Bloom, Buckshnis, Petso, Yamamoto elected to Edmonds Council

Published 6:36 pm Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Edmonds City Council incumbents Diane Buckshnis and Lora Petso have won their races in general election results certified Tuesday, as have newcomers Joan Bloom and Frank Yamamoto.

Final results show that Buckshnis defeated challenger Bob Wilcox, Petso defeated challenger Darlene Stern and Bloom defeated incumbent DJ Wilson, all by 50 percent to 49 percent margins, and Yamamoto defeated opponent Alvin Rutledge, 69 percent to 31 percent, for the position that Councilman Steve Bernheim now holds.

None of the three close elections were close enough for a mandatory recount. Bloom led Wilson in the closest race by 109 votes. With 14,381 votes for the two candidates, a margin of 71 votes or fewer would have triggered a mandatory recount.

Wilcox had led Buckshnis, 45.5 percent to 45.1 percent, in a three-candidate August primary.

Bloom, Buckshnis and Petso all won close general election contests despite raising and spending less money than their opponents.

Buckshnis had raised $12,516 and spent $12,253, while opponent Wilcox raised $17,709 and spent $15,497. In addition, Wilcox had $1,600 in independent expenditures on his behalf by the Affordable Housing Council, the political arm of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish counties.

Petso had raised $2,203 and spent $570 to Stern’s $11,520 raised and $9,606 spent.

Bloom limited her fundraising and spending to $5,000 by choosing the State Public Disclosure Commission’s mini-reporting option. Wilson had raised $20,038 and spent $16,777.

Yamamoto was the one Edmonds council winner to outspend his opponent. Yamamoto raised $7,071 and spent $5,318, while Rutledge chose mini-reporting, meaning that he didn’t have to file periodic detailed reports before the election.

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.