Laurie Sperry and Randy Eastwood, both anti gambling candidates are leading the Kenmore City Council election race for the ballot in November. The candidates are very similar in only one thing, they both are anti-card rooms. The other nine candidates in the election are split over the gambling issue.
Kenmore has had a card rooms since the 1970s. However the city could not decide on whether or not to ban gambling. It wasn’t until King County Superior Court judge told the city it couldn't create a new card room, but allowed the one and only card room to continue its business.
The judge instead gave an ultimatum saying that the city had to decide to wither close the one card room, or make room for others in its stead. Mayor Steven Colwell, and Jack Crawford Kenmore's first mayor, both sat on opposite seats of this issue. Both have been a major part of the city’s planning for the last seven years, but neither decided to run again at this point in time.
Position 2 elections have created two candidates, both opposing the expansion of card rooms. These candidates are O'Brien and Sperry against Rae Kelly. Kelly is currently a dealer at the one and only card room, but didn’t actively campaign for the seat.
Of the six candidates running for Position 4, three Eaton, Eastwood and Tom Gilchrist want to ban card rooms altogether. While two others Lou Ann King and Mark Prince favor keeping the card room. The sixth Robert Black abstained from the issue. |
