It seems likely that Republican Denise McCluskey will appear on the November ballot opposite incumbent state Rep. Tami Green in the 28th District. But it may be many days before we know for sure.

Green, a Democrat, was the only candidate for Position 2 to appear on the primary election ballot. But earlier this month McCluskey, a human resources manager who lives in University Place, filed as a write-in candidate for the primary. To advance to the general election ballot, she needs at least 1 percent of primary votes.

Results released late Wednesday show 996 write-in votes in that race – nearly 8 percent of the votes cast. By comparison, there were just 40 write-in votes (a quarter of one percent of the total) cast in the other 28th District House race, which pits incumbent Rep. Troy Kelley against Republican Dave Dooley.

The auditor’s office hasn’t counted the write-in votes yet. Auditor Pat McCarthy said the office won’t count write-ins until close to the time the primary election is certified. That’s 15 days after the election.

Until the votes are counted, we won’t know for sure whether McCluskey received the 1 percent of the votes she needs.

“It could be a whole bunch of different people (receiving write-in votes),” McCarthy said. But she noted that’s a big showing for write-ins in one race.

This just in from David Sawyer, campaign manager for Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg's run against incumbent state Attorney General Rob McKenna.

Sawyer says the formats are a bit "hazy." I guess that means we don't yet know if they are formal debates or just joint appearances.

September 18
7:30 AM - 8:30 AM
Debate @ Gig Harbor Chamber
1016 29th St NW, Gig Harbor, 98335
5-8 minutes of opening remarks then questions from audience.
Don Dennis is hosting

=> Read more!

I guess we were all waiting for state Rep. Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake, to get back from China, where he was watching his wife, Melanie, place 6th in her weight-lifting category. The Seattle Times got him first.

Roach was using his campaign funds to reimburse himself for lost wages. Problem is, what he used to document his lost wages wasn't really wage statements from the previous year.

Here is a link to the Seattle Times story.

Our former colleague, David Ammons, now of the Secretary of State's office, offers up some leftovers from the primary election.

For those of your who can't get enough......

Washington’s Top 2 Primary bits & pieces …

ALL ONE PARTY PREFERENCE.
Under the provisions of the voter-approved Top 2 Primary, no party “owns” a slot on the November ballot and it is always possible that voters will send forward to the General Election two candidates who express the same party preference. There were no examples of this among the eight partisan statewide executive offices this week, but some legislative and local government contests will offer such matchups in November.

For the first time, eight legislative finals apparently will feature finalists who prefer the same party _ two Senate seats and six House races, based on partial and unofficial returns. This is eight out of 124 seats on the ballot this fall (26 Senate, 98 House). In some cases, that’s because the only candidates who filed listed the same party preference. These include the Senate seats now held by Margarita Prentice in the 11th District and Karen Fraser in the 22nd. Both filed as “prefers Democratic Party” and will be challenged by fellow prefers-Democratic Party candidates, either Juan Martinez or Scott McKay against Prentice, and Erik Lee against Fraser.

=> Read more!

Those are Larry Faulk's word's, not mine.

"When I ran the first time, they said, 'He's too young.' When I ran this time, they say, 'He's too old.' What's a guy to do?" Larry said with a laugh.

He was talking about 1966, when he got elected to the state Senate, a Republican who was representing what was then the 26th Legislative District. He was only 30 then, the youngest guy in the Senate at the time.

Now, he's 72 and running against incumbent state Sen. Debbie Regala, D-Tacoma, in what has become the 27th Legislative District, the North End of Tacoma.

I had to give Larry a bad time because he got only 30 percent of the vote in Tuesday's primary election.

"We know we have an uphill battle," he said. "We know this is probably the strongest Democratic district in the state."

Well, not counting a couple districts in downtown Seattle, maybe.

I first met Larry Faulk in 1981, when he ran against Booth Gardner. They were trying to become the first ever Pierce County executive. Booth won.

An old nemesis for Larry. Booth also knocked Larry out of the Senate in 1970. This election season, Booth Gardner is pushing Initiative 1000, the Death with Dignity measure.

We have so many legislative races to cover -- there are 11 districts within The News Tribune's circulation area -- that we generally don't pay much attention to uncontested primary races. And it's just Faulk and Regala on the ballot in that race, so we'll see both of them in November.

Here is a link to Larry's home page.

I figured that's the least I can do for him. I've got a call in to Regala because I'm doing a story on Prison Industries and she's on the board, so I'll be giving her some ink, too.