It looks like Diane Buckshnis will be giving Councilman Strom Peterson quite a fight for his job.
Buckshnis, with 3,158 votes, is headed to a fall match-up with Peterson, who had 3,028 votes. Alvin Rutledge was a distant third.
All three of the candidates competed against each other in January when they sought appointment to fill the vacancy left by Deanna Dawson, who moved to Washington, D.C.
Since getting the appointment Peterson, a 41-year-old small business owner, has voted for a plastic bag ban and opposed placing a multi-million dollar levy to fund city services on the November ballot.
Buckshnis, 53, is a retired banker and has said her experience will be most useful in helping the cash-strapped community deal with its budget woes.
Rutledge, 69, was making his fifth run for office.
Close race for Position 3
In one of the closest races of the night, less than 200 votes separate incumbent Councilman Ron Wambolt and two women trying to unseat him.
Challenger Adrienne Fraley-Monillas was leading the contest Tuesday with 2,306 votes followed by Wambolt with 2,263 votes and Lori Petso with 2,183 votes.
Only the top two votegetters will advance. More results will be posted Wednesday afternoon though it is not known how many more votes are left to be counted in the city.
Wambolt’s showing may be tied to concern raised by a campaign contribution he received from a company seeking to build two 75-foot tall condo towers near the city’s waterfront.
Fraley-Monillas called the move “questionable ethics at best” and said she’d never approve increasing building heights in the downtown or waterfront neighborhoods.
Petso also opposes increased building heights anywhere in Edmonds. She said her focus would be on dealing with the city finances.
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