7, incum­bent David Car­son looks set to move on, with 40.73% of the ear­ly vote. Car­son has served mul­ti­ple terms on the Coun­cil and did­n’t have a prob­lem secur­ing reelec­tion in 2019.

But this year could be much tougher.

“David is a long-time res­i­dent of Red­mond as he and his wife Danielle moved to Red­mond after col­lege. David has worked in tech since he moved to the area, first in Prod­uct Sup­port, then Qual­i­ty Assur­ance for Microsoft, Ama­zon, and Get­ty Images amongst oth­ers, and now works to help busi­ness own­ers with their tech­nol­o­gy needs as well as launch­ing a bio-tech start­up,” his web­site says.

​“David grew up in south­ern Ore­gon and grad­u­at­ed from Ore­gon State Uni­ver­si­ty with a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Busi­ness Man­age­ment. He enjoys cook­ing, watch­ing base­ball, and motor­cy­cle tour­ing. He serves as the Pre­sid­ing Offi­cer of the Parks and Envi­ron­men­tal Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Com­mit­tee, a mem­ber of the King Coun­ty Emer­gency Man­ag­ment Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee, a mem­ber of Red­mond’s Dis­abil­i­ty Board (for first respon­ders), and a board mem­ber of the Red­mond Police Foun­da­tion and the OneRed­mond Foundation.”

In sec­ond place is Ang­ie Nue­va­cam­i­na, who also looks like­ly to move on. She has 37.77% of the vote and trails Car­son by just one hun­dred and sev­en­ty-six votes.

“Ang­ie is seek­ing elect­ed office as she believes that the con­cept of Noth­ing About Us With­out Us is very rel­e­vant,” her web­site says.

“Red­mond is grow­ing in leaps and bounds. The vision is to cre­ate a more inclu­sive, wel­com­ing city that cre­ates a sense of belong­ing for all. As a sin­gle moth­er who’s iden­ti­ty is a  mul­ti-legged inter­sec­tion­al­i­ty of com­mu­ni­ties, she is able to bring a lived expe­ri­ence to City Coun­cil that cur­rent­ly does not exist.”

“Ang­ie’s top pri­or­i­ties as an elect­ed offi­cial are hous­ing, safe com­mu­ni­ties for all, and clear and trans­par­ent gov­ern­ment that sup­ports the thriv­abil­i­ty of both busi­ness­es and res­i­dents. She will be bring­ing a lens of equi­ty, a deep sense of integri­ty and account­abil­i­ty to her posi­tion, while con­tin­u­ing to be a bridge builder.”

In third place is Amit Gup­ta, who has 21.05% of the vote.

Gup­ta appears to have lost inter­est in run­ning his cam­paign, as he nev­er put up a web­site at the URL that he reg­is­tered, electamitgupta.com.

But he did sub­mit a voter’s pam­phlet statement.

“I have been a Red­mond res­i­dents for near­ly 15 years and love our city. It’s been amaz­ing to see Redmond’s trans­for­ma­tion from a small town to a grow­ing city. How­ev­er, there are also new issues affect­ing qual­i­ty of life: pot­holes, traf­fic grid­lock, per­son­al safe­ty, urban plan­ning mis­steps, and low scale of com­merce in the com­mu­ni­ty,” the state­ment says. “As your coun­cil mem­ber, I will bring my busi­ness, man­age­ment, and cor­po­rate expe­ri­ences to solve these issues.”

“I will work with the com­mu­ni­ty to iden­ti­fy and fix qual­i­ty of life issues, pro­tect our envi­ron­ment, and make Red­mond more desir­able. I will work with busi­ness lead­ers to expand the tax base by increas­ing com­merce, and reduce the depen­dence on ever increas­ing prop­er­ty tax­es. This will keep seniors in their homes and make hous­ing afford­able for every­one. I will work tire­less­ly to ensure equi­ty and trans­paren­cy in gov­ern­ment oper­a­tions, and spending.”

Here are the ini­tial results for Posi­tion #7:

	David M Carson Non­par­ti­san | 2,417 votes	40.73%
	Ang­ie Nuevacamina Non­par­ti­san | 2,241 votes	37.77%
	Amit Gup­ta Non­par­ti­san | 1,249 votes	21.05%

We’ll keep an eye on the con­test for Posi­tion #1 and will bring you an update if there hap­pens to be a lead change lat­er this week or next week.

Vot­ers in Red­mond will also be decid­ing who will lead the city as its next may­or this year. Incum­bent Angela Bir­ney is being chal­lenged by Coun­cilmem­ber Jeralee Ander­son. No one else filed, so that con­test is already set for the gen­er­al election.