Ruston Mayor Bob Everding resigned Monday, a day before residents apparently voted down a measure that would transfer the town’s executive power to an administrator.

Entering Wednesday evening, 91 people had voted against the change. Sixty-six voted for it.

Ruston has 452 active voters, according to the Piece County auditor’s office.

“This shows that not everyone agrees with the way the council wants to go,” said Karen Pickett, a vocal opponent of the proposition. “The council still has a fairly strong base, but clearly not everyone agrees with all the changes they propose.”

Proponents of the switch said the job responsibilities of the mayor have become too much to handle for one person. Opponents were wary of adding another layer of bureaucracy, the cost involved and losing an elected official who is responsive to citizens.

Now it appears the town needs a new mayor.

Everding e-mailed his resignation letter to some members of council ahead of its Monday meeting. Councilman Jim Hedrick, who said he read a copy of the letter e-mailed to Councilwoman Jane Hunt, said Everding said he would serve through Sunday and would help the council find a replacement.

Everding didn’t return a voicemail Wednesday.

The council has the task of appointing a new mayor, provided the change-of-government measure ultimately fails, Councilman Jim Hedrick said.

“The only thing officially we have done is appoint Councilman (Bradley) Huson as mayor pro tem,” Hedrick said.

Everding served on the council until Jan. 19, when he resigned amid growing frustration over in-fighting between the members of the council and Mayor Michael Transue.

Transue resigned on June 2, saying the atmosphere at council meetings was growing increasingly tense. The council unanimously appointed Everding to the vacancy two days later.

Everding wasn’t showing any obvious displeasure with his position, Hedrick said.

“This is completely out of the blue,” he said.

Carol Mathewson, known to Tacoma residents as the co-host of a program on the city's municipal television channel, is recovering at Harborview Medical Center following an "unknown injury" she suffered during the swim portion of the Danskin Triathlon Sunday in Seattle.

Her family issued a statement today saying that Mathewson was in satisfactory condition and recovering.

Mathewson's family expressed gratitude to all involved in her rescue and treatment, including a life guard, divers and the Medic One staff.

“Carol has pulled through because the ‘system’ worked,” her husband Mike Mathewson said. “Everyone was incredible and the people here at Harborview have been amazing.”

Mathewson is co-host of CityScape, a program on TV Tacoma, the city's municipal television channel. She also served as the city's interim spokeswoman in 2003 after Tacoma Police Chief David Brame killed himself and his wife, Crystal Judson.

I was curious what Deryl McCarty and Nathe Lawver, the Pierce County Republican and Democratic party chairmen, thought about yesterday's primary.

As you might expect, they didn't see the same things.

McCarty says Gregoire is in trouble. "Christine should have much higher numbers as an incumbent who has raised and spent a lot of money and with her party turning out greater numbers than ours."

Lawver, on the other hand, said Gregoire's lead in Pierce County -- a county where she lost in 2004 -- is important. (Gregoire was up about 4 percentage points last night.)

"When you look at some of the key races for Pierce County, especially the governor's race, we saw Governor Gregoire go from about a 7,000 deficit in 2004 to a 3,000 voter gain. That is a meaningful swing, and it means that Pierce County approves of the work she has done to create safe communities through the fair share bill, the booming trade our state has with other countries, as well as the clean up of the Puget Sound."

The 7,000 voter deficit Lawver refers to was in the 2004 general election, not the primary.

The party chairmen agree that the election left something to be desired. McCarty said the turnout was "disappointingly low." Lawver said it looked "more like a tax-payer financed poll than an election, and that is unfortunate to the citizens of Pierce County, and Washington."

McCarty offered that "Ladenburg is toast. If he cannot win his own county as a sitting Exec in a Democratic dominated primary, then the only question is how burned is the toast."

Ladenburg, the Pierce County Executive trying to unseat Republican incumbent Attorney General Rob McKenna, was trailing statewide by about 11 percentage points last night. Ladenburg was behind about 2 percentage points in his home county, and slightly ahead of McKenna in King County.

When I reached Ladenburg last night by phone, he said he was surprised he did as well as he did considering the low Democratic turnout and lack of attention the race has received.

"We're ready to go," Ladenburg said. "Maybe the media and public will start paying more attention to (McKenna's) record."

Today, Ladenburg issued a statement that included a "Top Ten" list of questions that people should be asking in the race that has so far received "scant attention."

Click ahead for the press release.

=> Read more!

I spoke this morning with Dean Ando, the boy second from the left in the back row in this 1972 class photo from Punahou School in Hawaii. Barack Obama is next to him, third from the left.

Ando, now 47 and living in Tacoma, is one of the Pierce County Democratic delegates headed to Denver for next week's Democratic National Convention.

Ando became friends with Obama, known then as Barry, in 1971 when they were both 10 years old, and has followed his old basketball buddy's political career for years.

He couldn't be more excited that Obama is running for president.

"If you could spend just a few minutes with Barack, you would know he is the real deal," Ando said.

Ando usually turns down requests for interviews, but said he spoke with me because the TNT is the local paper.

I'll have a full write-up from the interview soon.

UPDATE: Here's the full story.

Wondering why you haven’t seen any primary election results from the Pierce County executive’s race or other county offices?

There weren’t any.

Under the county’s new ranked-choice voting system, no county offices appeared on the primary ballot. Instead, all of the candidates for county executive, county council, assessor-treasurer and sheriff will appear on the November general election ballot.

We’ve had a few calls this morning from folks wondering where the county results were. Auditor Pat McCarthy said poll workers had a few queries, too.

Want more information about ranked-choice voting? Check out the auditor’s web site.

Our business columnist, Dan Voelpel, put up an item on the Biz Buzz blog this morning that offers still more evidence of how divided America has become.

This survey examined the political preferences of shoppers at stores like Walmart, Macy's, Target and Kohl's.

Columnist Peter Callaghan blogged about the consumer divide earlier.

I'm not sure who the information helps more -- politicians or retail marketers.

Maybe journalists.

In any case, I wasn't too surprised by the findings.

Here are a few comparisons the survey missed. Tell me who is red and who is blue when it comes to these consumer choices:

• Apple vs. PC
• Beer vs. wine
• iPhone vs. Blackberry
• Starbucks vs. any other caffeine purveyor
• Gap vs. Banana Republic

These may be too obvious. Care to suggest any others?

Steve Van Luven spent 17 years in the Legislature, representing the 48th District.

Now, he's trying to come back in the 40th District.

He was the front-runner in a field of seven candidates in the primary election, a field that included a member of the Salmon Yoga Party.

Looks as if it will be Republican Van Luven vs. Democrat Kevin Ranker, with 37 and 27 percent of the vote, respectively.

The winner will replace state Sen. Harriet Spanel, D-Bellingham, so this might be an actual pick up for Republicans. They are outnumbered 32-17 in the Senate.

Ruston voters appear to be saying “no” to a proposal to hire a professional manager to run town affairs.

In the latest results from the Pierce County Auditor’s office, the proposal was failing, 57% to 43%. This amid reports the town’s mayor has resigned.

In the lone Superior Court race, incumbent Sergio Armijo continues to trail Tacoma attorney Michael Hecht. The margin in the latest results: 52 percent to 48 percent. Armijo’s low rating in a Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association survey may be fueling Hecht’s candidacy. This race won’t be on the November ballot, so whoever wins the primary is elected.

Here are the latest results from Tuesday’s primary election, courtesy of the Secretary of State’s office:

• In the 28th Legislative District, incumbent Republican state Sen. Mike Carrell has opened a lead of just 26 votes over Democrat Debi Srail. It’s all about bragging rights. Both will advance to the November general election.

• In the 31st District, Republicans Josh Hulbert and Sharon Hanek are still neck and neck for the second slot on the November ballot. Hulburt maintains a 22% to 20% lead. Incumbent Democrat Christopher Hurst appears comfortably ahead with 58% of the vote.

In the 47th District, Republican Mark Hargrove leads incumbent Democratic state Rep. Geoff Simpson. The margin: 45% to 40%. Both will advance to the general election.

• Results from the congressional races haven’t changed much. In the most closely watched race, Republican Rep. Dave Reichert maintains a lead over Democrat Darcy Burner. The margin: 48% to 45%. Read what each camp has to say about it here.