Kent City Councilman Les Thomas wants to return to Olympia as a state representative. But he’s seeking a House seat as an independent rather than a Democrat or Republican.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“I’ve been nonpartisan for 12 years,” Thomas said during a phone interview about filing for the District 33 House seat, Position 2. “When I get to Olympia I want to represent all citizens not just Democrats or Republicans.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Thomas was reelected to the City Council in 2011 for his third four-year term in the nonpartisan position.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The race for the 33rd seat will loom as a showdown among council members from three South King County cities.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Mia Su-Ling Gregerson, D-SeaTac, will run to retain her House seat. She also serves on the SeaTac City Council. Republican Jeanette Burrage, a Des Moines City Councilwoman and former King County Superior Court judge, also filed for the seat.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The King County Council appointed Gregerson in December to the seat after Dave Upthegrove left the House to become a county councilman.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Thomas, a retired gemologist who at one time owned a Kent jewelry store, said returning to the Legislature ranked pretty high on his bucket list.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“One of my favorite times was when I ran before,” said Thomas, who served in the Legislature from 1994-99. “I loved it.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Any race with more than two candidates will be on the Aug. 5 primary ballot. The top two advance to the Nov. 4 general election.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Candidates had until 4 p.m. Friday to file for office.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Here’s the list of candidates for federal and state seats that serve at least part of Kent:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Congress<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n United States Representative<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Congressional District No. 8<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Dave Reichert (Republican), incumbent<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Jason Ritchie Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Keith Arnold (Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n United States Representative<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Congressional District No. 9<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Adam Smith (Democrat), incumbent<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Don Rivers (Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Mark Greene (Citizens Party)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Doug Basler (Republican)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Legislature<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n District 33 House seat, Position 2:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Jeanette Burrage (Republican)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Mia Su-Ling Gregerson (Democrat), incumbent<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Les Thomas (Independent)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n District 33 House seat, Position 1:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Tina Orwall (Democrat), incumbent<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Michael J. Siefkes (Republican)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n District 33 Senate<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Karen Keiser (Democrat), incumbent<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Martin Metz (Republican)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Marylin J. Taylor (Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n District 47 Senate<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Joe Fain (Republican), incumbent<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Carol Barber (Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n District 47 House, Position No. 1<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Chris Barringer (Democrat)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Mark Hargrove (Republican), incumbent<\/p>\n<\/p>\n District 47 House, Position No. 2<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Barry Knowles (Republican)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2022 Pat Sullivan (Democrat), incumbent<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kent City Councilman Les Thomas wants to return to Olympia as a state representative. But he’s seeking a House seat as an independent rather than a Democrat or Republican.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":1227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-1226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1226"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}