Kennewick Council incumbents advance to November vote. Here’s who they will face

Incumbents on the Kennewick City Council all will advance to the Nov. 2 election.

Mayor Don Britain likely will face off against developer Gretl Crawford.

Councilman John Trumbo will be on the ballot with union electrician Jason Lohr. And Councilman Bill McKay will face Ken Short, a city planning commissioner.

Britain received 1,966 votes, or 46%, of those counted Tuesday night in the primary election, with Crawford receiving 1,981 votes, also 46%.

Trucking manager Jacob Finkbeiner will not be on the November ballot after receiving 348 votes, or 8%

Trumbo received 1,004 votes, or 48%, of those counted Tuesday night in the primary election, with Lohr receiving 617 votes, or 30%.

Arts supporter and small businessman Brandon Andersen will not make it to the November ballot after receiving 452 votes, or 22%

McKay received 4,004 votes, or 47%, of those counted Tuesday night in the primary election, with Short receiving 2,457 votes, or 26%.

School social worker Uby Creek and Bryan Meehan-Verhei, owner of a small realty business, will not advance to the November ballot. Meehan-Verhei received 818 votes, or 9%, and Creek received 1,712 votes, or 18%.

McKay was running for an at-large position that all registered voters in the city were able to cast ballots in the primary, while only residents of wards were allowed to cast ballots for the other two council positions on the primay ballot.

Mayor Pro Tem Steve Lee also will be on the November ballot, challenged by dentist Loren Anderson. Because only two people filed for Lee’s position in the primary, there was no primary election.

Kennewick Council divided

On some contentious issues the council divides in a 4-3 vote, with Britain and Lee in the majority and Trumbo and McKay in the minority.

With four council seats up for election in November, city residents have a chance to either retain the current balance of power or shift it.

Britain is running on his council experience and the council’s record of accomplishments since he became a councilman in 2009 and has been selected by fellow council members to serve as mayor since 2018.

Five of the current seven Kennewick council members have less than four years of experience, he said.

Crawford is a developer and business owner, who says her professional experience outweighs Britain’s council experience.

Trumbo, who has opposed tax increases and certain pay raises, will be facing off in November against a candidate who has $9,500 in contributions already, with a good part of that coming from unions and union political action committees backing Lohr.

Trumbo says unions are unhappy with his call for negotiations to be done in the public eye. Lohr says he is “running a pro-worker campaign” and is not running to support a specific group.

McKay is running as a businessman and fiscal conservative opposed by Ken Short, who has raised $9,230, with his largest donation from a union PAC. McKay has raised $1,600, the majority of it from the Washington Association of Realtors.

Short, a Hanford site worker, says on his campaign website that the Kennewick Council has been bogged down by “petty infighting and toxic partisanship.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2021 at 8:36 PM.