Washington 2020: The Calm Before the Drizzle

[Crumpets]

I didn't have a lot of time in Seattle during my trip, but spent most of the run up to the election north of Bellingham. There were lots of signs there, and one aspect of them caught my eye. A large number were mounted on wooden posts and frames. That's virtually unknown in the Midwest except for amateur posts. Almost all campaign signs in my home area are on wire frames (for plastic bag or folding paper) or wire posts (for corrugated plastic).

PS Bummer that the election kept me from meeting Alcon.

Interesting, I had no idea.

[Fuzzybigfoot]

Here's a blank precinct map of Whacom County.  I plan on making maps for all the local races.

[Meeker]

I didn't have a lot of time in Seattle during my trip, but spent most of the run up to the election north of Bellingham. There were lots of signs there, and one aspect of them caught my eye. A large number were mounted on wooden posts and frames. That's virtually unknown in the Midwest except for amateur posts. Almost all campaign signs in my home area are on wire frames (for plastic bag or folding paper) or wire posts (for corrugated plastic).

PS Bummer that the election kept me from meeting Alcon.

We've got really rocky soil; the wire frame signs get bent up going into the ground. Some rookie campaigns purchase them to save money but they always do wooden posts the second time around.

They are a pain in the rear to purchase, assemble, store, and distribute, plus you need mallets to pound the stakes into the ground. But life is tough, I suppose.

[Meeker]

Title update. Dull and unoriginal, like this campaign season #zing

[Crumpets]

Bumping for results tonight.

[Crumpets]

Polls closing. Remember early results in Washington, and especially Seattle tend to skew conservative because of the mail-in system.

[Crumpets]

First results:

I-1366 (Tim Eyman's thing): Yes 60.4-39.6
I-1401 (Endangered Animals): Yes 67.8-32.2

No results from King County yet, so probably not too much to draw from these numbers.

[KingSweden]

Here in Spokane, Dave Condon (Mayor) and Ben Stuckart (Council Prez) are both likely to get reelected, so the status quo shouldn't change much. The Council could either go back to 4-3 Dem or go to 6-1 Dem (it is 5-2 Dem right now, and the last Republican, Mike Fagan, is unlikely to lose even though he's a loon).

[Crumpets]

Seattle City Council

1. Braddock 52.92-46.48 Herbold
2. Harrell 54.87-44.93 Morales
3. Sawant 52.56-47.12 Banks
4. Johnson 54.8-44.7 Maddux
5. Juarez 63.08-36.43 Brown
6. O'Brien 58.8-40.93 Weatbrook
7. Bagshaw 79.85-Zech-Artis 19.38
8. Burgess 57.88-41.57 Grant
9. Gonzalez 75.97-23.54 Bradburd

[Crumpets]

Seattle's campaign finance initiative is ahead 60-40. It'll be interesting to see how that pans out.

[Asian Nazi]

In funny/horrifying local news, a couple weeks ago, the mailbox room in my apartment complex was broken into.  The thief stole all of the mail, including the ballots of probably most of the registered voters.  Now, my apartment complex is probably a pretty Democratic area in an otherwise swingy district, but I didn't think that the theft would be decisive.

Well, this is the current result of my county council race, with about a couple thousand ballots left to count:

Satpal Sidhu (D)
19,318   49.98%
Kathy Kershner (R)
19,332   50.02%

...

[KingSweden]

Dems currently on pace to pick up one seat on the Spokane City Council to increase their supermajority from 5-2 to 6-1. Not that that'll change much since politicians of all strips are generally pretty useless in this town.

[Seattle]

Looks like Carol Gregory (D) is down 6,075-7,110 to Teri Hickel(R).

[KingSweden]

Dispatch from out east: David Condon is first Spokane Mayor to be reelected since 1973, and the first one to win since the city went to a strong-mayor system in 2000. Not that this matters hugely, since his frenemy Ben Stuckart was reelected as Council President and liberals picked up a 6th seat on the City Council thanks to Lori Kinnear, so they now hold a daunting 6-1 majority only two years after conservatives controlled the council 4-3.

Prop 1 went down in flames, which is probably a good thing - I usually am skeptical about apocalyptic alarm bells being rung by business groups over propositions, but this thing was poorly written and overly broad. A $12 minimum wage initiative would probably pass - this thing, not so much.

[Asian Nazi]

Big changes for the structure of Whatcom County Council coming up, too.  Currently, six of the seven county council members are voted on in the primaries by three (horrendously drawn) districts, but were voted on at-large  Propositions were passed that will change this to a proper district system, with five districts and two at-large seats.  In the short term, this probably means more pro-coal conservatives on the Council, but in the long term this definitely will lead to better representation and a less...uh...chaotic political environment since right now the composition of the council swings wildly depending on whether turnout is better in urban Bellingham or the fundie countryside.  Also, term limits were passed, limiting the council members and county executive to three terms. 

[Asian Nazi]

I posted a thread about Whatcom County here earlier today if anyone's interested: 

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=222382


Also, in awesome news, two, possibly three Latinos have been elected to Yakima City Council for the first time ever!   

http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/elections/historic-election-two-latinos-elected-to-yakima-city-council/article_be4f5ff2-82b3-11e5-9bd0-371092904c06.html

[Frodo]

The carbon tax Initative 732 has gathered enough signatures, and has moved to the legislature for approval -does anyone think it has the votes to pass with Republicans in control of the Senate?

[Frodo]

And in related news:

Washington aims to limit carbon pollution from largest facilities

BY PHUONG LE
Associated Press
JANUARY 6, 2016 5:10 PM

SEATTLE

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article53406970.html#storylink=cpy

[henster]

The carbon tax Initative 732 has gathered enough signatures, and has moved to the legislature for approval -does anyone think it has the votes to pass with Republicans in control of the Senate?

Why would they waste sending it to the legislature and not straight to ballot? Wouldn't it be funny if both measures end up being defeated? Both will probably do terribly in Eastern WA and a lot Boeing workers may end up voting against them.

[Zioneer]

Any elections looking interesting in 2016?

[Asian Nazi]

Any elections looking interesting in 2016?

WA-7, the race for State Senate (or the House, I guess, if the GOP has a good year), and because this is WA there will undoubtedly be some interesting initiatives on the ballot.  And since the current Secretary of State is a Republican I'm sure she'll receive a strong challenge from the Dems, but I haven't been following close enough to know who is likely to run.

[RI]

There's no way I-732 passes. Zero chance.

[Sumner 1868]

There's no way I-732 passes. Zero chance.

It would be difficult, but not impossible. Particularly with presidential turnout.

[henster]

There's no way I-732 passes. Zero chance.

I don't think either will pass, this is a state that voted down a progressive income tax just a few years ago and just voted for the stupid Eyman blackmail proposal. Voters may see the carbon tax the same way they view an income vote.

[publicunofficial]

It's amazing how few people in Washington outside of the  most politically well-informed know who Tim Eyman is and how awful his proposals are. Every single one of them are tax initiatives that sound like common sense until you take a second to think about it. Which of course most voters don't.

Infuriates me to think of how many people think stuff like "2/3 majority to raise taxes" and "All tax increases have to be approved by the public" are legitimately smart ideas.