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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2013
GENERAL ELECTION ‘13
Cooke winning in bid for third term Sharp leading Stober in tight City Council race
Mayor conquering Clark in early returns; challenger expects race to ‘tighten up’
BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com
BY STEVE HUNTER shunter@kentreporter.com
It’s four more years for Suzette Cooke as Kent mayor. Cooke is defeating challenger Tim Clark with 55.82 percent (5,413 votes) to Clark’s 43.96 percent (4,263), according to King County Election results released Tuesday night. “I was just so glad that the first results finally came in,” Cooke said during a gathering of supporters at Airways Brewery and Tap Room in the north Kent area. “At some point you reach a level where you are ready for the campaigning to end and you can get on with doing the job without the distraction.” Clark, who had hoped voters would think eight years of Cooke was enough, remained optimistic about his chances of winning. He said the votes in Tuesday night’s election results were mailed-in ballots from citizens that had made up their minds “weeks ago.” He expects the race to “tighten up
Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke, with her mother Virginia Allen, reacts after watching the favorable early election returns at her campaign party Tuesday night that will give Cooke a third term as mayor. STEVE HUNTER, Kent Reporter tomorrow.” “If I lose, I’ll have to find some other pathway to help my community,” said Clark, who added that he’s enjoyed his 23 years of service to helping the city.
Clark served 16 years on the Kent City Council before spending the last four years on the Kent School Board. Cooke said her role as the incumbent helped.
“The public knows what I produce because I’ve been in office eight years and I’m a known quantity,” Cooke said. “Hopefully, the [ more MAYOR page 4 ]
DISTRICT’S ELL PROGRAM
[ more COUNCIL page 4 ]
Maryam AlEzairej, left, and Malid Farah work together to think up questions they’d like to ask about Iceland during a lesson in Erik Seihl’s ELL class at Kent-Meridian High School. ROSS COYLE,
TAKES ON THE CHALLENGE BY ROSS COYLE rcoyle@kentreporter.com
Afrikaans, Balinese, Chamorro, Creole, Dinka, Fula, Grebo, Hmong, Ilokano, Japanese, Khmer, Kosraean, Mandinka, Nepali, Romanian, Sotho, Tamil, Wolof. If they sound strangely familiar, they should. They’re just a handful of the 140 languages spoken in the Kent [ more ELL page 10 ]
Kent Reporter
Despite facing charges of first-degree theft, Ken Sharp is leading Bailey Stober in a tightly contested race for the Kent City Council. Sharp is beating Stober 49.25 percent (4,290 votes) to 46.16 percent (4,021), a lead of 279 votes, according to King County Elections results released Tuesday night. Debbie Raplee entered the race late in an effort to get elected as a write-in candidate but write-in candidates had only 4.59 percent (400 votes) of the total. In the other contested council race, Jim Berrios is easily defeating Wade Schwartz 62.65 percent (5,650 votes) to 37.18 percent (3,353). Sharp showed up at
Kent shuts down illegal sex offender group homes; one still operating FOR THE REPORTER
All but one of the 11 group homes in Kent illegally housing more than 65 sex offenders have been brought into compliance after operators were notified they were violating city regulations. City officials filed an injunction [ more HOMES page 5 ]
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