Brenda Fincher will return to the Kent City Council next year after taking a bigger lead in votes in what had been a tight race against challenger Toni Troutner.
Fincher took a 374-vote lead with 6,935 (51.26 percent) to Troutner’s 6,561 votes (48.50 percent), according to King County Elections results through Monday.
“I was thankful and relieved,” Fincher said in an email about her victory. “It was gratifying to see that my work was recognized by the voters, the campaign plan we had was sound and the work that everyone put in to execute that plan was paying off.”
Troutner called Fincher last Saturday to congratulate her on the victory.
“I am honored to have received so much support from the voters of Kent,” Troutner said in a statement. “I ran an honest campaign. I would like to congratulate Councilmember Fincher. During the campaign, Councilmember Fincher talked about all of the wonderful plans she has for the future of Kent, and I look forward to watching those plans unfold.”
The race stayed tight initially. Fincher had leads of 67, 49, 82 and 114 votes as counts were released each day since the first totals on election night before increasing her lead to 346 votes last Friday. The difference was less than .50 percent at one point.
Fincher said Crystal Fincher, her daughter and political consultant, accurately predicted the victory.
“(She) has been running campaigns for years and is a huge data wonk, so she charted where we needed to be on election night to win and we were above that mark,” Fincher said. “She also charted what she expected the returns to be each day and she accurately projected the ballot trend we saw through Friday (Nov. 6). You never know what will happen for sure, so each ballot update was a nice validation that we were on track to win.”
The council appointed Fincher to her seat last year to replace Ken Sharp, who resigned after just two weeks in office. Two years remain on the term, starting in January.
Fincher, who works as a pastoral assistant for administration at Holy Spirit Parish in Kent, said she has several goals for the next two years on the council.
“Helping to create more jobs in Kent for residents of Kent, putting forward a plan to get the Parks Department on stable financial footing for the long term, making sure our police officers and firefighters have the tools and facilities they need to continue to serve us well and making city government more accessible and relevant to our residents,” she said.
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