Washington state megathread

[bgwah]

With the exception of Pacific, this map is the same as 2008 Governor so far.

[bgwah]

Can someone explain to me what happened in Spokane?

Pfft, you tell us!

[bgwah]

All counties are now in. R-71 is being approved 51-49.

Pierce County is lame and voted 52% reject and even voted yes on I-1033!

[bgwah]

Preliminary maps:

[bgwah]

County maps scores. One point for correct winner, one point for correct shade.

59.0% - Bgwah
57.1% - Alcon
53.2% - RealisticIdealist

[bgwah]

Spokane is a pretty sad place...

[bgwah]

Bunch more King County votes counted...

Constantine now leading 58-42.

McGinn's lead in Seattle shrinks... This is going to be a long election!
49.77% McGinn
49.33% Mallahan

In King County, I-1033 and R-71 are 33-67 and 67-33 respectively.

This leaves the statewide numbers at 44-56 for I-1033 and 52-48 for R-71.

[bgwah]

San Juan is now 71% approve.

[bgwah]

I think we would've approved it in 2008.

[bgwah]

King County abstract!! http://your.kingcounty.gov/elections/200911/GeneralElection-ENF.pdf

[bgwah]

From the Red County blog:

Councilman Dow Constantine smashed blue dog, moderate Democrat Susan Hutchinson in that election contest.

lololol

If you wanna kill a few brain cells, go here: http://www.redcounty.com/county/eastwashington

[bgwah]

SoundPolitics hasn't even mentioned Susan Hutchison since the election, lol.

And HorsesAss seems to think she's subtly suggesting a Senate run. But that would make running as an "independent" a lot harder...

[bgwah]

Random question for Stranger Than Fiction and any other new members: Where do you guys live?? It would be interesting to know if you could provide any fresh, local perspectives on certain areas...

[bgwah]

Welcome then...it's actually pretty interesting, because you're our first ever Seattle poster, as far as I know.

lol, I'm pretty sure we had one in ~2004.

[bgwah]

WSU will probably have laughably terrible turn-out.

But most colleges will, I suppose.

[bgwah]

Mallahan officially conceded tonight. Quite a fascinating election.

If Mike McGinn does well as mayor I think he'll definitely be going farther.

...Going farther? Maybe King County Executive... But I really don't see him ever getting elected to a statewide office, and Ed Murray is the next Representative from the 7th Congressional District. So I kind of wonder what you mean here.

Following King County's update, R-71 is up to 53-47 Approve statewide and 68-32 in the county. I-1033 is 58-42 no statewide and 69-31 in the county.

McGinn leading Mallahan 51-48, and Constantine now destroying Hutchison 59-41 (lolz).

[bgwah]

Hutchison polled about 5-7 behind what the polls said she would get in the primary... I could see her getting 40-42%.

Well at least I nailed one prediction, even if I wrecked it later.

[bgwah]

I can understand disliking Brad Owen, but I think shooting his son is a little extreme?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010238814_webdoubleshoot09.html

[bgwah]

Brad Owen strikes me as a moron more than a DINO. But yeah, he's fairly conservative, especially on marijuana-related issues.

I don't think Sonntag is a DINO, though he is fairly moderate. He seems to be the most popular Democrat in Washington. Meeker might know more about it, but it seems fairly likely that Sonntag will run for Governor someday, maybe in 2012... He is getting kind of old, though. I think he would have a good chance. A lot of his more recent actions seem more like positioning for a 2012 run than being a DINO. He consistently gets the highest % of the vote of any statewide official, so I suppose he may know what he's doing.

While Sonntag would have a very good chance of getting through a primary for Governor, I just don't see how Owen could. Republicans will support one of their own, and Democrats will unite around more liberal candidates. The most plausible way for a Governor Owen would be the Governor dying/resigning.

[bgwah]

Do you really think McKenna and Sonntag would run against each other?

[bgwah]

Well if McKenna does run, then I suppose Sonntag does seem like the best person to beat him...

[bgwah]

King hasn't released any precinct data yet and still won't for a while... Hopefully Alcon will once they do!

[bgwah]

Why has Brad Owen been the Lt. Governor for so long?

No Democrat is going to challenge him and the Republicans are incapable of nominating non-joke candidates for the office. And even if they did manage to get a respectable candidate it's very difficult to make the case for throwing out a Lt. Governor. There's nothing you can really attack them on because they don't really do anything.

Owen will be Lt. Governor for the rest of his life if he wants to, and I think that's exactly his plan.

Owen's the shortest serving Democratic Lieutenant Governor in state history. lol.

We've only had four state auditors since 1905.

I didn't know anybody actually looked at the Washington pages I made on the Wiki, lolz. Unless you looked at the pages on the real Wikipedia which Q basically stole from mine here.

[bgwah]

So Washington has another waste of a Lt. Gov. office like Minnesota. There's a small movement in the Minn. legislature to abolish the Lt. Gov. option and let the Sec of State be next in succession but for some reason no one seems to want to get behind it. This is despite the current Lt. Gov. being basically the most unpopular political figure in state besides Michele Bachmann possibly (in a nutshell she was also Sec of Transportation due to Lt. Gov. being a nothing job, and became the scapegoat for the bridge collapse. The Senate thus refused to reapprove her as Sec of Transportation.)

A Libertarian ran for Lt. Governor in 2000 on the platform of abolishing the office. She got around 7% of the vote.

Don't forget "Absolutely Nobody" in 1992: https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?fips=53&year=1992&f=0&off=6

[bgwah]

Gary Locke was pretty moderate while Craswell and Carlson were very terrible candidates. I think that's an important thing to keep in mind.

It may not show up in the gubernatorial election, but 2000 seems to be the election where traditionally Democratic bastions in Eastern Washington (like Ferry, Pend Oreille, and Asotin counties) convert to the GOP for good. They loved them some George W. Bush. Still, the East-West polarization had already gotten pretty extreme by the time Gary Locke showed up.

The biggest change, in my opinion, is the GOP's more recent collapse in Metro Seattle, particularly suburban King County. John McCain didn't even break 40% in Sammamish, lolz.