Les Thomas no longer is running unopposed for a fourth term on the Kent City Council.
Gwen Allen, executive director of the Kent Black Action Commission (KBAC) and owner of C&G Hair and Beauty Supply on the East Hill, will challenge Thomas as a write-in candidate on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
“I decided to run to give the voters options in this next part of the democratic process for the general election,” Allen said in an email. “In my opinion, there should never be elections with unopposed candidates. In my opinion, we need term limits for our mayor and our council members.”
If Thomas wins, it will give him a fourth, four-year term.
Allen officially filed as a write-in candidate with King County Elections on July 17. She also filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC), which oversees campaign contributions and expenditures. As of Tuesday, neither Allen nor Thomas had reported any contributions or expenses.
Allen ran for the council in 2011 when she took fourth in the primary to incumbent Debbie Raplee, Bill Boyce and Charles Lambert. Boyce beat Raplee in the general election.
“It’s not really too surprising,” Thomas said about Allen taking him on. “The late entry is going to make it difficult for her. But she’s a great lady.”
Allen’s name won’t be on the ballot and she won’t be in the voters’ pamphlet.
“It was my choice and decision to file when I did,” Allen said about missing deadlines to get her name on the ballot. “After carefully following the do’s and don’ts of King County Elections, I realized that I could file for the primary or the general. After making sure that it was settled in my mind, heart and spirit, I rose to meet the challenge and go for the write-in.”
She knows it’s a tough road to get elected as a write-in candidate, especially against an incumbent.
“Yes, I have read and heard how hard write-in campaigns can be,” Allen said. “However, maybe now is the time to put that to the test. I took enough time to garner support from other citizens and family so that I could make a good run at it.”
Allen also decided to drop her hyphenated name of Allen-Carston for the campaign.
“I chose to run as Gwen Allen to make it easier for the voters,” she said. “My husband gives his approval.”
The council appointed Allen on Aug. 4 to the city’s fireworks committee as Allen-Carston. She is part of the three-member committee that will write a statement in favor of a city ban on fireworks for the voters’ pamphlet. The Nov. 3 ballot proposition is only an advisory vote about what the council should do as far as banning fireworks.
Word about Allen’s filing for office spread at the Aug. 4 council meeting when Thomas abstained from voting on Allen’s appointment to the fireworks committee. Even Mayor Suzette Cooke didn’t know at that time about Allen running for the council.
“I would like to abstain from this particular vote since one of the members mentioned is running in opposition to me this fall,” Thomas said to Cooke.
The mayor replied, “I’m sorry, Councilmember Thomas as I am aware you have no opposition. You’re talking about in the election?”
“I am, your honor,” he said.
“No, there’s no opposition,” Cooke said.
“I do,” Thomas added. “It’s been openly declared with a C1 (candidate registration form) in Olympia on to computers and the PDC, so with your permission I would like to abstain from this particular vote. I don’t want to turn this election into some kind of dog and pony show so that’s how I would like to proceed.”
“All right, you will abstain from the vote,” Cooke said.
Allen has no plans to turn the campaign into any type of show.
“I’m not in this for any shenanigans, rhetoric or making this some kind of dog and pony show as my opponent has suggested,” Allen said. “I’m in it to win it for the sake of our future and generations to come.”
Allen decided to challenge Thomas rather than unopposed incumbents Boyce and Dana Ralph because Thomas has been on the council for 12 years and will be in office for 16 years if elected again.
“His long-standing accomplishments, in the political realm, are appreciated, but, it would seem like, as some of his background information out there might suggest, his profession is being a council member,” Allen said about Thomas.
Thomas doesn’t plan to change his campaign strategy much.
“I’ll get signs out,” he said. “I may put out a few more than I planned to but that’s the only significant difference.”
He remains curious how voters might respond to a write-in candidate.
“It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out,” Thomas said.
Allen led a campaign last September of KBAC and community members asking for Thomas’ resignation in connection with comments Thomas made at a council meeting after Councilwoman Deborah Ranniger asked for a moment of silence for Mike Brown, the 18-year-old black man shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. Thomas objected to the moment of silence for someone he called a “thief.”
Allen spoke to the matter during the council’s public comment period, asking for the resignation of Thomas. But she said last week Kent has many issues it needs to work on as a city, including new residents.
“We are practically bursting at the seams with new arrivals, from around the world and right next door in Seattle,” she said. “We need to be ready to welcome and receive folks as they show up to call Kent home. Learning how to live, work and serve, together should be at the forefront of all that we do.”
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