County Council Removes Lambert From Leadership Roles

KING COUNTY, WA — The Metropolitan King County Council moved Tuesday to remove District 3 councilmember Kathy Lambert from her leadership roles, less than a week after her reelection campaign sent a mailer that was decried as racist by her colleagues and many others in the community.

Lambert's district includes Sammamish, Issaquah and portions of Redmond, along with North Bend, Snoqualmie, Carnation and Duvall. She has represented the council's second district since 2001.

The councilmember's campaign drew swift condemnation last week after distributing a campaign flyer depicting her opponent, Sarah Perry, as a marionette controlled by District 2 councilmember Girmay Zahilay, the council's only Black member, wearing a red bow tie. The mailer also labeled Zahilay as a "Seattle Socialist Leader," flanked by Kshama Sawant, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders.

After initially defending the flyer, which was deemed racist by a majority of her colleagues, Lambert apologized and said she fired a consultant. As The Seattle Times reports, councilmember Claudia Balducci said the mailer and Lambert's later statements undermined the council's ability to work together and that reorganizing leadership roles "was essential to protect the integrity of the Council."

According to The Stranger, Lambert resigned from her leadership posts prior to the vote, but defended the flyer as "one lapse in judgment" and criticized her removal as a "political opportunity to damage my reelection campaign."

Lambert's campaign already faced an uphill battle, with the Republican incumbent getting just 40 percent of the vote against two Democratic challengers in the August primary. She faces Sarah Perry in the general election, who picked up 36 percent of the primary vote. Ballots are mailed to voters Wednesday.