At its July 1, 2021 Membership Luncheon, the Kent Chamber of Commerce hosted an in-person Candidate Forum featuring six people vying for Kent City Council and King County Council.

The forum – which lasted just over an hour and held at the Alki Bakery Cafe – was emceed by Carmen Goers, with help from Todd Minor. It included pre-written questions asked by Goers, along with submitted audience questions asked by Minor.

This was the first in-person chamber luncheon since March 2020, and at times it was very…interesting.

Not all candidates were able to attend; however there were four vying for Kent City Council and two for King County Council.

Participants included, for Kent City Council:

    • Brenda Fincher*, Position No. 6
    • Bradley Cairnes, Position No. 6
    • Toni Troutner*, Position No. 4
    • Cliff Cawthorn, Position No. 4

King County Council:

    • Dave Upthegrove*
    • Shukri Olow

*incumbent

The primary election will be held Tuesday, Aug. 3, with the top two vote getters moving on to the Nov. 3 general election.

INTERESTING MOMENTS
During the opening round of introductions, Bradley Cairnes, who is running against Brenda Fincher for Position No. 6, said the following as his opening statement:

“Hello. My name is Bradley Cairnes, from Kent. Born and raised. I’m not here because I want to be. I didn’t choose this race. This race chose me. And the reason I’m here…it has come to my attention that there are police officers and government officials in our region … they’re acting outside of the scope of their oath for office. If elected – if you choose me to lead, I promise you, the people that our children are raised to trust, respect and look up to you will conduct themselves with dignity and honor. I promise you there will be no other way. Kent is a very diverse community. And if we don’t start learning to be able to go up that other people. They don’t look like us … we’re gonna end up killing each other.”

After the introductions were given, Goers then read the following statement from Larry Hussey, who decided to boycott the forum:

“My name is Larry Hussey and I’m running for Kent City Council position #6. I’m currently boycotting the COVID vaccination until the ‘Joints for Jabs’ program has ended. This program allows 18-year olds to get a free vaccination and then a free marijuana product. I’m not even a parent and that scares me anyway. Shout out to my fellow Toastmasters and my fellow WAZZUites. I would like to humbly ask the business community for your vote in the primary and general elections. Thank you very much, Larry Hussey.”

Issues discussed included hiring more police officers, police reform, public safety/crime, keeping businesss in Kent and more.

Watch the full candidate forum below (running time 1-hour, five minutes):

Scott Schaefer

Founder/Publisher/Editor. Three-time National Emmy Award winning Writer (“Bill Nye the Science Guy”), Director, Producer, Journalist and more...