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Voter backlash ousting incumbents on Lacey, Olympia councils

• Published November 03, 2009

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The first shot of results from Thurston County elections tonight shows Democratic county commissioner Karen Valenzuela winning over Republican Pat Beehler. But voters upset about an Olympia isthmus rezone were on the verge of ousting a pair of city council incumbents, while Lacey voters upset about a fire department spat were ousting three incumbents and a fire commissioner.

Thurston County voters also were backing the gay-rights measure, Referendum 71, which provides the remaining rights of marriage to same-sex couples and some senior opposite-sex couples on the state's domestic partnership registry. Voters also were rejecting Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033, which seeks to cap government revenue increases.

Those measures face less certain outcomes statewide, but I-1033 and R-71 were both trailing in early returns.

In other local races, environmentalist Dave Peeler was trailing longshoreman Jeff Davis for the Olympia port commission seat being vacated by Paul Telford.

In Olympia's city council races, incumbent Jeff Kingsbury was in trouble, trailing challenger Stephen Buxbaum by a wide margin. But Joe Hyer was fending off challenger Tony Sermonti. In other races, councilwoman Joan Machlis was just a few votes behind challenger Jeannine Roe and Karen Veldheer trailed Karen Rogers for another seat.

Several of the challengers including Buxbaum, Roe and Veldheer got in the race after the council voted to rezone the isthmus to allow high-rise buildings between Budd Inlet and Capitol Lake. Sermonti, however, was a pro-development candidate, and the early results indicate an anti-rezone result.

In Tumwater, Pete Kmet was beating Neil McClanahan for mayor by a pretty large margin.

And in Lacey, most council incumbents were on the ropes. Graeme Sackrison trailed challenger Ron Lawson, John Darby trailed challenger Andy Ryder and Ann Burgman was losing to challenger Cynthia Pratt by the largest margin of the three. The challengers were largely backed by firefighters upset by a city dispute with Fire District 3.