The Political Desk: After the Dust Settles

So, what do we have?

This time around, there doesn't look like much that is hanging fire. Due the nature of mail-in ballots, close races sometimes need to wait days, if not weeks, for resolution. But most of the spread of votes here are wide enough to make it clear at the outset. Should it shift radically, I'll update.

I got it totally wrong about the biggest item of the ticket. In fact, I got it completely backwards - Ms. Clinton lost the electoral vote but (at the time of this writing) is winning the popular vote. I regret nothing, and continue to think that Ms. Clinton would have been a better President. But for our little chunk of Pacific Northwest, we did OK. When I got here almost 20 years ago we were out of step with the rest of the country, then became one of the leaders for progressive government, and now we're out of step again. I can work with that. (Though I was kind of looking forward to the taco trucks).

One thing I do want to call out is that yelling at supporters of  Third Party candidates for the loss is kinda off-base. I can't see someone who supported Mr. Johnson's policies suddenly becoming a Democrat if Mr. Johnson had suddenly went away. And if you were so MAD at Ms. Clinton you'd vote for Mr. Johnson instead, regardless of his policies, you'd just as likely vote for Mr. Trump in protest or not vote at all. I also think, as a Sanders supporter, that we would be looking at a McGovern/Nixon level of destruction were he the candidate.

OK, let's see what the damages are (RED is stuff I had endorsed that went the other way):

Initiative Measure No. 1433 (Statewide Minimum Wage) - YES
Initiative Measure No. 1464 (Campaign Finance Reform) - NO
Initiative Measure No, 1491 (Reduce access to Firearms) - YES
Initiative Measure No, 1501 (Protect Seniors from Fraud/Reduce Transparency) - YES
Initiative Measure No. 732 Carbon Tax) - NO (This one disappoints me. If it failed because it was "not good enough", now it is our obligation to make one the IS "good enough").
Initiative Measure No. 735 Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizen's United -  YES

Advisory Vote No. 14  House Bill 2768 - MAINTAINED
Advisory Vote No. 15 Second Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2778  - MAINTAINED

Proposed Amendment to the State Constitution Senate Joint Resolution No. 8210. (Move redistricting deadline) - APPROVED

King County Charter Amendment No. 1 Nonpartisan Prosecuting Attorney.  - YES 
King County Charter Amendment No. 2 Gender-Neutral Language. -  YES

President of the United States - Donald Trump
US Senator - Patty Murray
US Representative, 9th District - Adam Smith


Governor - Jay Inslee 
Lt. Governor - Cyrus Habib
Secretary of State - Kim Wyman
State Treasurer - Duane Davidson
State Auditor - Pat (Patrice) McCarthy (This one actually makes me happy. I think we need a professional to muck out the stable after the last guy).
Attorney General - Bob Ferguson 
Commissioner of Public Lands - Hilary Franz 
Superintendent  of Public Instruction - Chris Reykdal
Insurance Commission - Mike Kriedler 

Legislative District No. 11 State Senator - Bob Hasegawa 
Legislative District No. 11 Representative Position No. 1 - Zack Hudgins 
Legislative District No. 11 Representative Position No. 2 - Steve Berquist 

Justice Position No. 1: Mary Yu
Justice Position No. 5:  Barbara Madsen
Justice Position No. 6: Charles (Charlie) Wiggins

Court of Appeals, Division No. 1, District No. 1 Michael J. Trickey

Judge Position No. 14: Nichole Gaines Phelps
Judge Position No. 26: David Keenan
Judge Position No. 31: Helen Halpert
Judge Position No. 44; Cathy Moore 
Judge Position No. 52: Kristan Richardson
Judge Position No. 53: Mariane Spearman

Sound Transit (A Regional Transit Authority) Proposition No,. 1 Light-Rail, Commuter-Rail, and Bus Service Expansion - APPROVED (This is huge)

Kent School District No,. 415 Proposition No. 1 Capital Improvement and School Construction General Obligation Bonds - APPROVED

And with that the Political Desk returns to mothballs. Until the next time (duh-duh-DUH!)

More later,