So, long-term readers of this blog know that I wait a couple days before posting the results of the election. This is because Washington State uses mail-in ballots, and it will sometimes take a while for the dust to settle. Particularly in this season, because some knuckle-head mailed white powder to the voter-counters. Fortunately, the Elections Department actually planned for this type of A-hole move, evacuated, cleaned up, and went back to counting.
The nation story this year is that the GOP and its candidates faceplanted. More progressive candidates and issues carried the day against more conservative alternatives. But in Seattle, the big city next door, the more centrist, business-friendly wing of the Democratic Party succeeded in taking control of the City Council (and yes, the Progressive votes tend to come in late, I don't think we're going to see the amount of movement necessary to overturn many of the early results). So the centrist-business-friendly Mayor has a centrist-business-friendly council to work with. That's cool. Let's look for some results.
And lest the chattering classes tend to view this as a sudden lurch to the right (and I'm looking at you, Seattle Times columnists), the city overwhelmingly approved a near-billion dollar levy for low-income housing. Oh, the horror.
Down in our neck of the woods, the story is actually much the same. Incumbents and moderates prevailed, with one exception. That's cool, generally. Let's check out what happened.
King County Director of Elections - Incumbent Julie Wise smashed her opposition, a MAGA-leaning, election-denying talk show host, flat. She actually got more votes than were cast in the King County Assessor's race, where the incumbent was running unopposed. As for her opposition, who knew that denying the fairness of elections would make people less willing to vote for you in an election?
Port of Seattle Position 5 - Fred Felleman handily won re-election to his position as well. That's nice.
City of Kent Council, Positions 1, 3, 5, and 7. Incumbents Marli Larimer and Zandria Michaud won re-election, and retired Boeing guy John Boyd joins the team. Yeah, that works.
Kent School District No. 415 Director District 2 and 3 - Here is where it gets interesting. At the time of this writing Meghan Margel won her position, but and Leslie Kae Hamada has fallen behind Donald Cook by a gnat's whisker (a politically scientific term for 166 votes, which even in our small city is not a lot. Which is odd for me, since Hamada was the only candidate that had (so far as I noticed) mailers and yard signs. But it may be tied to next item..
Kent School District No. 415, Proposition 1 (Replacement of Expiring Educations and Operations Levy) is passing (by two gnat's whickers) while Proposition 2 (Capital Projects and Technology Levy) is failing. Disappointed in this one, but These props were a rebuild of a bond issue in the last election that didn't make 50% either, so it is not a horrible surprise. Funding issues are going to be a discussion in the near future.
Special Purpose Districts - I know no one besides the candidates who are googling their names will find this one, so congrats to the winners.
- Soos Creek Water and Sewer District Commissioner Position No. 1 - Alice Marshall
- Public Hospital District No. 1 Commissioner District No. 1 - Anthony R. Berkley
And that wraps up this year's election. But, oh ghod, they're already talking about next year's elections.
More later.
