What’s the newest way to curry favor with a congressman? Give to his favorite charity.

The Seattle Times today reports that Boeing, TriWest Healthcare Alliance and a host of corporations have contributed $478,000 to charities in the name of U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair.

Dicks isn’t the only Washington election official so honored. The Times reports that Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane, was honored with charitable contributions totaling $64,000. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray was honoree with contributions totaling $45,000.

“This is a new stealthy way to retain influence with favorite and most helpful lawmakers,” Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense told the Times. “It shows you have similar interests as someone like Norm Dicks and that can be nothing but helpful to your long-term goals.”

You can read the full Times report here.

From Adam Wilson at our sister paper, The Olympian:

Although it seems to get another neighbor every year, the Association of Washington Business’ holiday tree still is the centerpiece of the season in the Capitol.

The tree, up to 30 feet tall, will arrive in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday and be lighted in a celebration Friday. This year, a Christian nativity and an atheistic billboard will join it in the seat of state government.

"The way this whole thing started is that some folks came to us from the Legislature and the Capitol visitor center and said, ’Hey, there’s no Christmas tree in the Capitol; could you help us?’ And we said, ’OK, sure,’ " said Don Brunell, president of the Association of Washington Business.

Now in its 19th year, the tree has become part of a charity drive for rural fire departments and the focal point of a popular lighting ceremony the first Friday of each December.

It has sparked a series of additions, the most recent of which is the billboard by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, new this year.

"Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds," declares the sign, which is scheduled to be dedicated at 10 a.m.

=> Read more!

One more map, this one showing changes in voter registration. I don't have up-to-date population maps, but I'm guessing the changes mirror population grown to a large extent.

The places where registration fell by more than 50% are largely places with low registration numbers to begin with. But the yellow areas show an trend that might warrant further scrutiny.

Some veteran Pierce County politicians would get some extra time in office if the County Council and voters approve term-limit changes that will get a public hearing Tuesday.

The council will consider a proposed amendment to the county charter that would allow the county executive and council members to serve up to three consecutive four-year terms in office, up from the current limit of two terms.

As currently drafted, the three-term limit would not apply to any time elected officials have served before 2010. That would give existing officeholders a clean slate and would allow some council members to serve up to 19 years in office.

Councilman Dick Muri, R-Steilacoom, who drafted the proposal, said it wasn’t his intent to allow council members to serve that long. He said he will introduce an amendment at Tuesday’s council meeting that would count time already served toward the three-term limit.

The proposal already has drawn criticism from those who say it’s a way for incumbents to extend their hold on power.

“To the victors go the spoils,” Councilman Calvin Goings, D-Puyallup, said at a council Rules Committee meeting Monday. “I think this is a power play, pure and simple.”

Muri originally pitched his proposed charter amendment as a way to address long lines and other problems experienced during the Nov. 4 general election.

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The Bill of Rights Defense Committee says they are filing an appeal to halt expansion of the federal immigration facility on the Tacoma Tideflats. The group is concerned plans for the new construction at the Northwest Detention Center didn't have enough citizen input.

The Bill of Rights Defense Committee – Tacoma has filed an appeal with the City of Tacoma concerning the proposed expansion of the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) at 1623 East "J" Street on the Tacoma Tarpits EPA SuperFund Site. The expansion of the NWDC will provide housing for 575 detained citizens from other countries, expand the total bed-space to 1575, and provide 104,000 square feet of floor space.

The appeal is currently the last act in a failing attempt to provide input to the approval process.

"The City has pretty much taken every effort to exclude citizen input from the expansion approval process" said Tim Smith, chairperson of the committee. "At this point and time we can only appeal the determination of non-significance issued by the City of Tacoma on Nov 14. We have 14 days but as today is a city holiday, Monday Dec 1st is the last day to submit and appeal."

More after the jump.

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From Adam Wilson, state government reporter at our sister paper, The Olympian:

Having Friday off has become routine for workers at some state agencies, but it’s too soon to tell whether moving to a four-day workweek is saving money, the agencies report.

Leaving government offices empty on Fridays was supposed to save on energy costs, one of the early moves Gov. Chris Gregoire made as the state’s budget began to shrink. Washington now faces a $5.1 billion shortfall in funds.

“Things have been going smoothly and people are driving in to work one less day a week, which is an energy savings. But in terms of building energy use, we won’t know until December,” said Wendy Pugnetti of the Department of Community Trade and Economic Development.

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University of Puget Sound professor Richard Anderson-Connolly has a message for Pierce County Democrats: stop blaming your troubles on ranked choice voting and take a good look in the mirror.

Anderson-Connolly is a ranked choice voting supporter. On Kelly Haughton’s RCV blog, he expresses disappointment that local Democrats are, in his mind, blaming the new voting system for their poor showing in the recent election.

Earlier this month, County Councilman Calvin Goings, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for county executive, urged his fellow Democrats to reconsider their approach to fielding candidates under the RCV system. Goings noted that Democrats allowed multiple candidates to bear the party label in local elections, while the Republicans allowed only a single party standard bearer.

In the blog post, Anderson-Connolly also cites comments by Pierce County Democratic Party Chairman Nathe Lawver as evidence that Democrats are scapegoating ranked choice voting.

“I hope that rank-and-file Democrats, the progressive base that does most of the work for the leadership, will refuse to go along with the scapegoating of RCV,”Anderson-Connolly writes. “Instead of blaming the system – an explanation that doesn’t fit the facts – Democrats need to engage in a deeper debate about the best way to recruit and build strong candidates.”

You can read the full post here.

It took me most of Tuesday and Wednesday to crunch the 2008 election results from Pierce County and start comparing them to 2004.

We're still analyzing the data to get a better sense of what happened and why. But that's no reason not to share our initial findings with you, dear reader.

After the jump are several maps I put together -- from voter turnout to how many votes in each precinct Gregoire picked since the last election. We'd love to hear your thoughts on how things are changing. (Stay tuned for a story.)

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After the Nov. 4 election results were certified yesterday, I started using our fancy-schmancy mapping software to look at how Pierce County voted.

The map below shows perhaps the most interesting results, voting precincts where Rossi and Obama both won -- the darker the purple, the greater the Obama win. The darkest purple shows areas where Obama won by 11 to 24 percent.

You can see the quite a mixture in the communities between the Democratic stronghold in Tacoma and the traditionally Republican rural areas. And also in the Gig Harbor area.

As we dig into the election results and what they mean, we want to talk to people -- especially from those purple areas around Lake Tapps, Puyallup, Northeast Tacoma and Gig Harbor -- who voted for both Rossi and Obama. While the map gives the bird's-eye view, we're interested in finding out more about the view from the ground, the business, the family...

You can contact me at ian.demsky@thenewstribune.com or 253-597-8872. (Make sure to include your name, city and daytime phone number.)

Following news that its former executive director is suing Centro Latino, the Pierce County Council on Tuesday put a hold on nearly $30,000 worth of funding for the nonprofit group.

Joy Gomez-Gonzalez, the former director, says she was wrongfully fired when she questioned improper behavior by a board member. She accuses the board member, David Almonte, of using his position to secure a large contract for his furniture business and trying to hire a friend as a contractor on the renovation of Centro Latino’s Tacoma building.

Almonte has denied any wrongdoing. Other board members say their attorney has advised them not to speak with the media.

But a majority of County Council members wants to know more.

The county’s 2009 budget includes $29,630 for Centro Latino, a nonprofit group that serves the local Latino community with job training, youth mentoring and family services. The county money is included in a line item that provides $4.8 million for numerous nonprofits and community programs.

By a vote of 5-2, the council stipulated the county should not release funding for Centro Latino until the group reports to the council’s rules committee. The budget provision requires the nonprofit to report on its ‘financial condition and ongoing activities” and stipulates the council must reapprove the funding before it can be released to Centro Latino.

Republican Councilmen Dick Muri and Roger Bush, who sponsored the provision, said they want to ensure taxpayer money is being spent wisely.

“This is an exceptional circumstance,” Muri said. “I don’t know what’s going on (at Centro Latino).”

Two council members – Democrats Tim Farrell and Calvin Goings – opposed the provision. They said it was unfair to single out one group out of the dozens the county funds. And they suggested the council should scrutinize all of the groups equally.

I don't know if Republican challenger Dino Rossi is saddled with any debt from his failed second run for governor, but he is pushing book sales.

As a parting shot (warning?), he's telling his supporters to hold onto their wallets, implying that Gov. Chris Gregoire will, indeed, raise taxes to balance the state budget in light of a now $5 billion shortfall. That, despite her campaign promise not to raise taxes.

What taxpayers need to worry about is what Democrats in the Senate and House send to Gregoire. If the only thing she gets from a Democrat-dominated Legislature is a tax increase, she might have to say "The devil made me do it."

Democrats, I suspect, are pinning a lot of their budget-balancing hopes on a rescue package from President Barack Obama. And the sooner the better.

Dear friends,

I wanted to thank you again for your help and support during the Governor's race. While we did not receive a majority of votes, we accomplished many things, the most exciting of which was inspiring thousands of people to involve themselves in politics for the first time. My hope is that everyone reading this will stay involved for the betterment of our state and nation.

=> Read more!

It appears the Washington Transportation Commission is trying to do some advance work on the public in the event they decide to raise the tolls on the new bridge so soon after raising them.

Tolls went up by $1 on July 1, to $4 for cars at the toll booths and to $2.75 for those with transponders.

A citizen advisory committee is reviewing traffic counts to see whether it will recommend higher rates for July 1, 2009. Members will meet 2 more times next week. Their recommendation will go to the commission, then the commission will send its recommendtion to the Legislature, all before the Legislature convenes on Jan. 12.

Even though tolls are reviewed every year (or more often, if necessary), the tolls set a few months ago should have been high enough to last for two years. But the state Department of Transportation has been spooked by lower-than-expected traffic for a month or two, and they might prod the committee and commission to booth the toll.

On the other hand, gas is no longer $4.35 a gallon, as it was when traffic on the bridge took a dip. It's about $2, so maybe the DOT is panicking just a tad. They tend to err on the conservative side so they can make the loan payments.

Stay tuned.

Commission Chairman Dan O'Neal sent out this opinion-editorial piece.

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Pierce County will cut about 75 jobs, delay capital spending and boost a variety of fees to balance a 2009 budget approved by the County Council Tuesday.

The $854.5 million spending plan also counts on cheap gas and revenue from red light cameras to keep the county in the black.

Council members say the budget supports key services like public safety while cutting back in other areas.

“Government does not always need to grow,” said Councilman Shawn Bunney, R-Lake Tapps.

For years Pierce County government grew steadily, fueled by a residential and commercial development boom that provided a dependable source of revenue.

But earlier this year, as the real estate market slumped, the county cut nearly $5 million from its 2008 budget. With a full-blown recession looming, the council approved a largely status-quo spending plan for 2009.

Total spending will fall about 3 percent from this year’s budget. Spending on the general fund, which includes most traditional county services like law enforcement and courts, would rise about 1 percent to $289 million.

The general fund plan would cut about 75 jobs, most of them vacant.

The county planning department will take the biggest hit, losing about 38 positions. Planning department Director Chuck Kleeberg said five of those will be layoffs. With the slowdown in construction, county officials believe the department doesn’t need as many employees to do its job.

Other workforce reductions are spread across numerous departments. The budget also cuts spending on extra hires, overtime, equipment, training and other line items.

While other departments cut staff, the sheriff’s department would add six positions, paid for with contracts or grants.

Other budget highlights include:

• The council voted to charge more for various county services. Sewer rates would rise an average of 5 percent. Surface water management fees – assessed to pay for flood control and water quality programs – would rise 10 percent. Fees on park rentals, fire inspections, court filings and other services also would rise.

But the council declined to raise numerous planning department fees, which County Executive John Ladenburg had counted on to raise $1.7 million.

=> Read more!

Earlier today, Pierce County released certified elections results, capping a long and historic election season. Voter turnout set a recent record for presidential election years in terms of both the raw number of voters (333,824) and the percentage of registered voters participating (81.20 percent). Turnout ranged from 74 percent to 78 percent in the election years from 1976 to 2004, according to county election manager Lori Augino. The county didn't have readily available numbers for earlier elections.

Pierce County's turnout trails the state, which experienced a whopping 84.55 percent turnout. The turnout surpassed the previous record of 84.5 percent, set in 1944, Secretary of State Sam Reed just announced. (The state keeps turnout stats going back to 1936.) For the first time, more than 3 million Washingtonians voted.

Here's a comparison between the last two presidential elections in Pierce County.

	                   2004           2008
Registered Voters 	405,023	       411,103
Poll Ballots Cast 	 62,034	        52,134
Percent poll ballots	 19.56%	         15.62%
Absentee Ballots Cast 	254,981	       281,690
Total Ballots Cast 	317,015	       333,824
Turnout	                 78.27%	         81.20%

Political bloggers have been abuzz over rumors/reports that Washington state Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders heckled U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey last week. Someone shouted "tryant" at Mukasey. This was at the Federalist Society speech in which Mukasey fainted.

Yesterday, Sanders was cagey when Olympian reporter Adam Wilson asked about it. Sanders said he was in town, but not in the room when Mukasey collapsed. At the time, the only one really "reporting" that Sanders was the heckler was Michele Malkin, a conservative blogger who said that's what someone said on Fox News.

Sanders declined to respond directly to Malkin’s post. "As to that, I don’t have any comment," Sanders said. "But I wasn’t there when he collapsed. I heard it on television the next morning. I was very sorry to hear it."

But others picked up the story, including a Wall Street Journal reporter who was at the table next to the alleged heckler.

A few minutes ago, Sanders issued the following statement, confirming that he did say something to Mukasey out of frustration, but disputing that it qualifies as heckling.

RICHARD B. SANDERS
P.O. BOX 40929
OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON 98504-0929

November 25, 2008

I want to set the record straight about a dinner I attended on November 20, in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Federalist Society — a conservative and libertarian legal group of which I am a member. Attorney General Michael Mukasey was the keynote speaker.

In his speech, Attorney General Mukasey justified the Bush administration’s policies in the War on Terror, which included denying meaningful hearings for prisoners in Guantanamo, and other questionable tactics, all in the name of national security. Mr. Mukasey said those who criticize the Administration for abandoning provisions of the Geneva Conventions fail to recognize that “… Al Qaeda [is] an international terrorist group, and not, the last time I checked, a signatory to the Conventions.” Although the United States is a signatory, and these Conventions prohibit torture, the audience laughed. Attorney General Mukasey received a standing ovation. I passionately disagree with these views: the government must never set aside the Constitution; domestic and international law forbids torture; and access to the writ of habeas corpus should not be denied.

The program provided no opportunity for questions or response, and I felt compelled to speak out. I stood up, and said, “tyrant,” and then left the meeting. No one else said anything. I believe we must speak our conscience in moments that demand it, even if we are but one voice.

I hope those who know my jurisprudence will agree that to truly love the Constitution is to uphold it, to speak out for it, not just in times of peace and prosperity, but also in times of chaos and crisis.

I did not “heckle” Attorney General Mukasey, and I did not disrupt the meeting, as those who watch the video of his speech on the Federalist Society’s website will discover. I left before Mr. Mukasey had his frightening collapse. I learned of his collapse later, from news reports. It should go without saying that, despite our vastly different views on what constitutes upholding the rule of law, I hope he continues to recover and remain in good health.

This just in from the Associated Press:

Gov. Chris Gregoire is unveiling emergency plans to carve another $260 million from this year’s state budget.

Gregoire’s new cuts follow last week’s announcement that the state is facing a deficit of about $5 billion through mid-2011. The shortfall includes a gap of about $500 million in this year’s state budget.

Gregoire previously announced plans to trim about $330 million from this year’s spending. Tuesday’s announcement bumps that amount up to $590 million, putting this year’s state budget back in the black when it ends in June.

Gregoire’s budget office is giving agencies a targeted dollar amount of cuts to reach. They’re being told to scale back new programs, and cut spending on existing programs that have been identified as low priorities.

Update No. 1: The AP's Curt Woodward filed more material. Here's the rest:

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The City of Tacoma plans to hire three new parking patrol officers to crack down on handicapped parking scofflaws.

The hiring is one part of a larger plan city officials are assembling after a citizen committee proposed its own plan for using volunteer civilians to enforce the city’s handicapped parking laws.

City and union officials did not want volunteers doing patrols, but City Manager Eric Anderson developed an alternative plan that includes increasing the number of Tacoma’s parking patrol officers from eight to 11.

The new officers will be hired as soon as possible, Anderson told a City Council committee Tuesday morning. Funding for the officers will come from the city’s parking fund, which receives revenue primarily from the city’s various parking garages.

The extra staff will cost approximately $230,000 per year for salaries, benefits and equipment, said Kurtis Kingsolver from the city’s public works department. The city will need to spend an additional $110,000 or so in one-time equipment costs to buy new cars and handheld computers, Kingsolver said.

Until the new officers come on board, the current parking patrol officers will conduct a special emphasis on handicapped parking violators beginning Friday, Anderson said.

=> Read more!

Back on Oct. 5, I wrote a story about the "Rossi budget" and the "Gregoire deficit" but some of my best stuff ended up on the cutting room floor. (I had to cut the last part of my story so it would be ONLY 40 inches and would fit into the newspaper.) But the full 75-inch story was posted on line, and I'm republishing that now, with a few modifications.

For one, the deficit is now $5.1 billion, not $3.2 billion.

HOW WILL THE GOVERNOR AND LEGISLATURE BALANCE THE BUDGET NEXT YEAR?
They’ll be looking at closing roughly a 16 percent gap between spending and revenue -- $5 billion out of a two-year $30 billion general fund budget.

Look to the past and you’ll see what’s probable or possible:

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The more I listen to Barack Obama and Congress talk about what they're going to do to lessen the impact of our recession, the more I'm reminded of revenue sharing from the early 1980s.

When I started covering Pierce County government in 1981, cities and counties were still getting no-strings-attached money from Uncle Sam. According to Wikipedia, revenue sharing existed from 1972 (the last bad recession) until 1987. It lost favor under President Reagan.

But it appears to be making a comeback, and Washington state workers no doubt will rejoice if it does. Basically, the federal government gives cities, counties and states money to pretty much what they please. That means Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature could head off some of those layoffs that probably are in their future.

State Schools Superintendent-elect Randy Dorn said he was going to propose just that when he spoke last Friday to about 800 members of the School Directors Association. (I didn't have a chance to watch Dorn on TVW so I'm not sure if he did.)

But before his speech, Dorn told me he wants Obama to take $100 billion of the $350 billion TARP money that had yet to be committed, and drive that out to the states for K-12 and higher education. (Well, he is the new public schools buy after all.)

If it's based on population, Washington would get about $2 billion. That would come in pretty handy for a state that is facing a $5.1 billion deficit. (Of course, some of that money probably would go directly to cities and counties.)

As for jobs, back in the 70s and 80s, there also was something called CETA, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. This time, it probably would be called CERTA, as in "reTraining."

Just about the time that credit card bills from the Christmas shopping season are taking their toll on family budgets, Tacoma Public Utility customers will get some relief in the form of their utility bills.

The TPU board has decided to pass along a $15 million overpayment to the Bonneville Power Administration to its customers.

Utility officials still are crunching the numbers to see what this will mean, but they estimate the refund will equal slightly more than one-half an average month's bill, according to a press release.

Refunds could start showing up in February's utility bills.

“Refunding this money to our customers is the right thing to do – especially considering the current economy,” said Public Utility Board Chairman Tom Hilyard said in a statement. “Hopefully it will provide them at least a little relief.”

Click ahead to read the TPU press release.

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Pierce County would install red-light cameras at up to six intersections next year under a budget plan the County Council is expected to approve Tuesday.

The proposal would generate $1.3 million annually for the county. Supporters on the council say the plan is about safety, not revenue.

But sheriff’s department spokesman Ed Troyer questioned whether public safety is the council’s priority. He said the department won’t get any of the net revenue from the cameras.

“Are they revenue-producing machines for the county? Absolutely,” Troyer said.

The council is hashing out last-minute details of an $852 million budget that will be approved today.

Among those details is a plan to install automated traffic safety cameras at six intersections yet to be determined. The cameras – better known as “red light cameras” – automatically photograph drivers who run red lights.

Violators would get a $124 ticket. All of the intersections would be signed to notify motorists of the cameras. There would be a 30-day warning period before the penalty was enforced.

The cameras would be located at major arterial intersections. Undersheriff Eileen Bisson said the county will select intersections in cooperation with the private vendor selected to operate the system. But the county already has looked at five possible locations:

=> Read more!

From Richard Roesler's 'Eye On Olympia' blog:

As Olympia struggles to bridge a record budget shortfall of $5.1 billion - or more - over the next 2 1/2 years, lawmakers and budget officials say that cutting jobs looks more likely.

"It's difficult to imagine that we'd be able to balance the budget without there being some reduction in the size of the work force," said Glenn Kuper, spokesman for the state budget office. Retirements and attrition, he said, aren't likely to be enough.

"I would say it's very likely," state Sen. Margarita Prentice, when asked about layoffs. The Renton Democrat leads the Senate's budget-writing committee.

Dean Ando, the Tacoma man who grew up with Barack Obama in Hawaii, has a new blog.

Quill to the Scroll has only a couple items of content so far, but it looks like Ando plans to document his 21 months as a grassroots organizer on Obama's campagin, perhaps in book form.

Check out his blog here.

Dale Washam, Pierce County's assessor-treasurer-elect (man, that's a lot of hyphens), called today. He's run for various county offices since the early 1990s and never tasted victory, so I asked him how it felt to win.

"Do you know what feels the best?" he said. "The people who come up to me. It’s ‘we won, we won.' I think that I give them a sense that if you stick to it and you keep your values and you stay on point about what you believe about public office, and then finally get there, it’s like they feel a part of it."

He's still not a big fan of ranked-choice voting. He called several times during the campaign to express concerns that voters didn't understand it. Now that he's won, he's not changing his tune. He says it troubles him that some voters get more than one vote (if their first choice is eliminated, then their second and possibly third choices come into play). He also said the RCV system is too costly and that it takes too long to determine a winner.

Jason Osgood, Democratic candidate for Secretary of State in this past election, announced yesterday he is running for Director of Elections for King County.

Incumbent Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, won reelection to a four-year term.

King County will hold a special election in February for director of elections, which voters turned into an elective post in this election.

Jason Osgood Declares Candidacy for King County Director of Elections

Jason Osgood, co-founder of the election integrity watchdog group Washington Citizens for Fair Elections, today officially declared his candidacy for King County Director of Elections.

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Browsing around on the city of Tacoma's Web site today, I discovered that they've started posting some public records request responses.

Follow the link to the city's Web site and click on Public Disclosure... there are other type of documents that look interesting, too.

For example, one I downloaded contains Equal Opportunity complaints. This page shows a breakdown by agency/department:

I got the job right, but the committee wrong when I reported that Rep. Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma, was likely to get a chairmanship for the upcoming session. Actually, I probably just have the wrong year.

The House Democratic caucus is poised to create a new committee on mental health issues and make Darneille its first chairwoman. So Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, won't lose her job presiding over the House Human Services Committee, as I reported yesterday.

Look at my earlier blog post for more details.

However, Dickerson reportedly is mulling a run for King County Council and if she wins next year, she'd leave the Legislature and make room for Darneille to slide into that Human Service chairmanship.

It's all very fluid. We'll know more after the Committee on Committees meets again Dec. 3, although the dust probably won't settle Assembly Days end on Dec. 5.

The above headline summarizes the points made in a recent letter from Walt Bowen, president of the Washington State Senior Citizens Lobby, to recently re-elected Gov. Chris Gregoire.

And the letter was written before we all learned the state is facing a $5 billion budget shortfall.

You can read the whole letter here:

Dear Governor Gregoire:

On behalf of the Washington State Senior Citizens’ Lobby I want to congratulate you on your successful re-election campaign. We believe many older voters, were offended by the harsh, and untruthful negative ads run against you. According to CNN exit polling in Washington State, 56% of voters over 50 were in your corner.

I write you today on a matter of the utmost importance to the Senior Citizens’ Lobby. We have seen the dire reports with regard to the looming shortfall in the budget for the next biennium. As you formulate your proposals for dealing with the budget challenge, we want to make three important points.

=> Read more!

But after all the dust settles, it looks as if the Democrats will have a net loss of 1 seat in the House (Pat Lantz of Gig Harbor) and 1 seat in the Senate (Marilyn Rasmussen of Eatonville).

Of course, those recounts could alter that a bit.

Two House races appear certain to go to hand recount

OLYMPIA…More than two weeks after the November 4 General Election, two state House races are so close that they appear well within range of a hand recount.

In Spokane County, the 6th Legislative District House Position 2 race between Republican incumbent John Ahern and Democratic challenger John Driscoll currently has Driscoll ahead by 63 votes out of about 70,000 cast, a difference of 0.09 percentage points. The last update on the race was November 14.

In Snohomish County, the 44th Legislative District House Position 2 battle between appointed Democratic incumbent Liz Loomis and Republican challenger Mike Hope shows Hope leading by 100 votes out of more than 68,000 cast, a difference of 0.14 percentage points. The race’s last update was November 20.

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Democrat Pat McCarthy beat Republican Shawn Bunney by a narrow margin to become the first woman to serve as Pierce County executive, results released Thursday show.

With nearly all of the votes counted, McCarthy beat Bunney by a margin of 51 percent to 49 percent under the county’s new ranked choice voting system.

“I’m thankful to the voters of Pierce County to have confidence in me to be the first woman county executive,” McCarthy said late Thursday. “These are challenging times. But I look forward to some exciting opportunities for us to do some good things in Pierce county.”

Meanwhile, Dale Washam – a perennial candidate and frequent critic of county government – won election as the county’s nonpartisan assessor-treasurer over five other candidates. And Republican Joyce McDonald won the race for County Council District 2 over two Democrats.

In another closely watched race, Republican challenger Randi Becker has unseated incumbent Democrat Marilyn Rasmussen in the 2nd District state senate race.
The results won’t be official until Tuesday. But Bunney called McCarthy to concede the executive’s race Thursday evening.

“I called to congratulate her on her success and to let her know I’m there to be of assistance to her in any way, because I want what’s best for the families of Pierce County,” Bunney said.

The latest results cap what is perhaps the most memorable county executive race in Pierce County history.

=> Read more!

Rep. Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma, reportedly is in the running to become chairwoman of the House Human Services Committee, which is right up her alley. Darneille has a penchant for all social services. It's her life.

That, of course, means that current chairwoman, Mary Lou Dickerson of Seattle, won't keep the job.

And, contrary to what I posted a few weeks back, the choice of who will preside over the House Appropriations Committee has not been settled.

I said Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, the current vice chairman of the budget-writing committee, probably would replace retiring Rep. Helen Sommers of Seattle and that Rep. Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, would get the consolation prize of House Capital Budget Committee.

I might have to reverse that prediction -- or not.

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House Democrats were supposed to have picked their committee chairmen and chairwoman yesterday. But the Committee on Committees, the 15-member team of leadership, committee chairs and at-large members postponed their final deliberations.

House Speaker Frank Chopp of Seattle, who presides over that committee, learned earlier this week that his mother was very ill.

She died Wednesday night. Anne Brozovich Chopp was 91. The House Clerk notified members this morning.

The Committee on Committee now will meet Dec. 4 to finalize the slate of chairmanships that will be submitted to the full 61- or 62-member caucus.

The caucus probably will vote Dec. 5, the last of two Assembly Days when lawmakers come to Olympia to hold some brief hearings.

Richard McKinley, currently the Bellingham Public Works Director, will take over the same job for Tacoma early next year, city officials announced.

McKinley replaces Bill Pugh, the long-time public works director who retired earlier this year following a 33-year career with the City of Tacoma.

City Manager Eric Anderson chose McKinley following a nationwide search.

Mike Slevin has served as Tacoma's interim public works director.

Click ahead to read the city's press release.

=> Read more!

I know my cynicism is coming through here, but do any of you think it's just a coincidence that the new, mostly higher cost estimates for those two mega-projects are coming out two weeks after the reelection of Gov. Chris Gregoire?

Both of these projects will be paid for with proceeds from the last two increases in the state gas tax -- 5 cents a gallon in 2003 and 9.5 cents in 2005 -- so every driver in the state has a stake in them and a role in paying for them.

The mediation team created by the Legislature was supposed to come up with a 520 bridge solution that would keep the local Seattle neighborhoods on the west end of the 520 bridge happy. They appear to have come up with 3 options -- happy, happier and happiest.

DOT Deputy Secretary David Dye said the most likely cost for the 520 bridge is now $4.5 billion, if an interchange for the Montlake District near the University of Washington is similar to the one put forth by the team.

That $4.5 billion is now the lowest cost estimate. When the Legislature adjourned in March, the estimate was only $3.9 billion. Half of that cost was supposed to come from tolls. Who knows what lawmakers are going to settle on this upcoming session.

“If decision makers select one of the other options, costs will increase another $500 million to $2 billion,” Dye said.

As for the viaduct, we'll find out just how expensive that project is by the end of December. That's when Gregoire, King County Executive Ron Sims and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels are supposed to come to agreement on a final joint recommendation.

Below are 2 news releases from the Washington Department of Transportation. One deals with the viaduct, the other with the 520 bridge.

=> Read more!

His team may have picked up not 1, but 2 seats in the House. Unfortunately, state Rep. Richard DeBolt, D-Chehalis, and his House Repulicans have a lot farther to go to reclaim the majorities they held after the 1994 and 1996 elections.

They were outnumbered 63-35 going into this election and, as I said, may have picked up 1 or 2 seats. But I'm not going to do the math as I did in the previous post. Let me just say that DeBolt, at least, is younger than Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt.

There are no Pierce County or South King County Republicans in the leadership positions in the House. But then, there aren't many, period.

Minority Whip Bill Hinkle of Cle Elum did attend Tacoma's Lincoln High School, so many that counts. And he's a good fit for sergeant at arms. He's a big, big guy, and a former paramedic, too.

The House Republican caucus also chose its leadership team today. The met this afternoon in Cle Elum, Hinkle's turf.

State House Republicans elect new leadership team
DeBolt continues role as Leader, looks forward to 2009 legislative session

State House Republicans today elected a new leadership team that will lead the caucus heading into the 2009 legislative session. The leadership vote came just 16 days after a general election that will likely result in the caucus gaining one or two more net seats in the Washington State House of Representatives.

Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, was re-elected House Republican Leader. His responsibilities include overseeing the leadership team, setting legislative priorities, policy development, and working directly with the governor and other state government leaders.

=> Read more!

His Republican colleagues in the Washington Senate have relected Sen. Mike Hewitt of Walla Walla to be their leader once again.

No doubt it's a reward for leading the GOP caucus to picking up 1 seat in the state Senate. They were outnumbered 32-17 by Democrats. Now, they're outnumbered only 31-18.

If the Senate R's can keep picking up 1 seat in each election cycle, Hewitt can expect to be elected majority leader in November 2022, if he can just hang on that long......

Hey, he'll be only 76 years old.

Of local note, Sen. Mike Carrell (right) of Lakewood is deputy leader and Sen. Cheryl Pflug of Maple Valley is caucus vice chairwoman.

=> Read more!

After 16 days of suspense, Pierce County voters should know tonight who likely will be the county’s new chief executive and next tax collector.

That’s a day ahead of the original schedule.

Auditor Pat McCarthy said this morning her office will have counted nearly every vote today. So elections officials will run computer software that will determine the next executive and assessor-treasurer this afternoon instead of waiting until Friday, as originally planned.

With practically all of the votes counted, McCarthy said it didn’t make sense to wait 24 hours to release new ranked choice voting results.

The auditor’s office plans to release the new results at 6 p.m. today. I'll post them here when they're released.

The new results may be the final word on who will fill two key county offices.

There are four candidates four county executive and six for assessor-treasurer.

But recent tallies of ranked choice voting results show the executive race will come down to a contest between Democrat McCarthy and Republican Shawn Bunney. In results released last Friday, McCarthy won 51 percent to 49 percent.

Last Friday’s results showed Dale Washam beating Barbara Gelman in the assessor-treasurer’s race by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent.

Since those results were released, elections officials have counted thousands of additional ballots.

McCarthy said there may be a few straggler votes to be counted before the election is certified on Tuesday. Her office plans to run the ranked choice voting computer software again Monday night.

But tonight’s tally should be all but definitive.

Even as the last votes are counted, Bunney is considering requesting a recount if he loses to McCarthy by a close margin.

=> Read more!

Our Lisa Brown is Senate Majority Leader. The other Lisa Brown just got appointed to Barack Obama's staff.

And I know this only because I got an e-mail from an organization I had never heard of -- until five minutes ago.

The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) is pleased to announce that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen ACS Executive Director Lisa Brown as White House Staff Secretary.

=> Read more!

Victor Moore, budget director for Gov. Chris Gregoire, has told all of the universities and colleges, as well as all state agencies to show him what their budgets would look like if they had to cut them by 20 percent.

I asked Moore's office for the memo, but I'm told he made the request over the phone and at a cabinet meeting. (I still think there's an e-mail to be found somewhere, but maybe I'll pursue that later.)

Moore actually asked for the budget scenarios before the revenue forecast indicated tax collections probably will be $2 billion lower over the next 31 months. Now, they really do need to look at cuts that deep, at least for some agencies.

My colleague, Rich Roesler over at The (Spokane) Spokesman Review, has a good take on some of the details of the higher ed stuff on his blog, Eye on Olympia.

Good thing the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council doesn't have a "shoot the messenger" policy, or newly hired Arun Raha wouldn't have lasted beyond his first ever forecast.

Raha had the unhappy task of informing legislators and the governor's cabinet that tax collections are expected to plunge by nearly $2 billion over the next 31 months. That will help produce a budget shortfall upwards of $5 billion.

When the press releases were being handed Wednesday just a few minutes before the 10 a.m. meeting, I saw the precipitous revenue drop and told Raha that his predecessor, ChangMook Sohn, had earned the nickname of "Dr. Doom" because of his conservative and often gloomy forecasts. I told Raha he was at risk of earning a similar nickname.

Before Raha could say much, Dr. Kriss Sjoblom, vice president for research for the Washington Research Council, who was standing within earshot blurted out, "Doom and Doomer."

Pray the nickname doesn't stick, Arun.

State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser says he’s “increasingly alarmed” by reports he’s getting from party observers at the Pierce County Elections Center. In an e-mail to Secretary of State Sam Reed, Esser has asked that someone from Reed’s office monitor vote counting here, citing “disturbing and repeated episodes which have turned the Pierce County observation process into a meaningless exercise.”

Republican observers cite restrictions on their movement that they believe violates state law. They say they have not been able to fully observe signature checking, ballot evaluation for voter intent, ballot remaking and provisional ballot checking, among other things.

The backdrop: a close county executive race that pits Democratic Auditor Pat McCarthy (who oversees elections) vs. Republican Shawn Bunney.

You can read Esser’s e-mail Secretary of State Sam Reed below. It includes first-hand report from Republican Party observers at the elections center.

From: Luke Esser, Chairman
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 1:51 PM
To: sreed@secstate.wa.gov
Cc: sexcell@secstate.wa.gov
Subject: Request for SOS Monitoring of Pierce County Election Activities

Dear Secretary Reed,

I have become increasingly alarmed at the reports forwarded to me by Republican elections observers in Pierce County over the last two weeks. Following is a memo by one of our observers that thoroughly addresses disturbing and repeated episodes which have turned the Pierce County observation process into a meaningless exercise. In light of these concerns, I am requesting that someone from the Secretary of State's office monitor activities at the Pierce County Elections Center between now and the time of certification to provide independent oversight and assurances of a transparent elections process. If party observers are not afforded a meaningful opportunity to observe, then direct action by the Secretary of State's Office is surely warranted.

=> Read more!

This comes to us courtesy of our friends at The Associated Press. Rodgers, who used to be just Cathy McMorris when she was in the state House, appears to moving up the ranks in the minority Republican caucus in the U.S. House.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state has been elected vice chair of the House Republican Conference.
In her new role, McMorris Rodgers will work with House Minority Leader John Boehner and other GOP leaders to approve GOP committee assignments, manage floor debates and develop the party’s communications strategy.
McMorris Rodgers, of Spokane, easily won re-election to a third term this month.
At a news conference Wednesday, she said the party’s actions over the next two years will determine how long Republicans remain in the minority in Congress. She said the party must broaden its appeal and reach out to women, minorities and young people.

Republican Shawn Bunney is asking supporters to help pay for a possible recount in the Pierce County executive’s race.

In an e-mail this morning, Bunney says the race may come down to a recount, “but only with help from my friends.”

“The election isn’t over, and I need your help to keep it alive,” Bunney writes.

Last Friday’s ranked choice voting results show Democrat Pat McCarthy clinging to a narrow lead over Bunney – 50.65 percent to 49.35 percent. They are separated by about 3,400 votes.

Under state law, there would be an automatic recount if the candidates are separated by fewer than 2,000 votes and by less than one half of one percent of the total ballots cast for both candidates. Based on results so far, there would be no automatic recount.

However, Bunney could still request a recount. He’d just have to pay for it. Thus the fund-raising appeal.

The auditor’s office won’t run ranked choice voting results again until Friday. The election is scheduled to be certified on Tuesday.

Update: I just spoke with Charla Neuman, a Bunney campaign spokeswoman. She said there probably won't be a decision made about whether to request an recount until after Friday's results are released.

"I know that everyone is looking at `just in case' scenarios," Neuman said.

Here’s the full text of Bunney’s e-mail.

From: Shawn Bunney
Reply-To:
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:36:11 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Recount?

Yes, a RECOUNT!

That's what it might come down to.

Last Friday the Pierce County Executive election results were run and the difference in the number of votes between me and my leading opponent was barely over one percentage point.

The election is still too close to call.

This may come down to a recount, but only with help from my friends.

=> Read more!

It actually may be larger than that because I'm just adding the additional $1.9 billion revenue shortfall to the previous projected deficit of $3.2 billion.

That $1.9 billion shortfall was the news delivered just a few moments ago by Arun Raha, the state's new chief economist. He told members of the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, which met at 10 a.m. today in Olympia.

UPDATE: Read beyond the "more" to get the governor's budget office's, Sen. Joe Zarelli's and Rep. Ed Orcutt's takes on things.

In addition to lower than expected tax collections over the next 2 and 1/2 years, demand on state spending also is on the rise. Last week, the state Caseload Forecast Council reported that it is raising its forecast for public school enrollment by an additional 10,000 students during the 2009-11 biennium because it expects at least 7,000 private school students to transfer to state schools in light of the recession.

=> Read more!

Tim Farrell is something of an endangered species: a Democrat on the Pierce County Council.

Though results aren’t official, Farrell appears to have won easy re-election representing much of the City of Tacoma on the council. His only Democratic companion on the seven-member council will be either Barbara Gelman or (if she’s elected assessor-treasurer) her Democratic replacement.

In an interview today, Farrell half-jokingly said he sees himself as “the leader of the resistance” on a council that – assuming Joyce McDonald wins in District 2 – would have a Republican supermajority.

Farrell said he works well with Chairman Terry Lee, Dick Muri and Shawn Bunney. He described them as moderate Republicans. But he fears a Republican supermajority could lead to a shift to more conservative policies.

He thinks the tone will be set in the first 100 days of the new council. Farrell said the tenor of the new council might influence his decision on whether to run for mayor of Tacoma next year. He plans to make a decision by March.

The state Department of Ecology is going to be investigating possible pollution by the state penintentiary in Walla Walla. DOE notes that chemicals have been found in the nearby groundwater, but not in Walla Walla's drinking water -- at least, not yet.

They're in the landfill outside the prison perimeter. DOE notes "chemicals from processes such as license plate manufacturing, dry cleaning, motor pool maintenance, and sign manufacturing may have been disposed of in the prison’s construction debris landfill."

Incidentally, the following news release came from DOE, not the Department of Corrections.

Walla Walla meeting will focus on proposed investigation of contamination at Washington State Penitentiary

OLYMPIA – The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) will meet this week with Walla Walla residents to talk about investigating contamination at the Washington State Penitentiary.

=> Read more!

That's because the last state revenue forecast left us with a projected $3.2 billion budget shortfall for the 2009-11 budget cycle, and this one could be so bad that it gets us close to $4 billion.

The Revenue Forecast Council will meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow in one of the House hearing rooms and its proceedings will be televised live by TVW (Television Washington).

Keep in mind, the forecast predicts only how much money the state expects to collect in taxes and fees for the remainder of this two-year budget cycle (2007-09) and in the next biennium, (2009-11). So, it won't reflect the steps that Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget office is taking to whittle down that projected deficit by reducing spending.

The Office of Financial Management says it can shrink the shortfall to about $1.7 billion by freezing hiring, travel and some contracts, as well as by spending about half of the Rainy Day savings account.

Now that the election is over, maybe the governor's budget office will resume publication of its 6-year forecast. If not, state Sen. Joe Zarelli of Ridgefield, the top Republican on the Senate budget committee, probably will make the Senate Ways and Means Committee produce one in short order.

Personally, I love it when Rep. Jim McIntire, now treasurer-elect, talks about "elasticity." It's spellbinding.

TVW head honcho Mike Bay sends us the following reminder:

=> Read more!

Paula Hammond, secretary of the Washington Department of Transportation, told state transportation commissioners this morning she is toying with the idea of inviting Initiative 985 sponsor Tim Eyman to take a ride with her in the carpool lanes on December 5.

That's the day after election results will be certified. That's also the day that Eyman was going to lead a freedom caravan of cars in the high-occupancy vechilce (HOV) lanes on the freeway, because I-985 would have opened carpool lanes for all vehicles -- solo drivers, too -- during off-peak hours. About a month before the Nov. 4 election, Eyman was telling Hammond she'd better start getting ready to open the lanes. Of course, at the time, Eyman was confident his initiative would pass.

It failed in all 39 counties, Hammond reported to commissioners.

Hammond said she'd be willing to take Eyman on a drive in the carpool lanes anyway, and the time of day wouldn't matter because with two of them in the car, they'd be eligible to drive in the HOV lanes.

Dave Ammons, spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, sends along this update on voter turnout.

Washington voter turnout tops 3 million mark

FYI: Washington’s voter turnout has just topped the 3 million mark for the first time in state history. As of this morning, 3,001,551 ballots have been counted by the 39 County Auditors across the state. That amounts to 82.69 percent of the state’s 3,629,898 record number of registered voters. The previous record for ballots cast, set in 2004, was 2,884,783. The percentage turnout that year was 82.23.

The counties say they have over 55,000 ballots on hand that still remain to be processed,

=> Read more!

From Les Blumenthal in our Washington, D.C. bureau:

WASHINGTON - Washington Sen. Patty Murray was re-elected Democratic conference secretary Tuesday, the fourth most powerful position among Senate Democrats.

But any chance of Murray becoming the first woman to chair the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee evaporated when Democrats decided not to punish Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman for his outspoken support of Republican John McCain’s presidential bid.

Through a complicated game of musical chairs, Murray could have become chairman of the veterans committee if Democrats had stripped Lieberman of his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The possibility had always been a long shot, and Murray took the development in stride. Though she said she was disappointed with Lieberman’s decision to campaign for McCain and speak at the Republican National Convention, Murray said it was time for Democrats to move on and not refight the election.

As conference secretary, Murray will rank only behind Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Charles Schumer of New York.

Murray will be the thick of things as Democrats set the legislative agenda.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Murray said. “It gives me an opportunity to put important Washington state issues on the table.”

=> Read more!

This just in from the state Department of Employment Security. In September, unemployment rate was 5.8 percent.

Unemployment rate up, jobs (sort of) down in October

OLYMPIA – The nation’s economic woes continued to be felt in Washington state in October, where the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 6.3 percent from September’s rate of 5.8 percent, according to the state Employment Security Department.

At the same time, the roughly 24,000 aerospace jobs that were on strike in October contributed to a net loss of 23,200 non-agricultural jobs. Without the strike, jobs in Washington increased by about 800.

=> Read more!

Pierce County’s canvassing board convened this afternoon to sort through 199 ballots in which the voter’s intent was in question or which were otherwise problematic.

It was a lesson in the breathtaking tedium of democracy. But it was also reassuring to know that just about any way you can screw up your ballot has been taken into account in state regulations the board used to determine which ballots should count and which shouldn’t.

The canvassing board has three members: county elections manager Lori Augino (subbing for Auditor Pat McCarthy, who’s on the ballot), Ron Williams of the prosecuting attorney’s office and County Councilman Dick Muri (subbing for council Chairman Terry Lee, who’s locked in a close race for assessor-treasurer).

They sifted through the ballots, applying 82 pages of Secretary of State guidelines to include or exclude votes. They did this ballot by ballot and sometimes race by race on individual ballots.

Some of the problems they saw:

• People who stuffed multiple ranked choice or traditional ballots into a single absentee envelope. Under state law, if two ballots in a single envelope are marked identically, they count as a single ballot. If they don’t match, neither is counted.

• People who left “hesitation marks” by one candidate’s name but fully marked a second candidate. Sometimes, you can tell people started to vote for one candidate and changed their mind. Other times, the “hesitation” mark looks too much like a real vote, so the race is counted as an “overvote” on the ballot. That means your vote doesn’t go to either candidate.

• People who didn’t mark their ballots correctly (by connecting the arrows beside their candidates of choice). Some marked their ballots with checks or circles. If they did it consistently, the board was inclined to count the votes. If not (maybe they used circles for some votes and checks for others), they didn’t.

I confess I didn’t stick around to watch them process all 199 ballots. I left after ballot No. 66 was decided – an hour and 48 minutes into the meeting. But I came away with two impressions:

First, the board seemed inclined to count votes, within the leeway provided by the law.

Second, a close election could come down to the votes of people who can’t follow directions.

That's one of the three requirements the King County Council put on the newly "elective" director of elections.

You don't have to be qualified when you win election to the job, but you have to be certified by the Secretary of State within 2 1/2 years of getting the job.

You also wouldn't be able to hold office in a political party, so I guess Luke Esser and Dwight Pelz need not apply -- yet. And you can't work for any of the vendors who want to sell voting machinery to the county. Makes sense.

Here's the exact wording for No. 3:

Must earn certification as an elections administrator from the Washington Secretary of State within 30 months of being elected or appointed to the office, and meet all continuing education requirements.

(Scroll down to see earlier posting about state Sen. Pam Roach's interest in the job.)

Council acts to prevent conflicts of interest for
new office of King County Elections Director

Voters who created elective office also called for Council to set qualifications

Now that voters have made the job of King County Elections Director an elective office and empowered the King County Council to set qualifications for the office, the Council today unanimously set three standards that help ensure the new officeholder is impartial and free of any conflicts of interest.

=> Read more!

Off-peak fares for adults will rise to $1.75 in a couple months, then to $2 in 2010.

Here's the news release from the King County Council

Council finds savings in Metro budget
that enable delay of half of bus fare increase

$43.7 million in savings help push back second half of Executive-proposed 50-cent fare increase by one year while maintaining current levels of bus service

With record numbers of new bus riders coinciding with plunging revenues to support public transit, the Metropolitan King County Council today unanimously adopted a two-step fare increase that protects current levels of service while scrutinizing the transit system for cost-savings and efficiencies.

“Our highest priority is to maintain our current levels of service and keep buses on the streets,” said Councilmember Dow Constantine, chair of the Council’s Transportation Committee and co-sponsor of the fare ordinance. “This fare increase is not as sharp as originally anticipated, but should allow us to maintain service despite spikes in fuel prices or drops in the revenues that support public transit.”

=> Read more!

Sen. Patty Murray's staff says constituents are flooding her office with requests for tickets to President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20.

Here's an update from her press secretary, Matt McAlvanah:

· After receiving more than 6,000 individual requests for tickets, Senator Murray’s office has stopped taking requests for tickets to the Inauguration ceremony.

· We stopped taking these requests on Wednesday November 12th because the demand for tickets far exceeds the limited number of tickets our office is likely to be provided.

· In 2005, our office received around 350 tickets and we expect a similar number for the upcoming ceremony.

· We are however, still taking names and contact information via our web-site and D.C. office phone lines for constituents to be added to a list for information on non-ticketed areas and any additional Inauguration information our office is provided.

· Washington state residents who have requested tickets PRIOR to November 12th will be notified in mid-November to early-December on the status of their request.

· We are asking that they please hold any follow-up calls or emails until after that time.

=> Read more!

Ron Morehouse, a Republican who took on incumbent state Rep. Dawn Morrell, D-Puyallup, this year, says he's already gearing up for 2010.

On Friday, he sent us this e-mail (the subject line referred to "2010 election":

After due consideration and encouragement from a Union Leader, republicans, democrats, and independents. I have filed to run for state legislature district 25. At this time a organization meeting is planned for December.

Many volunteers are needed if we are to unseat Dawn. If interested please contact Rocky Carroll at 1-360-893-4203. or myself at 253-847-5651 or e:mail: ron1@mashell.com

Ronald E. Morehouse
Candidate State Representative
District 25, Position 2

Now, Morehouse may have filed some paperwork with the state Public Disclosure Commission (he's required to), but he can't actually file for office until the first week of June 2010.

Given the outcome of this election, one wonders why Morehouse is so eager to get whooped again. He's trailing Morrell 32,809 to 23,304. That's 17 percentage points.

He also appears to be jumping the gun.

This from Dave Ammons at state elections:

People need to file papers with PDC the minute they start raising or spending money for an upcoming campaign. In the eyes of the PDC, that makes them an official candidate. But the official filing of the declaration of candidacy and the payment of the filing fee are what make the person an official candidate in our view. That’s what gets them on the ballot and in the Voters’ Pamphlet. That doesn’t occur until the first week in June, except for special elections.

There isn't much more to say, except I hear that state Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, is going for a leadership position.

Oh yeah, and maybe finding a chair and office for newcomer, Randi Becker. She's the one who's beating longtime incumbent Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville.

Republicans are still outnumbered 31-18 by Democrats, after all.

Their caucus gets together somewhere near Sea-Tac Airport so the senators flying in from Eastern Washington don't have far to drive.

The Olympian reported this today, and raises a good point. It's not unusual for cabinet members and other top-level staffers in an administration to move on. It's pretty tough to do two consecutive four-year stints.

Here is a link to Adam Wilson's blog posting.

State Rep. Jim McIntire, D-Seattle, is wasting no time getting ready to start his new job. He's beating deputy state treasurer Allan Martin, a Republican, by about 50,000 votes out of 2.7 million ballots cast.

For those of you who worried because McIntire favors a state income tax, don't. The state treasurer can't enact a state income tax all by himself. At least, I don't think so. I think it takes a constitutional amendment.

Looking at the current personnel in the Washington treasurer's office, I'm thinking one of the first things McIntire might do is get a new executive assistant. I mean, unless he wants to keep Susan Martin. She's married to his election opponent.

She has been executive assistant to current state Treasurer Mike Murphy's for quite a while. And some of you may recall Murphy, a Democrat, was featured in radio ads, asking fellow Democrats to vote for Martin (not McIntire) even though Martin is a Republican.

For Immediate Release: Monday, November 17, 2008
Contact: Christian Sinderman (206) 683-8380

McIntire Assembles State Treasury Transition Team

Leaders from local and state government, private sector will assure smooth transition to new leadership.

SEATTLE—State Treasurer-elect Jim McIntire has announced a team of finance leaders from throughout the state to assist in the transition to new leadership in the office. The team of 14 is led by Tim Kerr, who served as Deputy State Treasurer and the current Treasurers of Whatcom, Thurston, and Clark Counties.

=> Read more!

That's what Leavenworth Mayor Rob Eaton told me just a few minutes ago. I caught Eaton on his cell phone. As luck would have it, he said he was in downtown Seattle, walking to a meeting with Amtrak folks.

And he'll call me back when he gets out of that meeting.

But for now, let me report that Leavenworth plans to break ground on its Amtrak station in March 2009 and finish Phase I by September. Then, Amtrak trains on the Empire Builder route between Seattle and Chicago will resume their stops in Leavenworth.

The station and railroad tracks are about 1 mile outside the town with the Bavarian theme. And that's where the new station will be. Right now, Amtrak doesn't stop in Leavenworth, so you have to take a bus. Or take the train and stop somewehere else in Eastern Washington and backtrack.

Eaton said Leavenworth used to have a station in the late 1920s, but it closed in the early '30s.

Just last night, the city held a fundraiser and private sources ponied up $32,000 toward the goal of $125,000 he said.

Eaton said the city already has gotten appropriations from the federal government, the state government and Chelan County. Those total about $1 million.

Phase 1 will cost $1.1 million, he said. The mayor said Leavenworth is the No. 6 destination in Washington, with between 1.5 million and 2 million visitors for the German theme stuff, plus another 1 million visitors to nearby campgrounds, mostly in the summer months.

This isn't something I ordinarily write about because Leavenworth is not on my state government beat. But I'm following up on a telephone call that I got last week while I was the Reader Representative for The News Tribune. Lois Ballew of Edgewood wanted to know when Amtrak would open a station. The station was supposed to open this fall, but was delayed.

Eaton said the Federal Railroad Administration held things up for a bit.

Seven orcas is 10 percent of Puget Sound's population, according to the following news release. The special meeting is tomorrow.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 17, 2008o

MEDIA ADVISORY
Puget Sound Partnership to hold special meeting on orcas

OLYMPIA – The recent loss of seven Puget Sound orcas – close to 10 percent of the Sound’s orca population – has prompted the Puget Sound Partnership to convene a special meeting tomorrow of salmon and orca experts.

The Partnership’s Science Panel will discuss with the specialists:
-- Declines in population;
-- The association that the loss of Chinook salmon has on the declines; and
-- What steps the Partnership can take to address the situation in the near and long term.

=> Read more!

The state Fish and Wildlife Department is setting up a hot line to report dead or sick swans. The problem appears to be up north in Snohomish and Whatcom counties.

The hotline is 360-466-4345, ext. 266. Callers are asked to include their name and phone number and the location and condition of the swans. The hotline is available 24 hours a day through the end of February.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
November 17, 2008
Contact: Jennifer Bohannon, (360) 466-4345 ext. 281

Hotline to report dead or ill swans available

OLYMPIA - In a continuing effort to monitor trumpeter swans that have succumbed to lead poisoning, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has re-established a hotline to report dead or ill swans in Whatcom, Skagit and Snohomish counties.

=> Read more!

Maybe never. At least, not until Initiative 1029 came along.

Adam Glickman, spokesman for the Service Employees International Union Local 775NW, the group that pushed I-1029, sent me an e-mail on Friday, pointing out that I-1029 was the first ballot measure to surpass 2 million votes.

At this moment, there are 2,059,922 votes in favor and 782,564 against.

Glickman may be right.

Brian Zylstra, spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, made a quick check today.

"I looked back to 1987, and none of them broke 2 million," Zylstra said.

The measure that got closest was Initiative 297, the one about Hanford cleanup. It received 1,812,581 votes in the 2004 general election.

Of course, it helps to have an attractive ballot title and summary, and I-1029 certainly did.

Initiative Measure No. 1029 concerns long-term care services for the elderly and persons with disabilities.

This measure would require long-term care workers to be certified as home care aides based on an examination, with exceptions; increase training and criminal background check requirements; and establish disciplinary standards and procedures.

Should this measure be enacted into law?

What's surprising is that nearly 800,000 people voted against what appeared to be criminal background checks requirements for home care workers and more training. (Actually, most newspapers urged "no" votes because that training is going to cost taxpayers about $20 million a year.)

Here's Glickman's news release:

=> Read more!

I have it on pretty good authority that she does. But state Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, is being noncommittal at the moment.

I reached her this morning at her home, and put the question to her point blank.

"I don't have any designs on it," Roach said. "I've been asked to run. I don't know if I will."

Don't you believe it. She's been asking around state government and King County government. And remember, Roach has been trying to get a $100,000-plus job for years, ever since her mentor and former boss, King County Councilman Kent Pullen died.

The new King County director of elections, which was made an elective office by voters in this election, will be paid $144,000 a year. The election will be held Feb. 4, 2009.

That's about three weeks after the Legislative session begins, which poses a problem for Pam because legislators aren't supposed to raise money while the Legislature is in session. (Session starts Jan. 12)

At least Pam won't have to move around to establish residency, as she did to make herself eligible for a couple of County Council seat runs. Her home east of Auburn already is in King County, and that's good enough.

Some other names have come up in connection with the new county post. Ross Baker, county council chief of staff, is said to be interested. Joe Fain, the guy who mobilized folks in favor a making the council jobs non-partisan, might run. Add to the mix the names of Seattle Port commissioner Lloyd Hara and former Maple Valley city manager Anthony Hemstad, who resigned from that city job in July.

State Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, a relative newcomer to the Senate (although not new to the Legislature) has been promoted to the No. 2 leadership post in the Senate. He is caucus chairman.

Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, was reelected majority leader by her colleagues. Her majority will be smaller by one, given the defeat of incumbent Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville. But D's still will outnumber Republicans 31-18.

Sen. Tracey Eide, D-Federal Way, was reelected floor leader.

Murray's ascendency means he most likely won't get a committee chairmanship. Leadership usually doesn't do double duty.

Senate Democrats will pick their committee chairmen and chairwomen during Assembly Days, Dec. 4-5.

Senate Democrats choose new leadership, welcome new members
FOR IMMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 15, 2008

OLYMPIA – New membership among state Senate Democrats after the November elections led to some new faces elected to the caucus leadership team at a reorganization meeting today in SeaTac.

=> Read more!

Democrat Pat McCarthy still leads Republican Shawn Bunney in the race for Pierce County executive in results released late Friday.

But McCarthy’s lead continues to shrink, and the race remains too close to call.

In another key race, Dale Washam still leads six candidates for assessor-treasurer. The latest results show him beating runner-up Barbara Gelman.

In the latest results, Bunney continues to lead all candidates for county executive, gaining 35 percent of first-choice votes. McCarthy has 26 percent, followed by Democrat Calvin Goings (23 percent) and independent Mike Lonergan (15 percent).

But under the county’s new ranked choice voting system, Bunney would need a majority of first-choice votes to win the election outright, and he’s far short of that.

Under the new system, if no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. If your first choice is eliminated, your second choice gets your vote. If your second choice is eliminated, your third choice gets your vote.

The process of eliminating candidates and redistributing votes continues until someone has a majority of votes.

The county auditor’s office uses computer software to eliminate candidates and redistribute votes. In Friday’s calculation, Lonergan and Goings were eliminated, and McCarthy beat Bunney by a margin of 51 percent to 49 percent.

But McCarthy’s margin continues to shrink. In a similar tally on election night, she won 55 percent to 45 percent. In a tally Nov. 7 she won 52 percent to 48 percent.

The latest tally is not official, and no candidate will be eliminated until every vote is counted. Election workers still must process about 17,500 ballots.

The auditor’s office won’t run the ranked choice voting calculation again until next Friday. By then, a winner may become apparent.

Meanwhile, the latest results for assessor-treasurer show the contest coming down to Washam vs. Gelman, with Washam winning 52 percent to 48 percent.

However, this race remains too close to call. Though Washam has about 25 percent of first-choice votes, three candidates – Gelman, Terry Lee and Jan Shabro – have about 19 percent of votes each. The three are within 132 votes of each other.

It’s clear no one will win a majority of first-choice votes for assessor-treasurer, so this race will be decided by many voters’ second and third choices. With no clear second-place candidate, this race may well come down to the last votes counted. Stay tuned.

And that goes for the Libertarians, too.

The Secretary of State's office is asking a federal judge to dismiss the three political parties' challenge to the Top Two primary election since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it's OK.

Here is the
court motion.

Top 2 Update: State seeks end to parties' primary challenge

FYI: The state of Washington is asking U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly to dismiss the political parties’ remaining legal challenges to the state’s voter-approved Top 2 Primary, Initiative 872. Secretary of State Sam Reed and the people of Washington are represented by Deputy Solicitor General Jeff Even. Reed, who has urged the parties to drop their continuing legal challenge of a popular system that voters approved in 2004, applauded the latest move and said he hopes the judge will agree that voters deserve some finality and certainty after years of litigation.

=> Read more!

Here are tonight's results in key local races. Of note: Terry Lee has slipped into second place in the assessor-treasurer's race.

Pierce County*

Executive
Shawn Bunney (R) 35.1%
Pat McCarthy (D) 26.3%
Calvin Goings (D) 23.2%
Mike Lonergan (I) 15.2%

Assessor-treasurer (nonpartisan)
Dale Washam 25.0%
Terry Lee 19.15%
Jan Shabro 19.1%
Barbara Gelman 19.1%
Barbara Davidson 10.4%
Bernardo Tuma 6.9%

County Council District 2
Joyce McDonald (R) 50.01%
Al Rose (D) 30.8%
Carolyn Merrival 19.1%

Tacoma
Tacoma Proposition 1 (repeal city council term limits)
Yes 47.7%
No 52.3%

For more returns, visit the county auditor’s web site.

Legislature
2nd District Senate
Marilyn Rasmussen (D) 47.3%
Randi Becker (R) 52.5%

* Includes first-choice votes only.

The state Department of Transportation is reminding folks who live along state highways that they have until Saturday to remove campaign signs.

"Under the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 468-66, temporary
political signs are allowed on private property; and no fee or permit is required," said the statement from DOT. "The signs must meet the following requirements: Temporary political campaign signs are limited to a maximum size of 32 square feet in area; Temporary political campaign signs must be removed within 10 days following the election."

No signs are allowed on freeway and highway right of way.

Most local ordinances have the same 10-day time frame.

That means this weekend is Sign-Free Saturday.

Dave Ammons, spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, reports that county elections folks have counted more than 2.9 million ballots, so far. And they have at least another 118,000 more to be processed.

Reed was predicting an 83 percent turnout and more than 3 million voters this time around, so we're on track to hit both of those, or higher.

FYI: Washington counties are still busily counting ballots, and the turnout figure is over 80.4 percent and is now expected to exceed the original prediction of 83 percent, perhaps setting a new record. As of mid-day Thursday, counties have tallied over 2.9 million ballots and say they have about 118,000 ballots on hand to be processed, meaning we will exceed the 3 million mark for the first time in state history. There are an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 provisional ballots that are being reviewed, including about 33,000 in King and 9,000 in Pierce. (King County’s estimate of 46,000 ballots to be counted includes about 22,000 verified provisional ballots. They have another 11,000 provisionals to deal with as well.) Provisional ballots are cast when a voter doesn’t receive a regular ballot, shows up at the wrong polling place or does not appear on poll books. In some cases, the ballots cannot be counted because the voter’s registration cannot be established.

Based on analysis of the 2006 and 2007 elections, the counties’ current collective estimate of ballots on hand is 98-99 percent of the final number that will be tallied and certified on Nov. 25. If that holds true, nearly 3.1 million ballots will be counted, meaning a turnout in the 85 percent range. That would be a modern record, eclipsing the 84.5 percent turnout in the 1944 election.

Counties will certify their returns on Tuesday, Nov. 25, and will handle any necessary recounts after that. The Secretary of State will certify the election on Dec. 4.

David Ammons

Communications Director

Office of Secretary of State

o (360) 902-4140

Highlights of results released late Wednesday:

• Republican Joyce McDonald now has 50 percent of first-place votes in the County Council District 2 race. If she continues to build a lead over Democrats Al Rose and Carolyn Merrival, she’ll win with first-choice votes alone under the county’s new ranked choice voting system.

• The latest assessor-treasurer results: Dale Washam has 25 percent of first-choice votes, followed by Jan Shabro (19.18 percent), Terry Lee (19.16 percent), Barbara Gelman (19.08 percent), Beverly Davidson (10.38 percent) and Bernardo Tuma (6.85 percent).

On Friday the auditor’s office will once again run the computer software that takes voters’ second and third choices into account. Earlier tallies showed the race coming down to Washam vs. Gelman. Now that Gelman has dropped to fourth place, it will be interesting to see the new results Friday.

• No significant changes in the county executive’s race. Republican Shawn Bunney has 35.2 percent of first-place votes, followed by Democrat Pat McCarthy (26.3 percent), Democrat Calvin Goings (23.2 percent) and independent Mike Lonergan (15.2 percent). McCarthy won initial tallies that took second- and third-choice votes into account, but Bunney has been closing the gap.

• Tacoma’s Proposition 1, which would repeal term limits for city council, is still failing by a margin of 52 percent of 48 percent.

Surprised that Washington's gubernatorial contest wasn't close this time? Pollster Stuart Elway wasn't, as he explains in a piece on Crosscut today. His thesis is that Dino Rossi's change message didn't resonate with a relatively satisfied and increasingly Democratic electorate. An excerpt:

(Gov. Chris) Gregoire started the year with positive ratings. Though not stellar, her positive ratings rose above the 50 percent mark in January 2007 and have stayed there ever since. Her ratings in June of this year were comparable to Gary Locke's in June of his re-election year.

To add this up: In January, Gregoire led Dino Rossi 48-35 in the first head-to-head match up in The Elway Poll. Outside the Republican base, there was no widespread desire to throw her out.

Last week we wondered why Pierce was the only county in the state to support Tim Eyman's Initiative 985.

But for now at least, the measure is failing in Pierce County as well – by 32 votes out of 286,238 votes cast.

The measure, which would have made adjustments to state and local transportation funding to move money into a congestion relief fund, is getting swamped statewide. It is losing more than 60 percent to 40 percent with Pierce being the only county where it is even close.

The next-closest county is generally conservative Lewis where the measure is getting a 44 percent yes vote.

Here is the results page on the Secretary of State's website.

Did Pierce County Democrats bungle last week’s ranked choice voting election? That’s the question some are asking even as the ballots are still being counted.

In two key races – county executive and county council District 2 – Democratic candidates collectively are winning majorities of the vote. But individually they trail Republican candidates in the number of first-choice votes received in ballots counted through Monday.

In the executive’s race, Democrats Pat McCarthy and Calvin Goings together have collected 133,951 votes, compared to Republican Shawn Bunney’s 95,320 votes. However, McCarthy (71,362 votes) trails Bunney, followed by Goings (62,589) and independent Mike Lonergan (41,208).

In the District 2 council race, Democrats Al Rose and Carolyn Merrival together have 17,813 first-choice votes, compared to 17,762 for Republican Joyce McDonald. But Rose trails McDonald by a substantial margin, with Merrival a distant third.

Which leads some to wonder whether splitting the Democratic vote was a smart idea. The party decided earlier this year to allow multiple candidates to run under the Democratic banner.

By contrast, Republicans narrowly rejected Lonergan’s request to carry their party label. That forced him to run under his own Executive Excellence banner. Lonergan said on election night that he suffered for not having a major party label. Presumably, Bunney benefited from that decision.

In an e-mail to supporters Sunday, Goings questioned the wisdom of allowing multiple candidates to run as Democrats. He noted the result could be a Republican executive and a Republican supermajority on the county council.

“These races are not at risk because Republicans received more total votes, quite the opposite,” Goings wrote. “These seats are in jeopardy because multiple Democrats ran for each position. Soon, county Democrats will need to do some real soul searching on how we run and win in a ranked choice voting environment. Clearly the Republicans have already thought this through.”

You can read Goings’ full e-mail below.

=> Read more!

Pierce County election results released late Monday show Republican Shawn Bunney continues to widen his lead in first-choice votes over Democrat Pat McCarthy.

The results show Bunney now has 35.2 percent of first-place votes, up from 34.8 percent in results released Saturday. McCarthy had 26.4 percent of votes Monday, down from 26.8 percent Saturday. Democrat Calvin Goings (23.1 percent) and independent Mike Lonergan (15.2 percent) continued to trail Monday.

It seems unlikely Bunney will get more than 50 percent of first choice votes. So under Pierce County’s new ranked choice voting system, some voters’ second and third choices will be taken into account.

McCarthy led Bunney when all those choices were calculated on Friday. However, elections officials won’t rerun those calculations again until this coming Friday.

In other election returns:

• Barbara Gelman (19.15 percent) now trails Jan Shabro (19.24 percent) for second place in the assessor-treasurer’s race. Dale Washam (24.95 percent) continues to have the most first-choice votes in this six-person nonpartisan race. Gelman leads fourth-place Terry Lee – who didn’t raise or spend a dime on his campaign – by just eight votes.

• Republican Joyce McDonald is tantalizingly close to winning the District 2 county council race outright. She has 49.9 percent of first-place votes. Democrat Al Rose has 30.0 percent of first-place votes, while Democrat Carolyn Merrival has 19.1 percent.

• Tacoma’s Proposition 1, which would repeal term limits for city council members, is failing, 52 percent to 48 percent.

There are still about 30,000 votes left to count in Pierce County. The next update: Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Several news reports have concluded that because winner Randy Dorn ran against the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test he’ll get rid of it.

Yeah, but...

Dorn didn’t really run for state schools chief on an anti-WASL platform (though it seemed like it sometimes). He said he would like to replace some parts of the WASL with a different single, high-stakes test, perhaps one from another state that is simpler to administer.

He also said he thought the reading and writing WASL tests were ok but that the math test was flawed. So will he get rid of the math WASL? Too late, lawmakers last session switched to end-of-course exams which assess kids on specific subjects, say algebra 1, as they complete the course work.

And the SPI doesn’t make these decisions anyway. While Dorn can use his office to lobby the Legislature, it is up to those 147 politicians and Gov. Chris Gregoire, who, by the way, has said she wants to stick with school reform and the current make up of the testing and graduation requirements.

Dorn was an original sponsor of the bill that led to the WASL. He is not an opponent of school reform and higher standards. He just opposed the way it was being implemented.

That assumes that incumbent Republican Rep. John Ahern of Spokane can overcome a 54-vote deficit in his race against Democrat John Driscoll.

That's where he was as of last night.

Elsewhere, Democrat Liz Loomis of Snohomish has fallen behind Republican challenger Mike Hope. Hope has a 118-vote lead.

And Democrats already have lost Rep. Don Barlow's seat in the 6th District, the same one that features the Ahern-Driscoll race. Barlow is almost 4,000 votes behind Republican Kevin Parker.

That would be a net loss of 2 for the Democrats, who now have a 63-35 majority, leaving a still substantial 61-37 majority.

Democrats already have lost Pat Lantz's seat in Gig Harbor, and Republican's lost Jim Dunn's seat in the Vancouver area.

Generally, the later returns are favoring Republicans, so Ahern might be able to pull it out. It's unclear how many ballots are left in that race.

Some of you predicted that Democrat Tim Knue would fade in his race against incumbent Republican Norma Smith, and that appears to be happening. She's got a 453-vote lead now.

In election returns posted tonight, Republican Shawn Bunney slightly boosted his lead in first-choice ballots for county executive under Pierce County's new ranked-choice voting system.

Last night, Auditor Pat McCarthy (who's also running for executive), ran the computer algorithm that distributes voters' second and third choices. The Democrat held a four-point lead over Bunney.

She doesn't plan to run the algorithm again until next Friday (Nov. 14), so all we can track for the next week are the first-choice votes. Tonight, Bunney padded his lead there, albeit only a little.

He now has 34.75 percent of the first-choice votes, compared to 34.44 last night. McCarthy slipped slightly, from 27.11 percent last night to 26.8 percent tonight. That's probably not enough to eliminate her four-point lead when the second and/or third choice ballots are distributed from voters who backed fourth-place candidate Mike Lonergan and third-place candidate Calvin Goings.

McCarthy's office estimates it has about 80,000 ballots left to count. Pierce County's count is proceeding slower than other counties because it's the only county operating two separate election systems: the traditional election (governor, Legislature, etc.) and the ranked-choice voting system.

The Pierce County auditor's office released more election results tonight.

Democratic state Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville, is losing her grip on the seat she's held since 1992.

On Wednesday night, Republican challenger Randi Becker held a 125-vote lead. As of tonight, Becker is up by 1,016 votes. The raw totals:

Rasmussen: 23,533 (48.94%)

Becker: 24,549 (51.06%)

Joyce McDonald issued a statement today declaring victory in her bid for the County Council seat being vacated by Calvin Goings. McDonald notes that she has 48.5 percent of the first-choice votes and has enjoyed a solid lead over Democrats Al Rose and Carolyn Merrival in both releases of ranked-choice voting results.

That said, she is decidedly not a fan of the new voting system. She says her council agenda will include a move to drop the RCV system.

Here's an excerpt from a note she sent today to Republican activists:

As you know, the executive’s race is still too close to call, but looking at the “first choice” votes, there’s no doubt that Shawn Bunney could have won if this had been a “top two” election rather than a ranked choice. I look forward to working with my fellow council members to change the fiasco of Pierce County’s “Ranked Choice Voting” to a top two system. That way all races will appear on a “single” ballot, removing the wasted time, energy and money used for two ballots and a flawed counting system.

That's not McDonald's only complaint. She didn't mention Auditor Pat McCarthy by name, but McDonald also blasted the county's operation of poll sites on Election Day.

Probably the greatest travesty was the many disenfranchised voters who did not get to cast their votes because they could not stand in line for two or three hours. Many had to work! This happened to my son in law, who after waiting in line for more than an hour, had to leave to pick up his daughter at school. He then came back, stood in line a second time and still had not voted by the time he had to leave for work. He took a bold step and went to the front of the line and demanded his ballot – much to the anger of many others who were still waiting in line. He was so rushed and frustrated at this point that he only took the time to vote in the presidential and congressional race on the one ballot and then voted in my race only on the ranked choice ballot. This frustration caused by the unnecessary closing of polling places and the overall lack of planning and foresight cannot be tolerated. Our votes are too important.

Friday night's vote tally in Pierce County flipped the outcome of Sound Transit's $17.9 billion expansion among county voters. It turned negative.

It's now losing by 1,113 votes in Pierce County, but it's still passing by a 60-40 margin in King County and by a 54-46 margin in Snohomish County.

Overall, it's passing with 515,991 votes in favor and 381,696 against. And since the fate of the three counties is joined at the hip, that means Pierce County taxpayers will be paying the 0.5 percent sales tax increase even though most of them voted against it.

In the meantime, here's the top of my story today on what approval of the Sound Transit plan means for Pierce County residents:

Don’t expect to see much new bus- or train-related activity in Pierce County in the wake of this week’s overwhelming passage of the $17.9 billion ballot measure for Sound Transit – at least, not right away.

In fact, Sound Transit won’t even start collecting the higher sales tax approved by voters until spring – probably April 1 – and won’t have any of that new money in hand until June. And that would be the earliest that any new bus service would be implemented.

Other promised improvements to bus routes, commuter train stations and Link light rail in Tacoma are much further off.

Here's the rest of the story.

So far, about 1,000 Pierce County ballots have no voter signature or have a signature that doesn’t match the voter’s registration card, Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy said Friday.

That’s not unusual. McCarthy said it happens in every election, and the number of ballots they’ve found this year is about what you’d expect, given the turnout.

In such cases, the auditor’s office sends a letter to the voter to give them a chance to correct the problem and have their ballot count. They’ll also call the voter if they don’t hear back.

But local political parties already have begun rounding up party faithful with problem ballots. They call it a “signature chase.” It’s an effort to make sure every favorable vote counts in a close election.

Here’s an e-mail from Andrea Innes of Shawn Bunney’s campaign that shows how the Republicans are rallying the troops for the signature chase.

You all know, I think, that for some critical races in Pierce County and in the 25th District, the election is NOT over. Bruce Dammeier is now leading but by a not-real-comfortable margin. Same with Roger Bush in his County Council race. Joyce McDonald is inching toward 50% in her ranked choice race, but the infamous "algorithm" will likely need to be applied. Shawn Bunney is way ahead in "first choice" votes and gaining - but that dreaded algorithim leaves the Executive race in limbo. Dave Reichert is looking good, but not assured. And the last I heard, Doug Sutherland is holding out for Pierce County votes.

=> Read more!

Some other ranked choice voting results from Friday night. Remember, these are preliminary. No candidate will be eliminated until every vote is counted.

• Republican Joyce McDonald seems poised to win the County Council District 2 seat over two Democrats, Al Rose and Carolyn Merrival. The latest tally shows McDonald winning 54 percent to 46 percent over Rose, thanks to second-place votes from some Merrival supporters.

• The nonpartisan assessor-treasurer’s race remains too close to call. Friday’s tally shows Dale Washam edging Barbara Gelman by a margin of 51 percent to 49 percent. But with six candidates for this office, the outcome remains unpredictable.

• In County Council District 3, incumbent Republican Roger Bush is pulling away from Democrat Bruce Lachney. Bush leads by a margin of 51 percent to 48 percent.

If Bush and McDonald are both elected to the council, Republicans would have five seats on the seven-member council. That would give the party a “supermajority” able to overcome the veto of the county executive.

The race to be the next Pierce County executive tightened tonight.

County Auditor Pat McCarthy, one of four candidates for the executive's post, just ran the ranked-choice algorithm for the first time since election night and now holds a 4-point lead over Republican County Councilman Shawn Bunney.

She had a 10-point lead over Bunney in the earlier RCV results posted Tuesday night.

This race is still too close to call, which means the wait continues. McCarthy doesn't plan to run the RCV program again until next Friday.

RCV primer: Voters could rank up to three candidates in order of preference. The last-place candidate is eliminated and the second and/or third choices from ballots for that candidate are distributed. The process continues until someone has more than 50 percent of the vote.

As was the case on Tuesday, independent Mike Lonergan was in last place and was the first to be eliminated. McCarthy and Bunney benefited almost equally from his second- and third-choice ballots. That represents an improvement for Bunney, as McCarthy got more of Lonergan's votes in the Tuesday count.

In the second round, Democrat Calvin Goings was eliminated and, again, the vast majority of his supporters selected McCarthy as their next choice.

However, Bunney has widened his lead in the first-choice ballots, and he boosted his proportion of the Lonergan and Goings ballots.

The result: If the election were to end today, McCarthy would defeat Bunney 52 percent to 48 percent (89,762 to 83,067).

But the election isn't ending today. No one has actually been eliminated. This is a snapshot of the ballot counting so far. McCarthy estimates there are still 106,000 ballots to count.

Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert has survived his rematch with Democrat Darcy Burner.

The Associated Press just issued a bulletin calling the race. With the latest totals today, Reichert has extended his lead to nearly 8,000 votes.

Reichert is beating Burner by 2,000 votes in South King County and by nearly 6,500 votes in East Pierce County.

This was the state's only competitive congressional race. Other incumbents - including Norm Dicks of Belfair, Adam Smith of Tacoma and Brian Baird of Vancouver - cruised to re-election.

Update at 8:55 p.m.: Burner has conceded.

“It is likely at this point that Congressman Reichert has won re-election, and while we will certainly ensure that every valid vote is counted, we accept the decision of the voters.

“I would like to thank the thousands of people who put so much time and effort into the campaign, as well as the countless thousands more who went beyond voting to actively participate in our democratic process this year. The election of Barack Obama as our new President will ensure that the change to the direction of our country called for in this campaign is realized in the new year.”

The race between incumbent Rep. John Ahern, R-Spokane, and Democratic challenger John Driscoll is only 87 votes apart, within the 0.5 percent margin for an automatic recount.

In rural Spokane's 6th District, it's Ahern 33,248 to Driscoll's 33,335, a margin of 0.14 percent.

In the 10th Legislative District (Island, Skagit, Snohomish counties) incumbent Republican Rep. Norma Smith is trailing Democrat Tim Knue 28,780 to 28,854. That's a 74-vote differnce and a margin of only 0.12 percent.

Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy reports we can expect new results from the county’s ranked choice voting races about 9 p.m.

The office will release traditional results from today’s counting at 7 p.m. Those results will show the latest tallies for state and federal races and local ballot measures. They’ll also show a tally of first-place votes in RCV races.

After those results are released, the office will begin running the computer software that tabulates ranked choice voting ballots. It will be the first tally of RCV results since election night. We won’t get another glimpse until next Friday.

Check back later tonight and we’ll have the updated results on Political Buzz.

That's the 0.5 percent increase in the sales tax for most of Pierce, King and Snohomish counties that is authorized in Proposition 1. That measure is passing overall by a 58-42 margin.

Here is a link to the state Department of Revenue flyer that shows what the sales tax rate is today in various Pierce County communities.

And here is a table that DOR's Mike Gowrylow put together for us. I know parts of it are confusing. (There are different tax rates in the "Unincorporated" areas.) But basically, if you see a ".088" that means the tax rate today is 8.8 percent and in those areas it will rise to 9.3 percent next spring.

PIERCE COUNTY

Unincorp. Areas..............082
Unincorp. Areas Non-RTA......078
Unincorp. P.T.B.A............088
Unincorp. P.T.B.A. Non-RTA...084
Unincorp. P.T.B.A.HBZ........084
Auburn/Pierce................088
Bonney Lake..................088
Bonney Lake Non-RTA..........084
Buckley......................084
Carbonado....................078
DuPont.......................088
Eatonville...................078
Edgewood.....................088
Fife.........................088
Fircrest.....................088
Gig Harbor...................084
Gig Harbor HBZ...............084
Lakewood.....................088
Milton/Pierce................088
Orting.......................088
Pacific/Pierce...............088
Puyallup.....................088
Roy..........................078
Ruston.......................088
South Prairie................078
Steilacoom...................088
Sumner.......................088
Tacoma.......................088
University Place.............088
Wilkeson.....................078

U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert has increased his lead over Democrat Darcy Burner in King County, according to the latest count.

He now leads Burner by 1,440 votes in King County. When Burner challenged him in 2006, he won there by only 304 votes.

The 8th Congressional District includes East King County and East Pierce County.

More numbers from the Pierce County portion of the district won't be available until 7 p.m. today. As of 7:20 p.m. Thursday, Reichert led there by 4,963 votes.

A total of 261,739 votes have been counted so far. During the 2004 presidential race, 331,099 voters cast ballots in the 8th District.

UPDATE:
2:38 p.m.
KING COUNTY
Reichert: 112,164 votes, 50.32%
Burner: 110,724 votes, 49.68%

ENTIRE DISTRICT
Reichert: 134,071 votes, 51.22%
Burner: 127,668 votes, 48.78%

Kelly Evans, Gov. Chris Gregoire's campaign manager, sent a memorandum out today to some of the folks who worked on Gregoire's reelection campaign.

She's mostly telling people how she and her staff did it. The partnership with Obama campaign and the state Democratic party. And anticipating those attack ads about sex offenders, ready with counter-attacks within 24 hours, and outsmarting Dino Rossi and the BIAW at every turn, etc.

Don't get me wrong: Hers was a masterful campaign. But the expression that comes to mind after reading Evans' memo is, "Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back," or something like that.

We in the media did, indeed, think the election would be closer than it was. But I think Associated Press reporter Curt Woodward summed up the Obama Effect best. "Obama helped Gregoire win this Tuesday (Nov. 4) instead of next Tuesday (Nov. 11)," Woodward said yesterday.

Hindsight is 20-20. So, Evans' memorandum would have been much more impressive if it had been dated Nov. 3 -- not Nov. 7.

November 7, 2008
From: Kelly Evans, Campaign Manger
RE: Governor Gregoire’s decisive win

Although ballots continue to be counted, our current eight point lead is likely to expand in the coming days as King, Snohomish and Pierce counties tally hundreds of thousands of ballots.

While we watch our lead expand, I wanted to take a moment to put this decisive win into perspective.

=> Read more!

Democrat Darcy Burner has lost the lead she's held in King County since election night, according to the latest election returns.

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert now leads in the King County portion of the 8th Congressional District, which includes Seattle's East Side suburbs. Burner formerly held a 1 point lead there, while Reichert has maintained a double-digit lead in the East Pierce County part of the district.

10:30 p.m. Thursday:

KING COUNTY
Reichert: 101,678 votes, 50.09%
Burner: 101,309 votes, 49.91%

PIERCE COUNTY
Reichert: 21,907 votes, 56.39%
Burner: 16,944 votes, 43.61%

So far, the county trends this year look similar to what happened when Burner took on Reichert in 2006.

That year, she received only 304 fewer votes than Reichert out of more than 200,000 cast in King County, but the Pierce County part of the district favored Reichert by 7,000 votes.

Overall, Reichert is now leading Burner by 2 percentage points.

And, of course, the good senator from the 28th District is still campaigning against the media, as you can see in the e-mail that was forwarded to me by a member of his "kitchen cabinet."

"Now you and I can concentrate on the real job, which how do we deal with the huge state budget deficit. Imagine a budget shortfall of $4 billion out of the total $33 billion budget! You know that I will not vote to raise your taxes, but there are lots of people in the legislature who will. I'm going to need your council and suggestions, more than ever, during the months leading up to and during the legislative session. This session will be brutal and fast. You know the media won't tell you many of real stories, so if you have freinds who would like to get my weekly legislative updates, ask them to join. They too can be part of the Kitchen Cabinet by e-mailing me, if they live in the district."

----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Carrell
To: Mike Carrell
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 9:59 AM
Subject: Re: Election Day

Dear Kitchen Cabinet,

=> Read more!

Pierce County Councilman Roger Bush has come back from his 200-vote election-night deficit and now holds a 640-vote lead over Democratic challenger Bruce Lachney.

If Republican Joyce McDonald holds on and wins the seat being vacated by Democrat Calvin Goings - we'll get new ranked-choice voting results tonight - then Dick Muri points out in a comment on a different post that Republicans will expand their council majority from a 4-3 split to a 5-2 split.

Muri also notes that this council has a bipartisan track record. In fact, Democrats lead two of the six committees, though Republicans control the key panel that determines what legislation comes to the full council for votes.

I should have checked my e-mail before I posted that update at 5:30 this morning. Kim Abel sent out an e-mail last night, conceding victory to Republican Jan Angel.

Hello Newshounds,

This evening's update continues to show a trend that would be tough to overcome in the 26th Legislative District, Position 1 race.

This has been an extraordinary election, and I am grateful to all those who supported me. But with such a close outcome, everyone in the 26th can take heart in the fact that education, job creation and care of the community came up as the top issues. Now all of us should work together to find solutions, especially in the face of tight budgets.

I wish Jan the very best as she moves to represent our district in Olympia.

I can be reached tomorrow anytime after 11 a.m.

Sincerely,
Kim Abel

Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert now has a two-point lead over Democrat Darcy Burner in the race to represent Washington's 8th Congressional District.

Early returns showed Burner in the lead, but Reichert came out ahead in later rounds of counts on election night and has been stretching his lead ever since.

Reichert: 123,585 votes, 51.10%
Burner: 118,253 votes, 48.90%

We were looking at the forest instead of the trees so we missed this glaring fact from Tuesday's election: Tim Eyman's Initiative 985 failed in every county in the state - except Pierce County.

That makes for a striking map on the Secretary of State's elections page. It is passing in Pierce with 51.5 percent yes. No other county in the state gave it even 45 percent yes and it is losing statewide 60-40.

Reader John Seidel of Graham called last week with his prediction. He thought our headline ("I- 985 may kill red-light cameras") would guarantee that it would pass. Seidel thinks motorists hate red light cameras and would do anything to kill them.

I have no better explanation and would love to hear your theories on this one.

Tacoma’s Proposition 1, which would repeal term limits, is failing. The no votes were leading by 543 in the last count.

Pierce County is scheduled to release new numbers at 7 p.m. today.

Most of the dust has settled in Washington's legislative races and Democrats are on the verge of losing only two seats overall, both of them in Pierce County.

That's not bad, in one respect. That will leave them with hefty majorities, 62-36 in the House and 31-18 in the Senate. But it's ironic in light of the Obama Democratic tidal wave that helped out so many other Democrats.

Republicans are poised to pick up the seat of retiring Rep. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor. Kitsap County Commissioner Jan Angel, a Republican, is comfortably ahead of former Port Orchard Mayor Kim Abel, a Democrat.

Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville, is only about 300 votes behind Republican Randi Becker, but Rasmussen is losing more ground with each additional vote count from the Pierce County portion of the 2nd District. So the trend is not good for the longtime incumbent.

Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, got a scare from Democrat David Carrier in the 17th District, but now has an 1,160-vote lead with nearly 55,000 votes counted.

Republicans are likely to hold Rep. Joyce McDonald's seat in the 25th District. Bruce Dammeier is ahead of Democrat Rob Cerqui.

In the race for Washington's 8th Congressional District, incumbent U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert now leads Democratic challenger Darcy Burner by 2,855 votes. That's 1,000 more than at the last count.

7:20 p.m.
Reichert: 111,584 votes, 50.65%
Burner: 108,729 votes, 49.35%

More than 99 percent of votes have been counted from polling places in the King County portion of the district, where Burner leads by 1 point.

So far in Pierce County, Reichert leads Burner by 13 points.

Terry Bergeson just called to say she'd decided to concede the state Superintendent of Public Instruction race to challenger Randy Dorn.

Bergeson, a former Tacoma schools teacher and counselor and onetime president of the Washington Education Association, said she called Dorn after seeing the latest vote count. She now trails 51.25 percent to 48.75 percent.

"All my pals have said, 'Wait it out, wait it out,' " she said. "But those numbers are not getting better."

She pledged full cooperation with Dorn and to begin working on a transition plan to "give him a head start."

"It's a hard one for me," said the three-term schools chief of the loss. "These have been the best years of my professional life."

And now The Associated Press is calling Peter Goldmark in the hotly contested race for state lands commissioner. He ousts two-term incumbent Doug Sutherland, the former Pierce County executive and Tacoma mayor.

From the AP:

After more than two days of vote-counting, the Okanogan rancher and molecular biologist built an insurmountable lead against the two-term incumbent, 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent.

Sutherland declined to concede, saying “There’s a lot of counties where we have pretty strong support that have to be counted.”

Goldmark won with the backing of environmentalists and had support of more than 62 percent of voters in King County.

If you check out the Pierce County Auditor's elections Web site and scroll almost a-l-l-l-l the way to the bottom, you'll see that City Council member Connie Ladenburg's Proposition 1 -- to repeal the two-term or 10-year term limit -- is passing by about 300 votes.

Sure, there are still votes left to count, but Ladenburg and other Prop. 1 supporters are hopeful.

I spoke with Mayor Bill Baarsma, who opposed the effort, a couple weeks ago. (He was opposed most, he said, to the manner it was brought up. Instead of going through the charter review process, Ladenburg lined up the votes for a proposition. He said he would have favored changing it to a three-term limit.) He said he had no expectation Prop. 1 would pass. At that time, Ladenburg said she had no idea whether it would pass or not, but she felt she had a lot of support.

I called her again today to see how she was feeling.

"The people I was talking to said that they supported my position. So no, I'm not surprised," she said. "People like the idea. They want to be able to vote for whoever they want to vote for."

I asked if this meant she would automatically run when her term expires in 2010.

"I'm not automatically running. I didn't do this necessarily because I was dying to run again. I'll certainly evaluate that. A lot of it just depends on what my husband's going to be doing," she said.

Husband John Ladenburg ran for Attorney General against Rob McKenna, but didn't win. She said he's taking some time off right now, but has no doubt he'll find a job soon.

Dean Ando, the Tacoma man who grew up with Barack Obama in Hawaii, knew the future president as "Barry" for most of his life.

Ando only recently started calling his old basketball buddy by his given name of Barack.

Now Ando has a protocol dilemma: "I don't know if I have to call him 'Mr. President' or if I can still call him Barack," Ando said Thursday.

No matter what he calls the future president, Ando – who campaigned for Obama for nearly two years – is thrilled by the outcome of Tueday's election, which happened to coincide with his 48th birthday.

Here's the e-mail he sent out on election night:

=> Read more!

We've put up a new hot button poll: Should Pierce County scrap ranked choice voting? To vote and post a comment, click here.

Early indications are that voters may be having second thoughts about RCV, which they adopted by charter amendment in 2006.

Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert has stretched his lead over Democrat Darcy Burner to 1,853 votes in the latest count.

10:30 p.m.
Reichert: 95,221 votes, 50.49%
Burner: 93,368 votes, 49.51%

So far 188,589 votes have been counted in Washington's 8th Congressional District, which blankets East King County and East Pierce County.

Reichert has gained ground mostly in Pierce County, where he's now captured 56 percent of votes to Burner's 44 percent. Burner leads in King County, where she has 51 percent of votes to Reichert's 49 percent.

Pierce County posted more results at 7:20 p.m. Here's a look at notable races:

Congress
8th District
Dave Reichert, R 85,852 51%
Darcy Burner, D 83,985 49%

Governor
Christine Gregoire, D 989,804 54%
Dino Rossi, R 857,314 46%

State superintendent of public instruction
Teresa Bergeson 774,993 49%
Randy Dorn 809,179 51%

State lands commissioner
Doug Sutherland, R 859,736 49%
Peter Goldmark, D 880,274 51%

State treasurer
Allan Martin, R 833,319 48%
Jim McIntire, D 896,215 52%

Sound Transit
Prop. 1 - mass transit expansion
Approved 337,957 58%
Rejected 242,577 42%

City of Lakewood
Prop. 1 - casino ban
Yes 3,838 38%
No 6,184 62%

City of Tacoma
Prop. No. 1 - term limits
Yes 16,224 50%
No 15,987 50%

Pierce County Council
District 3
Bruce Lachney, D 11,154 49%
Roger Bush, R 11,596 51%

Legislature
2nd Legislative District, Senate
Marilyn Rasmussen, D 16,090 50%
Randi Becker, R 16,215 50%

25th District, House position 1
Bruce Dammeier, R 13,345 51%
Rob Cerqui, D 12,582 49%

26th District, House position 1
Jan Angel, R 18,657 52%
Kim Abel, D 17,382 48%

They would have put on an inaugural ball whether Dino Rossi won the governor's race or Chris Gregoire won the governor's race. Still, it seemed kind of sudden to get the press release about the Jan. 14 bash in the Legislative Building just a few hours after Rossi conceded and Gregoire, again, claimed victory.

In case you want to go to the black-tie, $100-per-person evening of eating, drinking and dancing, here is the contact information.

To order tickets, email admin@wastategovball.org, call 360-427-6875 or send your
payment to:
The Inaugural Ball Committee
PO Box 1283
Shelton, WA 98584
Web site: wastategovball.org
A will call station will be near the southeast portico entrance to the Legislative building.
Tickets may also be purchased at:
Capital Lakefair
218 Franklin St. SE
Olympia, WA 98501
Phone: 360-943-3119
FAX: 360-943-7344

And if you are thinking of coming armed, think again. The press release notes that, "Please note that this is a private party and weapons will not be allowed on site."

About lunchtime, incumbent U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert was leading Democratic challenger Darcy Burner by 1,446 votes. At 2:41 p.m., his lead had dwindled to 614 votes in the 8th District race.

2:41 p.m.
Reichert: 83,271 votes, 50.18%
Burner: 82,657 votes, 49.82%

A total of 165,928 votes have been counted so far.

How many ballots still need to be counted? In 2006, 251,383 people voted in the 8th District race. That's 85,455 more votes than have been counted so far.

Based on those numbers, at least a third of ballots have yet to be counted. But with this year's massive voter turnout, the number of ballots remaining could be higher.

In remarks to supports of Initiative 1000, the death with dignity measure, former Gov. Booth Gardner confirmed that the effort would be his farewell campaign.

Gardner, who is battling Parkinson's Disease, made the campaign a personal effort.

"Thanks to all of you for being here this evening," he said. "This is a very special day for me. And, it is a very special day for all of us. This is a day that will be remembered by history. It is a day that you will all reflect upon, and over time, say to your children and grandchildren “I remember the election of 2008.”

Here are the rest of his remarks:

There are many in this room that I could single out for special thanks.

The results this evening are the consequence of the work of so many people eager to make a difference. The staff was untiring in its commitment and devotion to our task. The volunteer effort was unparalleled. From signature gathering to working the phones late this afternoon to get out the vote, volunteers have been the engine which drove this campaign.

My feelings this evening about our campaign are bittersweet. This has been called “My Final Campaign.” I have been an active participant in politics and the political process for most of my adult life. I don’t believe politicians can ever truly retire. The political itch simply runs too deep. At the same time, I have come to recognize the limitations that Parkinson’s disease places upon me.

=> Read more!

With 140,424 votes counted so far in the race for Washington's 8th Congressional District, incumbent U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert is maintaining a slight lead over Democrat Darcy Burner.

Reichert: 70,935 votes, 50.51 %
Burner: 69,489 votes, 49.49 %

During a press conference at noon, Gov. Chris Gregoire was asked if she would entertain an offer from President-Elect Obama to join his cabinet. Gregoire was an early endorser of Obama and joined him when he last campaigned in the state in February.

"Do you have any idea how hard I've run to be governor?" she joked. "I want to be the governor of the great state of Washington."

Gregoire also said she is preparing a state economic stimulus package to go along with whatever might come out of Washington, D.C. She said both should emphasize "ready to go" public works projects such as road and water projects.

"We don't need a stimulus package with one, $300 check," Gregoire said. "We need a stimulus package that puts people to work."

I suppose getting 70 percent of the vote in your own legislative race will put you in a good mood, too.

This is such a historic moment in our history. I was inspired to write down some thoughts and share them. Feel free to read them, respond to them, delete them, or add your own thoughts and pass them on.
Debbie Regala

I am so excited and moved this morning!
I grew up believing in the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the promises of the Constitution that I was taught in school. That the government flowed from the will of the people and that anyone could have the opportunity to represent the people in making the laws that would govern our country for the common good. But I was acutely aware that that promise was not the reality for many in our country. I knew if you were born part of the 'minority', the potential for you to have this privilege was limited. I confess I initially did not support Barack Obama because I did not have enough faith in the citizens to look beyond the color of his skin and judge him by the content of his character and the qualities of his mind and heart. But his Audacity of Hope convinced me this was the moment in history to strive for that American Dream.

=> Read more!

In an earlier post, I noted that state Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville, has a 555-vote lead over Republican challenger Randi Becker and appears to be surviving.

But upon further review, Rasmussen is actually losing in Pierce County by 10 votes. Becker has 9,959; Rasmussen has 9,949. It's Thurston County that's pulling it out for Marilyn so far. She leads in that portion of the 2nd District by 4,618 to 4,053.

At a press conference this morning, GOP candidate for governor Dino Rossi conceded that he won't catch up to Gov. Chris Gregoire and conceded the race to her.

While he complimented his campaign and the efforts of thousands of voters, "it wasn't enough in the end.

"It looks like we're not going to be able to make up that gap, even though it will tighten up in the end," he said.

The former state senator said he thinks the campaign will have an effect on Olympia, mentioning Gregoire's pledge not to raise taxes to solve the state's expected budget shortfall.

"I think voters have a right to hold her to that promise," Rossi said.

What next for Rossi? He said he had no intention of running for office again and expected to return to the business world, perhaps in commercial real estate where he worked before running for governor in 2004.

He also said he would get to spend more time with his family.

"I'm going to be home for dinner tonight," he said. "I'm going to be home for dinner tomorrow night too."

And then he said he'll have to start in on "honey-do list as long as your arm.

"I have to get the garage cleaned up first, I know that."

Instead, professional initiative promoter Tim Eyman is reminding his supporters of a more successful venture -- last year's passage of Initiative 960. That's the one that basically puts a Scarlett Letter on the forehead of any legislator who sponsors a tax or fee increase bill.

That one passed. The traffic congestion measure, Initiative 985, is going down in flames.

But, Eyman and the Fagans, calling themselves "the last line of defense" are still trying to get their payday out of it.

And if their chump-change donors don't come up with enough money to provide a living wage to the trio, there's always Woodinville millionaire Mike Dunmire, Eyman's campaign sugar daddy. He's usually good for $250,000, or so.

If you'll remember from earlier postings, Eyman already is working on another ballot measure for next year, one that deals with property taxes.

=> Read more!

That's how it's shaping up this morning.

The rest of the targeted races seem to be favoring the incumbents, which means Democrats would keep their 32-17 majority over Republicans in the Washington Senate.

But incumbent state Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, could end up being collateral damage in the effort by Democrats to finally pick up the House seat in the 17th District that once belonged to Jim Dunn.

Benton is 147 votes behind Democratic challenger David Carrier. That's 22,356 to 22,209. I suspect there are about 10,000 more ballots to be counted in that race, and later ballots tend to favor Republicans.

We'll see.

Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville, has a 555-vote lead over Republican challenger Randi Becker in the 2nd Legislative District.

Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, has about a 1,200 vote lead over Democratic challenger Debi Srail in the 28th District.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, was targeted for defeat by Republicans but she has a commanding lead over challenger Linda Haddon. Her lead is more than 4,000 votes.

Now starts the political parlor game of speculating which politicians will be asked to join Barack Obama's cabinet and which politicians will seek appointment to replace the politicians who are asked to join Barack Obama's cabinet.

This story on Politico.com includes U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, a Democrat from Bainbridge Island, on the list of potential Interior secretaries. It puts him up against Robert Kennedy, Jr.

House Speaker Frank Chopp's Democrats outnumber Minority Leader Richard DeBolt's Republicans by a 63-35 margin, thanks to the late 2007 defection of former Republican Rep. Fred Jarrett.

There are a handful of races that could change those numbers, but not greatly.

"Worst case scenario, we lose one; best case, we're +1," said Kevin Carns, executive director of H-ROC, the House Republican Organization Committee. "In a year like this when they're killing Republicans in the street, we're happy with that."

Although he was trailing on election night, Republican Bruce Dammeier pulled ahead of Democrat Rob Cerqui in the race to replace Rep. Joyce McDonald in the 25th District, which encompasses the Puyallup Valley. Dammeier's lead is now 227 votes, or 10,988 to 10,761. So that would be a "hold" for House Republicans.

=> Read more!

As News Tribune journalists stagger in after a historic election night, many pressing questions remain: What are the political ramifications of ranked choice voting? Who will represent the 8th in Congress? What was up with Michelle Obama's dress last night?

The water cooler talk among the high-minded journalists around here is fixated on the fashion question. (Hey, we don't have answers to the serious questions yet.)

The fashionistas on the East Coast declared the red-and-black Narciso Rodriguez outfit "striking." Reporter Mike Archbold had a different take. "I thought she picked up one of those exploding dye packs."

And Mike's review is tame compared to some of the sniping over at TMZ.

OK, back to real work.

Dino Rossi has scheduled a press conference at his Redmond headquarters at 11:30. The Associated Press is reporting that he expected to concede the governor's race to Chris Gregoire.

@Text:

BC-WA—Governor,0124

URGENT

Source: Rossi to concede Wash. governor’s race

Eds: APNewsNow. Will be updated.

By RACHEL LA CORTE

Associated Press Writer

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A source close to Republican Dino Rossi’s campaign says he will concede his hotly contested rematch against Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire.
Rossi was scheduled to speak in Redmond at an 11:30 a.m. news conference.
Gregoire declared victory Tuesday night after early returns had her ahead, but Rossi initially said he wanted to see later returns.
Wednesday morning, with about 55 percent of the expected ballots counted, Gregoire had about 54 percent of the vote compared to Rossi’s 47 percent.
Gregoire won their 2004 contest by the closest percentage margin of any governor’s race in U.S. history — just 133 votes out of about 2.8 million cast, after two recounts and an unsuccessful Republican court challenge.

As of 9:54 a.m., Republican Dave Reichert is leading Democrat Darcy Burner by 1,149 votes statewide in the U.S. Congressional District 8 race.

Reichert has 70,232 votes while Burner has 69,083.

As of 6:15 a.m., the initiative to ban minicasinos in Lakewood was failing by a wide margin.

More than 60 percent of the votes counted so far were cast against the measure, which would close the city's four minicasinos and keep others from opening.

In Tacoma, the measure to repeal term limits for City Council members was narrowly failing.

No votes tallied 13,237. Yes votes were at 13,031.

The measure would repeal the current law, which limits City Council members to two four-year terms or a total of 10 years if the member was appointed to fill out another member's term.

Bunney	McCarthy

Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy leads in the race to become the county's next executive, according to the latest unofficial results posted this morning.

McCarthy, a Democrat, was ahead of Republican Shawn Bunney in the race to replace John Ladenburg as the head of county government.

Democrat Calvin Goings and Independent Mike Lonergan had been eliminated from the race under the current count. But all that could change as thousands more ranked-choice ballots are tabulated. Another tabulation is expected Friday, according to the Pierce County election's department Web site.

Bunney led in the early tallies but had slipped to second by the third round of tabulations, which takes into account each candidate's first-, second- and third-place vote totals.

During the campaign, McCarthy stressed her years of administrative experience as county auditor and said she would improve customer service if elected.

Bunney, a six-year member of the County Council, campaigned on a platform of creating jobs and cutting county regulations.

In other county ranked choice voting races that had been tabulated as of this morning (again, these are unofficial and subject to change):

• Republican Joyce McDonald was leading Democrat Al Rose in the race for the District 2 seat on the County Council. Carolyn Merrival was elimated.
• Barbara Gelman leads the race for assessor-treasurer over Dale Washam. Four other candidates for the job were eliminated.

Gregoire	Rossi

Incumbent Gov. Chris Gregoire has received more than 54 percent of the votes counted so far in Pierce County, according to the latest election results, and continued to lead Republican challenger Dino Rossi statewide.

As of 3 a.m., Gregoire, a Democrat, had received about 53.5 percent of the vote counted statewide, the Washington Secretary of State's Office reported. Rossi had about 44.5 percent of the statewide vote.

Several media outlets have called the race for Gregoire, but there still were several hundred thousand votes to be counted across the state.

UDPATED NUMBERS: As of 6:26 a.m., Gregoire had 53.5 percent of the statewide vote to Rossi's 46.5 percent.

In Pierce County, it was 53.65 percent to Gregiore and 45.94 percent to Rossi. PC voters cast 494 votes for write-in candidates.

UPDATED NUMBERS (9:54 a.m.): According to Secretary of State's Web site, Gregoire now has 53.51 percent of the votes count to Rossi's 46.49 percent.

In Pierce County, it's 53.51 for Gregoire and 46.08 for Rossi.

As of 6:26 a.m., Sound Transit's Proposition 1 had received more than 58.5 percent of the votes tallied in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

In Pierce County, the measure – which would expand transit options – had received about 51 percent of the votes tallied so far.

Here's the latest AP story on the measure:

SEATTLE (AP) — A regional transit proposal that would extend light rail service from downtown Seattle into the surrounding suburbs was headed for passage behind solid support in King County.

Proposition 1 would impose a sales tax increase of .5 percent, a nickel per $10, to pay for a plan Sound Transit estimates at $22.8 billion. It would expand light rail to Bellevue, Lynnwood and Federal Way.

As of early Wednesday, the measure was drawing 58.6 percent support in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, including 61.9 percent in King County. The weakest support was 51 percent in Pierce County, where counting was delayed by a ranked choice voting system for local offices.

Sound Transit’s taxing jurisdiction in the three counties covers roughly half of Washington state’s population. The proposition would add 34 new miles of light rail and expand commuter train and bus service.

A scrappy assortment of opponents from across the political spectrum, organized as NoToProp1.org, contended that taxpayers could wind up on the hook for more than $107 billion over 45 years, although a King County Superior Court judge rejected that estimate as unrealistic in a dispute over the ballot language.

Polls taken earlier this year indicated more than 60 percent support for the proposal. But last year, voters soundly rejected a more sweeping plan that also included road improvements and new park-and-ride lots. That measure also led in pre-election polls.

“There’s a sense of the new reality ... that the age when we can get around exclusively by car is over, and we need to catch up,” Mike O’Brien of the Sierra Club told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The environmental group opposed the more ambitious plan in 2007, saying it relied too much on highways, but supported Proposition 1 this year.

In the hotly contested race for the District 8 congressional seat, incumbent Republican Dave Reichert holds a slim lead over Democrat challenger Darcy Burner, according to the latest results.

Reichert had 376 more votes as of 3 a.m.

NEW RESULTS: Reichert had upped his lead to 881 votes as of the latest tally released by the Secretary of State's Office at 6:26 a.m.

In Pierce County, he'd received about 54 percent of the vote counted as of 6:15 a.m.

UPDATED RESULTS (9:54 a.m.): District-wide, Reichert now has 50.41 percent of the vote to Burner's 49.59 percent, a separation of 1,149 votes, according to Secretary of State's Office.

In Pierce County, he's now leading 54.24 percent to 45.36 percent.

From The Associated Press:

Democrat Peter Goldmark has taken a slim lead in the race for Washington state lands commissioner.

The Okanogan rancher and molecular biologist is trying to unseat two-term incumbent Doug Sutherland, a Republican. Goldmark was up 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent early Wednesday, thanks to an extremely strong showing in King County.

During the campaign, Goldmark painted Sutherland as too cozy with the timber and mining industries. Sutherland played up his administrative credentials, saying he balanced industry and environmental interests while cutting the Department of Natural Resources by more than 300 employees, to fewer than 1,400.

The lands commissioner manages 5.6 million acres of state lands, with income generated by harvesting timber or leasing land to farmers being used to pay for construction of schools and other state expenses.

President-elect Barack Obama has received nearly 58 percent of the presidential vote counted so far in Pierce County, according to the latest results.

John McCain has received less than 40 percent.

Statewide, Obama has received about 57.48 percent of the votes counted to McCain's 40.83 percent, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

UPDATED NUMBERS: As of 6:26 a.m., Obama had 57.46 percent statewide to McCain's 40.85 percent.

In Pierce County, Obama had 57.50 percent to McCain's 40.37 percent.

Write-in candidates got 618 votes in PC.

U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert has taken the lead against Democratic challenger Darcy Burner for the first time since returns began pouring in Tuesday night.

Now the difference is about 375 votes in Reichert's favor.

Burner: 68,165 votes, 49.86 %
Reichert: 68,541 votes, 50.14 %

Reichert has been leading all night in Pierce County, where he's ahead right now by 1,750 votes.

PIERCE COUNTY
Reichert: 13,721 votes, 53.19%
Burner: 11,971 votes, 46.40%

It's about 50-50 now between Democrat Darcy Burner and Republican Rep. Dave Reichert. A total of 134,484 votes have been counted, and the difference between the candidates is 60 votes. See the precise numbers below.

Burner: 67,272 votes, 49.98 %

Reichert: 67,212 votes, 50.02 %

Dino Rossi is not conceding the gubernatorial race tonight, but Gov. Chris Gregoire began her speech to supporters earlier this evening by noting the national media outlets that have declared her the winner.

"Yes!" she said before a cheering crowd at Seattle's Westin Hotel.

Gregoire also noted Sen. Barack Obama's historic win in the presidential election, and asked her supporters to imagine what she and Washington's congressional delegation will be able to accomplish with a friend in the White House.

"I feel I am probably one of the most blessed people in the world," Gregoire said.

She called on Washington to come together as one state to address the challenges that lie ahead.

"I think the message tonight is that when Barack Obama can get elected president, and when the kid of a single mom and short-order cook can get elected governor, every one of our children can do anything and everything they want to do," Gregoire said.

That's my math. Assuming Secretary of State Sam Reed is correct in his prediction for an 83 percent turnout.

I tallied the number of votes cast in the presidential race. That's 459,497 votes. An 83 percent turnout in those three counties would put the total turnout at 1,567,886 ballots.

(Reed's office says the three counties have a total of 1,889,019 registered voters.)

So that's 29.3 percent of the presidential ballots counted. There will be a falloff down the ballot.

I'm mystified by some of the returns. For instance, there are only 11,000 to 13,000 ballots counted in some of the King county legislative races, and you must know the total is going to be close to 50,000 for many of those districts.

Earlier, in her speech to supporters in Seattle, Gov. Chris Gregoire sounded pretty confident. Now, in a press release, she is claiming victory.

While there are still votes to be counted across the state, early totals show Gov. Gregoire winning with an expanding lead. National and local news organizations have called the race for Gov. Gregoire.

“Tonight the voters in Washington sent a message that they want a governor who shares their values of providing children healthcare, protecting the environment and creating jobs,” said Gov. Gregoire. “We have run a “One Washington” campaign and tonight we are seeing the results across the state. I’m honored to be re-elected.”

Gov. Gregoire is leading early in counties across the state, from Spokane to Grays Harbor and from Whatcom to Clark. She has also increased her margins from the 2004 election.

It's not over, but Mike Lonergan conceded late Tuesday he'd have "a big hill to climb" to avoid being the first county executive candidate eliminated from the race under ranked choice voting.

In early returns, Lonergan came in fourth with about 19 percent of first-place votes.

"I do feel good," Lonergan said. "I feel I offered my services to the county. I guess we proved that it is very hard for a person without major party backing to get the necessary traction to win."

Lonergan sought – but did not receive – permission to be listed as a Republican on the ballot. Instead, he ran under his own Executive Excellence banner.

Democrat Darcy Burner was winning the congressional seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert Tuesday night, reversing the luck she had against the incumbent on election night in 2006.

Thousands of ballots still were left to be counted in Washington’s 8th Congressional District, which includes Seattle’s East Side suburbs and much of East Pierce County.

Burner led Reichert Tuesday night in one of two dozen House races that remain undecided. This election is the second time Burner has challenged Reichert; she came within 3 points of defeating him two years ago.

Burner’s campaign spokeswoman, Jaime Smith, said Tuesday night that members of Burner’s camp are pleased but cautious.

Smith credited high turnout from the presidential election for boosting Burner’s numbers in early returns.

“The enthusiasm level this time around is definitely making a difference,” Smith said.

Reichert’s campaign spokeswoman, Amanda Halligan, said Reichert is hardly conceding the race to Burner at this point.

“We’re very confident, feeling very positive, and we’re sure we’ll continue to see the numbers trend in our direction,” Halligan said.

=> Read more!

In latest returns for Washington's 8th District, Darcy Burner is still leading Rep. Dave Reichert. But only about 74,000 votes have been counted.

Darcy Burner (D): 52%
Dave Reichert (R): 48%

Republican Shawn Bunney was leading in early returns in the Pierce County executive’s race. But with the county for the first time using a new voting system, the eventual winner is anybody’s guess.

Early executive returns showed Bunney with a lead over Democrats Pat McCarthy and Calvin Goings. Independent Mike Lonergan trailed the other candidates.

The returns showed no executive candidate appeared to have a majority of first-place votes under Pierce County’s new ranked choice voting system. If that holds, second- and third-place votes will determine the winner of the race.

Bunney said the results showed he was “halfway to success.”

“We’re very optimistic that as the night goes on our margin is going to grow,” Bunney said shortly after the first batch of results were released.

They showed Bunney with 32 percent of first-place votes, McCarthy with 29 percent, Goings with 24 percent and Lonergan with 15 percent.

Bunney has served on the County Council for six years. His campaign stressed job creation, government accountability and cutting county regulations. He also emphasized the need to complete two major road projects: Highway 167 from Puyallup to the Port of Tacoma and the Cross Base Highway between Highway 7 and Interstate 5.

McCarthy stressed her years of administrative experience as county auditor and deputy auditor and her time on the Tacoma School Board. In her campaign she spoke of and improving customer service and shaping a collective vision for the county.

Goings has spent eight years on the County Council and previously served in the state Senate and as a local fire commissioner. He offered detailed plans on a range of issues and pledged if elected to convene a transportation summit of environmental, labor and business leaders to devise a funding plan.

Lonergan, a Tacoma City Council member, made his administrative experience the centerpiece of his campaign. He spent 21 years leading nonprofit organizations and previously worked in broadcasting. He also cited his experience on the boards of numerous local and regional government agencies.

News Tribune reporter Adam Lynn has the early shift and will post updates from the overnight vote counting in Pierce County and update the statewide results as well.

He'll post updates on the expected 3 a.m. release of numbers and the 6 a.m. release of numbers from Pierce County.

Staff writer Steve Maynard reports:

Voters everywhere but Pierce County were saying “no” to Tim Eyman-sponsored Initiative 985, which would divert state funds in an effort to reduce traffic congestion.

But Proposition 1, a $17.9 billion measure for mass transit expansion, was winning in early returns. It was leading handily in King and Snohomish counties but narrowly in Pierce County in the first batch of returns Tuesday night.

The Sound Transit request would raise the sales tax by 0.5 percent to expand light rail north to Lynnwood, south to Federal Way and east to Redmond.

“If it passes, it’s great because we’ll be able to continue the long range plan,” said Claudia Thomas, a vice chairwoman for Sound Transit’s board of directors. She’s also a Lakewood city councilwoman and former mayor.

Proposition 1 would pay for a 17 percent increase in regional bus service, add Sounder commuter trains and expand parking lots and stations for commuter trains between Lakewood through the Puyallup and Green River valleys to Seattle.

The measure would bring light rail only as far south as South 272nd Street in Federal Way by the year 2023. But it would buy up half of the right of way for light rail to Tacoma and do some preliminary engineering on that segment.

It also would add bus service and more Sounder commuter rail trains in Pierce County.
I-985, Eyman’s measure, would open up car-pool lanes during nonpeak hours. It would create the Reduce Traffic Congestion Account, diverting a portion of the vehicle sales tax that currently goes to the state’s general fund.

Eyman said opening up car-pool lanes would increase traffic capacity and reduce congestion, which opponents contested.

He said many voters were persuaded by local governments to vote “no” because of their promises to increase transporation programs.

“Win, lose or draw, we think it is a tremendous victory,” Eyman said Tuesday night.

“It’s going to be impossible for state and local government to go back to business as usual,” he added.

Pierce County was the only county in the state where I-985 was ahead.

I-985 also would require cities to synchronize traffic lights on major arterials. And it would mandate that all revenues from red-light cameras go to the new state fund for reducing traffic congestion.

Several South Sound cities have said they will shut down red-light cameras if I-985 passes. Leaders in Tacoma, Lakewood, Fife, Puyallup and Auburn said they won’t have the money to pay for their red-light programs.

Here are AP's numbers and projections on the three statewide ballot measures. An x indicates that AP thinks that will be the prevailing side.

BC-WA-PropAll-Glance-Sum,0095

(AP) 11-04-08 22:58,,

Initiative 985-Transportation HOV Lanes

2,843 of 6,719 precincts - 42 percent

Yes, 529,810 - 41 percent
x-No, 766,027 - 59 percent

Initiative 1000-Medical Choice Lethal Drugs

2,896 of 6,719 precincts - 43 percent

x-Yes, 768,635 - 58 percent
No, 553,325 - 42 percent

Initiative 1029-Care Workers Certification

2,858 of 6,719 precincts - 43 percent

x-Yes, 967,531 - 74 percent
No, 335,346 - 26 percent

Pierce County released their first results at 10:12 p.m. – long after the original, tentative deadline. During the wait, candidates for office, reporters and concerned citizens hovered around laptops and followed the results of the national election.

After handing out the first round of results, Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy blamed the large data files associated with ranked-choice voting for the delay.

“The amount of data was enormous,” she said. “It came over perfectly, but it just took time.”

She said the office doubled the space, but elections officials were working well into the evening installing more on the office’s servers.

McCarthy said an image of each RCV ballot must be captured – she called them “huge, huge files” – whereas traditional ballots do not require capturing a full image.

Richard Anderson-Connolly, a professor of sociology at the University of Puget Sound and an advocate for ranked-choice voting, began questioning McCarthy’s answers and filmed her responses. McCarthy then refused to answer any other questions and briskly walked to the ballot-counting area of the building, where non-authorized people weren’t allowed to go.

from Sarah Kehoe in Bellevue:

Dino Rossi released a statement encouraging his supporters to not give up or listen to the press that is showcasing a Gregoire victory.

Lorraine Blacklock of Maple Valley said Rossi is right.

"Some of the biggest counties are not even finished yet.," she said. "He was my senator. I know what he can do because he has proven himself before. He doesn't compromise on his principles."

The measure to repeal term limits for Tacoma City Council members was narrowly failing, according to early Pierce County counts, with a split of 48 percent yes votes and 52 percent no votes.

It would repeal the limit a City Council member could serve, which is currently two four-year terms or a total of 10 years if the member was appointed to fill out another member’s term.

Voters set the limit in 1973.

After speaking to supporters at the Westin in Seattle, Gov. Chris Gregoire poses with husband Mike, her daughters and new son in law.

And U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell holds up a sign and cheers during Gregoire's speech.

Staff writer Brent Champaco reports:

A proposal to ban minicasinos in Lakewood was failing Tuesday night. Initial counts from the Pierce County Auditor’s Office showed Proposition 1, the city’s first citizen-led initiative, going down by a wide margin: 39 percent yes and 61 percent no.

The measure would close the city’s four minicasinos and keep others from opening.

Greg Bakamis, regional operations manager with Great American Casino, said opponents of the ban did a good job showing the importance of these businesses.

“I think this was an educational campaign,” Bakamis said.

Longtime Lakewood resident David Anderson, president of Save Lakewood, the group spearheading the ban, said he’s still hoping for a swing in the numbers.

“It’s disappointing,” Anderson said. “We’d hoped for a better showing than that ... But there’s certainly potential for things to turn around.”

He and other initiative supporters say minicasinos invite blight and create addictions that destroy families.

But opponents argue the ban would strip Lakewood of some $2.85 million in annual gambling tax revenue. Proposition 1 forced the city to prepare two budgets for next year – one with gambling tax revenue and one without. The budget without casino revenue calls for cutting 25 full-time city jobs, including 11 in the police department.

The measure would also leave some 600 casino workers unemployed. And opponents argued that problem gamblers would only have to travel to nearby Indian casinos to feed their habit.

For the past six months, the two campaigns have been locked in a heated battle of words, with accusations of unfair play, conflicts of interests and intimidation lobbed by both sides.

Emily Hoppler Treichler and Elizabeth Anderson:

Spirits are still running high here after Gregoire's optimistic but
careful speech. However, many Democrats are still worried abut the outcome of the governor's race.

Willie Anderson, who is a member of Service Employees International
union, said she found Dino Rossi "scary" and "out of touch with people..

John Clemens, a federal agency worker, noted that the race doesn't appear to be "nearly as close" as last time. "It's a definite signal from people in Washington. [Gregoire] will get us through hard times."

"I am pleased to see that there is an increasing margin this time,"
Clemens said.

"You can see I'm happy!" Anderson added.

Henrietta Price, 77, owner of Henrietta's Hats in Seattle, said she was in civil rights movement when she was young and is "so happy to live to this day!"

She said she's been tearful all day.

(from Chelsea Gorrow and Ted Charles at the Westin)

from Sarah Kehoe and Emily Nelson in Bellevue.

"Raise your hands for freedom," shouted U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert . The gloom in the room lifted as people cheered and raised their hands.

"Don't give up hope," he said. "We've had a great campaign, great support and we are going to win the race,"

After Rossi and Reichert spoke, the room at the Hyatt Regency began to empty out.

One GOP supporter wasn't very optimistic.

"Not real happy about it. It means socialism, in a word," said Jerry Noy of Barack Obama's victory. "I think the mainstream media didn't do their job to interview the guy."

And he did not have confidence in state vote-counting.

"To be honest with you, I don't have a lot of faith in the state election system after four years ago." Noy said.

Early returns show Paul Pastor with 72 percent of the vote for Pierce County sheriff. Jesse Hill has 20 percent and R.P. Kollu has 7 percent.

Returns for other Pierce County Council races:

District 3:
Lachney (D): 51 percent
Bush (R): 49 percent

District 4:
Farrell (D): 68 percent
Paulson (I): 32 percent

District 6:
Muri (R): 58 percent
Stewart (D): 42 percent

McDonald (R): 45 percent
Rose (D): 33 percent
Merrival (D): 21 percent

From Chelsea Gorrow and Ted Charles in Seattle...

"Seattle has done it again," said U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell. "Lets give Chris Gregoire an election night victory, so she can celebrate will all of us!"

Added U.S. Sen. Patty Murray: "Yes we can and Yes We Did!!"

"I predict that everyone will remember where they were tonight, the night we made history, the night we elected Barack Obama!

"My partner in the white house will help me make sure the men and women who come home from serving overseas will be treated with dignity.

"This is America and we've shown them what can be done."

Washam: 24 percent
Gelman: 21 percent
Lee: 19 percent
Shabro: 19 percent
Davidson: 10.5 percent
Tuma: 7 percent

Results from the Pierce County Auditor's Office show Rep. Dave Reichert leading Democratic challenger Darcy Burner among Pierce County voters.

With about 25,000 Pierce County votes counted, Reichert is leading Burner 53 percent to 47 percent in the county.

Updated returns from the Secretary of State's office show Burner leading Reichert 53 percent to 47 percent district-wide.

The first round of results in the Pierce County executive's race:

Shawn Bunney (R): 32 percent
Pat McCarthy (D): 29 percent
Calvin Goings (D):24 percent
Mike Lonergan (I): 15 percent

Rep. Dave Reichert just expressed his frustration with delays in Pierce County election results in an interview with King 5.

Reichert wondered "why in the world it takes so long to count ballots in this age of technology."

We may see more statements like this. As of now, Pierce is the only county in the state not reporting any results.

Now CBS has joined NBC and CNN in projecting Chris Gregoire as the winner of the 2008 race for governor. How can they do that with such early numbers (and none from Pierce County)?

The networks have access to the results of the national exit poll and are likely basing their projections on that. Because so much of the state's vote is by mail, the national poll (one poll paid for and shared by the AP and the networkd) was a telephone poll of those who had already voted.

We are more cautious, given the closeness of pre-election polls and the 2004 vote.

From Emily Hoppler Treichler and Elizabeth Anderson with Pierce County Democrats:

One of Pierce County's Democratic candidates for Executive, Calvin Goings, said he is thrilled about the future.

"My wife and I have a four year old. The only president he will know is an African-American, and it won't be strange to him," said Goings.

Chairwoman Jeannie Mitchell of the 27th District describes the night as a "full range of emotions".

"We've had eight years of broken hearts, waiting for the candidate with the potential this young man has," said Mitchell.

Mitchell, originally a Hillary Clinton supporter, now raves about Obama.

"I am wholeheartedly behind him. I am absolutely thrilled," said Mitchell.

This from Kari Plog and Alex Burch at Great American Casino:

The sole Republican on the ballot for Pierce County Executive, Shawn Bunney was waiting, along with everyone else, for some numbers from the county voting.

Joanne Lisosky shot this photo of Julie Stenger and child Mason. They listened to "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow" and waited for U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, due in 15 minutes.

Incumbent Attorney General Rob McKenna, a Republican, has a very comfortable lead over Democrat John Ladenburg, who is Pierce County's executive.

Randy Dorn, the former Eatonville principal and school worker union chief, has a 15,000-vote lead over incumbent Schools Superintendent Terry Burgeson with 922,000 ballots counted so far.

State Rep. Jim McIntire, a Seattle Democrat, has a slight lead over deputy state treasurer Allan Martin. Both are seeking the top job.

Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland, Auditor Brian Sonntag, Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen and Secretary of State Sam Reed appear headed for reelection.

This is with roughly 33 percent of the vote in.

King County has been reporting its result for a while, and now they're showing up on the Secretary of State's Web site.

The county, which is favoring Gregoire by nearly 69 percent to 31 percent, put Gregoire back over 50 percent and slightly ahead of Rossi statewide 542,277 to 524,565.

For now ...

From the state GOP party in Bellevue from Sarah Kehoe and Emily Nelson:

"In Washington state, we don't have an election day. We have an election week," said GOP candidate for governor Dino Rossi. "This election is about the future. Our education isn't what it needs to be. We must do better."

Rossi listed off transportation issues and the economy and the crowd chanted with him, "We must do better."

"We are treading water at a time when we should be moving forward. And we will move forward," Rossi said. "I plan on being governor of the whole state of Washington"

The crowd stood so close, chanting his name, that it was sometimes hard to hear him. One man reached his cell phone and snapped the candidate's picture.

"We love you," shouted one woman.

While the mood is hopeful for Rossi, attitudes sank when Obama was proclaimed president-elect.

"Welcome to the USSA," said Erin Pierce.

Joel Pardini expressed disgust, saying: "So much of this election has been one-sided and dishonest. I never thought America would elect someone this socialist."

Scott Fontaine, our reporter at the Pierce County election center, says the auditor's office now expects a first batch of election results at 10 p.m. More as this develops.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi called on his supporters for help Tueday to make sure there's no "repeat of the nonsense that took place in 2004."

The election is far from decided, but Rossi sounded at times as though he was making a victory speech.

He touched on many of the themes from his stump speech: Education, transportation, the state budget. He said he wanted to "bring back government that spends efficiently on critical needs without burdening business with higher taxes."

He said he wanted to "make government our servant again and not our master."

He said he would bring a fresh set of eyes to Olympia.

Only near the end of the speech did he give some indication that the race is not over.

"We can be proud of this," Rossi said. "Win, lose or draw we have shaken Olympia to its core."

And then Rossi called on supporters to help monitor the election process.

It was a request echoed by the King County Republican Party which sent out the following e-mail a short time ago with the subject line: Don't Let the D's Steal this Again...

=> Read more!

A Pierce County elections official said the first batch of results at 10 p.m.

We'll have 'em as soon as they post 'em.

Staff writer Steve Maynard reports:

Initiative 985 that aims to reduce traffic congestion by opening up car-pool lanes during nonpeak hours was trailing in early returns.

But Proposition 1, a $17.9 billion measure for mass transit expansion, was ahead. The Sound Transit request for Pierce, King and Snohomish counties would raise the sales tax by 0.5 percent to expand light rail north to Lynnwood, south to Federal Way and east to Redmond. It was winning in Snohomish and King counties; Pierce County results were not yet available.

Tim Eyman’s I-985 would create the Reduce Traffic Congestion Account, diverting a portion of the vehicle sales tax that goes to the state’s general fund. Eyman said opening up car-pool lanes would increase traffic capacity and reduce congestion, which opponents have contested.

I-985 also would require cities to synchronize traffic lights on major arterials. And it would mandate that all revenues from red-light cameras go to the new state fund for reducing traffic congestion.

Several South Sound cities said they would shut down red-light cameras if I-985 passes.

Democratic challenger Darcy Burner is leading Rep. Dave Reichert to represent Washington's 8th Congressional District.

Burner has received 57 percent of the vote to Reichert's 43 percent in early returns.

Only 34,000 votes have been reported so far in the district, which includes Seattle's East Side suburbs and East Pierce County.

Burner is challenging the two-term Congressman a second time after losing to him by 3 points in 2006.

BC-WA-Init-1000-AuthMedSuicd-Decided,0026

11-04-08 21:04,,

BULLETIN (AP) — Initiative 1000-Medical Choice, approved,

Washington.

Here's is AP's alert calling the state auditor's race.

@Text:BC-WA—State Auditor,0081
Sonntag wins re-election as Wash. state auditor
Eds: APNewsNow.
SEATTLE (AP) — Democratic State Auditor Brian Sonntag has coasted to re-election.

Sonntag has been auditor since 1994, and took a lead of 60 percent to 40 percent in early vote returns Tuesday against Republican Dick McEntee, the vice president of an Edmonds-based investment advisory firm.

Emily Hoppler Treichler and Liz Anderson

At the Democratic party, hard-working campaign volunteers are reminiscing on the historical election and their parts in it.
Tami Green, running for re-election to the state House, said that as the campaign came to a close in the last week, the volunteers really buckled down.

"We worked really hard to promote the
Democratic vote," Green said. As a group, the county Democrats made more than 30,000 calls, mostly focusing on the gubernatorial election. "I feel that I did good, since I'm so exhausted," Green noted.

Here's the AP story on the exit polling results from Washington state.

@Text:

BC-Voter Poll-WA,0373

Economy fears help Obama win Wash.

By PHUONG LE

Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE (AP) — Hunger for change, fears about the economic future and disapproval of the war in Iraq helped Democrat Barack Obama capture Washington state’s 11 electoral votes Tuesday, according to an Associated Press voter poll.
The economy clearly weighed heavily on the minds of Washingtonians as they went to the polls. Nearly half said they were “very worried” about the nation’s economic future in the coming year, and those voters backed Obama.
Obama drew support from an overwhelming majority of voters who felt the economy was in “poor” or “not-go-good” shape, while those who said the economy was in “good” condition favored Republican John McCain.
The war in Iraq came in a distant second to the economy in terms of voter concerns, but Obama clearly had the support of those voters who said it was a key issue for them.
Six in 10 Washington voters said they disapprove of the war in Iraq, more than during the presidential election of 2004, and those who did chose Obama over McCain.
“I just want our troops out of Iraq,” said Josephine Janofsky, 26, of Seattle, who said health care and the Iraq war were two of the biggest reasons why she voted for Obama.
In seeking a presidential candidate, one-third of Washington voters said they wanted a candidate “who can bring about needed change.” Those voters overwhelmingly backed Obama.
But voters who were most concerned that a presidential candidate share their values backed McCain.
Though only one in 10 voters said terrorism was the top issue on their minds, it was still the most pressing issue for Melissa Shogren, of Redmond, who backed McCain because she said: “Obama didn’t have the experience to handle more terrorist attacks.”
While liberals predictably went for Obama and conservatives backed McCain, four in 10 voters who consider themselves moderates strongly backed Obama. He even attracted nearly two of 10 conservative votes.
The survey of 1,328 Washington voters was conducted for AP by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International by landline telephone statewide over the past week. Results are subject to sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, higher for subgroups.

Pierce County has yet to release its first round of results. Auditor Pat McCarthy just said the techies working on the vote-tabulation computers had to add more memory to handle all of the data.

She didn’t give a timeline on when the first results – mostly mail-in ballots sent in through yesterday – will be released.

“We’re working on it as fast as we can,” she said, adding that the addition of ranked-choice voting has added a wrinkle to the tabulation process.

Almost 200,000 ballots will be included in the first round.

We’ll have results up as soon as we get them.

From Chelsea Gorrow and Ted Charles at the Seattle Westin...

The winning margin for Sound Transit's $17.9 billion measure is 62-38 for the first 90,000 votes turned in.

Eyman's I-985 is losing by a 56-44 margin.

Former Gov. Booth Gardner's I-1000, death with dignity, is passing by a 68-32 margin in that first batch.

This is state Republican party bash at the Bellevue Hyatt Regency, from Emily Nelson...

In the Evergreen Room of this Bellevue hotel, the entire is packed with people and very humid.

Near a row of television cameras one group discussed the right to bear arms. The party guests ranged from those in jeans and baseball caps to those in suits and ties. Near one large screen, there is a large cutout of John McCain.

Next to a stand selling buttons for Dino Rossi and the McCain-Palin ticket, guests compliment each other on their choice of political pins.

Workers at the stand said they are doing good business.

The atmosphere is less than hopeful. One woman remarked: "I can't believe McCain has already given a concession speech."

The crowd quiets at a whistle when more results come in and Sam Reed is declared secretary of state for another term. That gave people something to cheer.

From Emily Hoppler Treichler and Liz Anderson at Pierce County Demo party.

A repeatedly shushed crowd has just settled in to listen to Barack Obama's historical acceptance speech.

"It's the president, people, listen up!" One party goer announced as Obama walked to the podium. "We have never been a collective of individuals... we are and always will be the United States of America!" Obama announced.
"Change has come to America!"

Democratic Rep. Norm Dicks looks to be defending his seat a third time against return Republican challenger Doug Cloud.

So far, Dicks has captured 65 percent of the vote while Cloud, a Gig Harbor lawyer, has netted only 35 percent.

This year is the third time Cloud has challenged Dicks to represent Washington's 6th District, which includes most of Tacoma and the Olympic Peninsula.

Dicks, who hails from Belfair, has held his seat since 1976.

It's only a small portion of the 2nd Legislative District, but at least they have some election returns.

Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville, has 3,896 votes to the 3,323 votes of Republican challenger Randi Becker.

I have no idea when Pierce County will report numbers. The usual promise of returns by 8:30 p.m. has, once again, turned out to be wrong.

From Emily Hoppler Treichler and Liz Anderson...

Now that John McCain has conceded, most of the attention here has turned to celebrating Barack Obama's landmark win, but some are already
refocusing their attention on the much contested gubernatorial race here in Washington State.

Several people have pulled one or both New Tribune reporters aside to ask of any news of the race.

"She had better win!" one partygoer exclaimed when told the numbers hadn't come in yet.

This from Kari Plog...

George and Vivian Ewing wait for state and local results at the Pierce County GOP party at the Great American Casino in Lakewood.

Dino Rossi is ahead of Gov. Chris Gregoire for the first time tonight according to the Secretary of State's Web site:

330,009 to 325,233

Still no results from King, Pierce, Thurston or Clark counties.

UPDATE: Clark County just posted some numbers showing Gregoire with a slim lead: 69,487 to 69,004. Rossi remains slightly ahead statewide.

With about 586,000 votes in, Initiative 985, Tim Eyman's traffic congestion ballot measure, is failing by a 60-40 margin.

That with about 20 percent of the vote, if predictions of a 3 million voter turnout are right.

Chelsea Gorrow and Ted Charles are watching the Democrat's celebration at the Seattle Westin.

So far, those are the only returns I've seen.

Proposition 1 is passing with 51,119 "yes" votes to 41,086 "no" votes in Snohomish County.

No word yet from King or Pierce, which have a lot more voters.

This from Emily Hoppler Treichler...

Norm Dicks has just spoken to the crowd, acknowledging John McCain's
concession of the presidency.

"I feel so sorry for John McCain," Dicks noted at the beginning of his speech. The crowd responded with boos at the mention of McCain.

Applause followed as Dicks noted his own probable win, announcing
his excitement to begin his 17th term.

Dicks, the current 6th Congressional District Congressman, congratulated the hard work of Pierce County's Democrats in this election.

"I know we've done everything we can" to elect winner Barack Obama and Gov. Chris Gregoire. "In the future, we've got to keep working to support Barack Obama and his agenda as the new president of the United States," Dicks said.

This first batch of returns is from Kitsap County only, the portion of the 26th Legislative District where Democrats tend to do better than Republicans.

Republicans tend to do better in the Pierce County portion.

So it's significant that Kitsap County Commissioner Jan Angel, a Republican, holds a 10,089 to 9,783 vote lead over former Port Orchard Mayor Kim Abel, Democrat, in the race to succeed Rep. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, who is retiring.

Gov. Chris Gregoire is leading Republican challenger Dino Rossi in Snohomish, Kitsap, Spokane and Pacific counties, according to the Secretary of State's office.

Rossi is leading in Okanogan, Lewis, Skamania and Klickitat counties.

UPDATE: Gregoire is showing early leads in several Western Washington counties; Rossi is leading in all of the Eastern Washington counties reporting results except for Spokane County, which looks like a toss-up.

When they finally start posting them, here is a handy link for one-stop shopping on Proposition 1, the $17.9 billion tax package on the ballot in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.

A little anti-climactic perhaps, given that it came after the nation was projected for Barack Obama, but the AP has projected that Washington state's 11 electoral votes will go to Obama.

Here's their dispatch:

@Text:

BC-WA—President, 2nd Ld-Writethru,0285

Barack Obama defeats John McCain in Wash. state

Eds: EXPANDS with detail. Will be led.

By CURT WOODWARD

Associated Press Writer

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama captured Washington state’s 11 electoral votes Tuesday, defeating Republican John McCain.
The call was based on an analysis of voter interviews, conducted for The Associated Press by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.
Obama’s victory kept alive a 24-year winning streak for Democrats in the Evergreen State — Washington voters haven’t picked a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Obama consistently led in polls here leading up to Election Day. Neither party’s presidential nominee came to Washington throughout the summer or fall, signaling that both sides expected Obama to take Washington.

This from Emily Hoppler Treichler and Elizabeth Anderson at the Pierce County Democrats' party.

The room here has just exploded into spontaneous applause as CNN projected Barack Obama as the winner of the presidential race.

"At this moment, I am proud of my country," said voter Angie Hansen-Moore. "I am so hopeful that Obama actually wins this evening." Nearly everyone here has stood up in wait for more resultsto come in and solidify Obama's lead. The TV had become entirely blocked by the masses of hopeful Democrats waiting for more news.

That's from the SecState first posting.

Chelsea Gorrow and Ted Charles are watching the scene at the Seattle Westin.

As Virginia announced their vote for Barack Obama, the Chairman of the state Democratic Party took the stage and announced Obama as president of the United States of America.

"When I was twelve, I went to the march on Washington and I heard Martin Luther King Jr.'s I have a dream Speech...Tonight another part of that dream has come true," said chairman Dwight Pelz.

Here's AP's Flash...

@Text:BC-APNewsAlert
FLASH

WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins presidency.
AP-WS-11-04-08 2300EST

The networks have agreed to wait until a given state's polls have closed before calling that state. But if they have exit polling data that is convincing enough, they'll make a projection as soon as they can – often minutes after the polls close.

With Barack Obama sitting on more than 200 electoral votes (more as more networks project Virginia to Obama), the three West Coast states would be enough to put him over the top.

That could happen shortly after 8.

Here is an AP story on the national exit poll, a lengthy survey of voters as they were leaving the polls (and by telephone in Washington and Oregon:

Exit poll: Obama wins women, blacks, Hispanics
By Connie Cass
AP Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama soaked up most of the votes from the nation’s women, blacks and Hispanics and siphoned off enough white support to leave John McCain with a thin majority among this group essential to a Republican victory, exit polls suggested.
McCain and Obama split white votes across the U.S. except in the South — where McCain got twice as many votes as Obama.
McCain’s lead among white women was especially thin — roughly 5 percentage points. Overall, he was backed by just over half of white voters, a group that had favored President Bush over John Kerry by 17 percentage points in 2004.

=> Read more!

AP, which has been the most-hesitant of all of the national news outlets, has finally called Ohio for Barack Obama. That's the second battleground state to go to Obama.

@Text:BC-Election Rdp, 31st Ld,120
URGENT
Obama seizes command of race for the White House
Eds: APNewsNow. Will be led. AP Video.
AP Photo NY111, INMC107, ILDP103, ILDP102, AZSS108, INJH111, PASTR102, COMK218
By DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama has seized command of the race for the White House.
The Illinois senator has beaten John McCain in Ohio and is building a near insurmountable Electoral College advantage as he bids to become the first black president.
Fellow Democrats are gaining strength in both houses of Congress.
Obama’s Ohio victory denied McCain particularly precious territory. No Republican has ever won the presidency without the state

Pollster.com has a good election map in which it relies on AP and the networks to call each state. If one news outlet gives it to Obama and McCain, they color a state light blue or light red. If all of them do so, it colors the state dark blue or dark red.

Here's the link to that map.

Here is the AP's urgent on Pennsylvania:

BC-Election Update-830pm,130

URGENT

Obama in Pa.

Eds: APNewsNow.

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a state that John McCain badly needed to win, but Pennsylvania has gone to Barack Obama. The state’s 21 electoral votes go to the Democrat.
The loss of Pennsylvania narrows the possible paths to victory for McCain.
Obama now leads with 99 electoral votes, to McCain’s 34.

State and county elections officials have agreed on the process for closing polls tonight if there are still long lines of voters waiting to cast ballots (and there will be).

Here's what state elections director Nick Handy says will happen:

“An election worker will go to the end of the line and stand there monitoring the line. That person will make sure no one else joins the line and will make sure that all those in line are properly processed through the polling sites.

“All polling sites will stay open until all voters who were in line at 8 p.m. have voted. Both counties are committed to this process, so we can make a strong firm statement about this.”

King County has 392 polling places. Pierce County has consolidated all poll voters into 55 polling places.

We’ve been writing about the scene in front of the poll judges’ table, which, in spots, is overwhelming.

Last night I spoke with one of the judges who’s working at the Federal Way poll in St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church. She gave a glimpse of why poll judges sign up for the minimum-wage job in the first place, why they keep coming back, and why they will miss the opportunity to vote in person in King County.

Alice Thorstad, 84, predicted huge turnout.

“I think it will be busy tomorrow,” she said Monday evening. “I’m sure it will be busy. I expect a long line out the door. They say 80 percent.”

That kind of turnout would be a fitting end to her 30 years of minimum-wage service as a poll judge.

During that time, she’s seen elections in which 12 voters showed up. She’s seen voting technology and procedures transformed.

“We used to have to sit down and count all the ballots afterwards,” she said. “We don’t do that any more. The machine does it.”

King County may be sold on voting by mail, but Thorstad is not.

=> Read more!

Lots of discussion in our comments about what today's lines say about vote-by-mail.

You could argue, like Secretary of State spokesman David Ammons does, that the crowds underline the need to move to all-mail voting.

Or you could make a case that people are voting with their feet in favor of the old fashioned polling place election. If anything, the ample traditional turnout argues for reopening closed precinct polls.

We're putting it to a vote on our hot button poll. Vote and comment here.

Dispatches from Kris Sherman, who sometimes calls herself "the TNT Fox Island bureau":

I parked three-tenths of a mile beyond Harbor Life Church to get to a polling place as saturated with voters this afternoon as the ground is soggy with rain.

And that was on extremely busy 56th Street Northwest, where cars streak by at 35-50 mph. All manner of vehicles - from pricey Infinities and Lexuses to family workhorse Chrysler minivans, four-wheel-drive pickups and gas-sipping Japanese compacts - hugged the road so closely it was treacherous to walk either way.

Walk on the right side of the vehicles and you're on uneven ground fighting thickets of blackberry vines and other vegetation, risking a fall.

Choose the left side, and you're beyond the white fog line, trekking to the polling place in the traffic lane. I hopscotched between cars, waiting about every three or so to move on during breaks in the midday crush of traffic. It took me about 10 minutes to get the three-tenths of a mile that way.

=> Read more!

State elections director Nick Handy found this state law governing what accommodations employers must make to allow their workers reasonable time to vote.

I thought about this after talking to a woman who left her polling place at Zion Lutheran Church on 6th Avenue because she didn't have time to wait.

RCW 49.28.120
Employer's duty to provide time to vote.

(1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, every employer shall arrange employees' working hours on the day of a primary or election, general or special, so that each employee will have a reasonable time up to two hours available for voting during the hours the polls are open as provided by *RCW 29.13.080.

If an employee's work schedule does not give the employee two free
hours during the time the polls are open, not including meal or rest
breaks, the employer shall permit the employee to take a reasonable time up to two hours from the employee's work schedule for voting purposes.

In such a case, the employer shall add this time to the time for whichthe employee is paid.

(2) The provisions of this section apply only if, during the period
between the time an employee is informed of his or her work schedule for a primary or election day and the date of the primary or election, there is insufficient time for an absentee ballot to be secured for that primary or election.

Joe Strupp at Editor and Publisher has a good article explaining how the Associated Press decides when to project a state for one candidate or the other.

Since many news outlets rely on the AP, Strupp gives a quick behind-the-scenes look at the data and analysis that goes into the decision.

Drew Perine/The News Tribune
Sophie Brown, 20, takes her turn holding an American flag to prevent it from flapping in the faces of waiting voters like Les Brenner, 49, who stood outside the Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Tacoma for over a half hour Tuesday afternoon waiting to vote.

Just in case you were getting frustrated waiting in line, county elections officials had this message for voters at Immanuel Presbyterian Church on North J. Street (as observed by our Niki Sullivan).

Pollster.com has an interesting article on exit polling. In past years the members of the consortium paying for the national exit polls leaked results, even though it violated the rules and good taste. That's why there would be blog posts about how the exit polls had Kerry winning Florida (he didn't) and even winning the election (he didn't).

This year the owners of the poll (mainly AP and the networks) have created a quarantine system so there is no way the polling experts can get word out, at least until the polls start closing in the east.

As a primer, an exit poll is a poll conducted at polling places (and by phone in Oregon and Washington) that interviews voters as they exit the polls. The survey is more lengthy than other polls and tries to get at why voters voted the way they did as opposed to who they voted for.

They can be misused to project a state's result, however, before the polls close.

This just in from a reader who just returned from Olympic View Baptist Church at 4704 Elwood Dr. W. in University Place:

I went to vote at my designated poling place in University Place and waited in a 20-person line only to get to the front and be told that I was in the wrong line for my last name. I didn't know this however, because none of the positions were labeled and no one knew which line to stand in.

The man that told me I was in the wrong line pointed me to another line. Wrong again. Although it was much shorter than the first it was still a waste of time.

I finally went to the third and final line which was in the middle, and my last name starts with A.

That didn't make any sense to me and there was a lot of general confusion and no one knew where to go. I saw a few people come in and leave not wanting to deal with the mess.

I sent a note to David Ammons, spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed, and asked if state elections officials are aware of the long lines in Pierce County and whether polls would be kept open.

Here is his reply:

We are monitoring the situation, and certainly hope that all who wish to vote will be accommodated.

Assistant Director of Elections Katie Blinn (a UP resident and an attorney) is on the scene, as is Lori Guerrero of our Elections Division.

Sam Reed shook his head when told of the long lines, and said he’s sorry for the inconvenience some voters are experiencing.

He said state law allows the voting to be held open to accommodate all who are in line as of 7:59 p.m.

Pierce and King counties are the only two of Washington's 39 counties that are operating poll sites today. The other 37 counties are voting by mail only, and King County is set to do that next year. Pierce County is the lone holdout.

Ammons suggested that today's long lines might serve as further evidence of the practicality of closing poll sites.

To my mind, this certainly underscores the practical wisdom of moving to vote-by-mail, which involves no waiting in line and allows folks to sit around the dining room table and, at their convenience at any hour of the day or night, to mark the ballot, stick a stamp on it on and mail it. Nine out of 10 Washington voters will be voting by mail this election, and King County switches next year, once the feds certify new rapid-counting equipment.

Somebody certainly disagrees. I saw two of these signs at an intersection in Fircrest this morning:

Does anybody know who put them up?

The line at Mason Methodist Church was two hours long. All morning long. But I didn't notice anyone complaining. For the most part voters who are committed to voting in person rather than by mail were wide-eyed at the numbers, kind of thrilled to be part of it all.

Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma was a few people behind me. I asked if he remembered waiting to vote. He thought about it and decided that perhaps in 1976. But even then it was not for this long.

The mood was patient and friendly. People broke out of line to chat with friends and neighbors. Strangers struck up conversations. The weather was cooperative, which helped.

At one point a man pulled into the driveway and unloaded a dozen coffees from the nearby Starbucks. He walked down the line and offered them to anyone who wanted one.

Some will make the case that this proves that Pierce and King counties should join the rest of the state and covert to all-mail voting. But few in this line were voicing such thoughts. After all of the attempts to push voters away from the polls, the remaining poll voters are committed.

Despite the time it took, I didn't regret it for a minute.

Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy said she doesn’t have the authority to extend polling hours even in the face of a huge voter turnout.

But McCarthy, helping run the overcrowded polling place at Bethlehem Lutheran Church on Tacoma’s East Side, said anyone in line when the polls close at 8 tonight will get a chance to vote.

“We won't say, ‘Sorry, you're not allowed to cast a ballot,’” she said.

David Ammons, a spokesman for the state Secretary of State’s office, said the law doesn’t allow for an extension of polling hours. Only a court order could force an extension, he said.

Dean J. Koepfler/The News Tribune

Ginger Burchyett has never missed a chance voting in a presidential election.

The long lines at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Tacoma, though, were testing the 30-year-old patience.

“This is the most disorganized thing I’ve seen in my entire life,” said Burchyett, who had been waiting for more than two hours by noontime – and was only in the middle of her line. She was in danger of missing her 1 p.m. shift at a Puyallup veterinary clinic.

Other voters said they were waiting as many as three hours to cast their vote. The Pierce County Auditor’s office brought extra workers to help out, but more than 300 people still packed the basement of the church at 101 E. 38th St. More were waiting on the stairs.

Poll workers originally issued numbers for people waiting in line so they could wait elsewhere, but Auditor Pat McCarthy stopped that shortly after she and other workers from her office arrived.

The issue of handing out numbers frustrated many people waiting in line. Several complained that people who received numbers were allowed to skip to the front of the line.

McCarthy called the move “a real faux pas.”

“It was well-intentioned, but it just backfired,” she said.

The overflow crowd packed the basement, causing the Tacoma Fire Department to get involved. Phil Ferrell, the deputy fire marshal, estimated about 300 people were in the room at about 1 p.m. The basement has a maximum occupancy of 200.

"We'll need to line-queue them so they'll wait elsewhere," Ferrell told McCarthy.

"We're overcrowded everywhere," she responded.

"I understand," he said, "but this is a safety issue."

Ferrell said the department received calls from people who were worried about suffocating or concerned that they couldn't get out if there was a fire.

"Times like this is when things go wrong," he said. "It's a great turnout, but we just have safety issues here."

Ferrell routed many people upstairs, where they waited in the church's foyer or outside its doors. He then stood by the basement doors and kept order.

Andrew Dena said there were two lines when he arrived, but it has since split into four.

“This is the first – and last – time I’ve voted at this last station,” 59-year-old Andrew Dena said. “This is outrageous.”

People have remained relatively patient despite the problems.

“I’ve probably been the most optimistic person in line,” said 42-year-old Cecelia Crawford. “I feel like there was going to be long hours, so I’ve chose not to be angry about it.”

Still, Crawford had to miss a medical appointment because the lines were so long. Other voter problems do worry her, though. She held up a pen she said workers were handing out to fill out a ballot and another labeled “ballot pen.” The latter draws a line about three times thicker.

“I don’t even know if my ballot will be counted after all of this,” she said.

From reporter Mike Archbold:

A line of voters stretched out of the front door and around the corner of the Pierce County Election Headquarters building in Tacoma around noon today.

Voters were bundled up against the chill wind that blew the fall leaves around. But the sun was out. The line moved steadily and no one seemed upset. They waited patiently.

“I’m excited to vote,” said Cheri Larson of Puyallup, who had to take time off from her pre-school teaching job to vote. She wasn’t getting paid.

Like many in line, she didn’t get an absentee ballot. She was there to get one and then vote. The wait didn’t bother her, she said.

Some voters were there because it was their precinct. Once inside they took their ballots and sat on chairs in the hallway. It was crowded but orderly.

Through the windows in the hallway, election workers inside the office could be seen answering phones and already counting absentee ballots. Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy was out visiting polling places, according to
her staff.

U.S. Army Pvt. Justin Collin, 24, from Fort Lewis stood in line with his voter registration form. He was among a number of soldiers in line. Unlike civilians, military personnel can register up through election day, and
Election Headquarters was the only place to do that.

He said Fort Lewis commanders told soldiers to take all the time they needed today to vote.

“We’re voting for our new boss,” he said. He didn’t want to say publicly who he was going to vote for but said in general the decision for soldiers will probably come to who wants to deploy soldiers and who doesn’t and who wants
to pay them more.

Chris Schwab of Tacoma was taking his lunch hour and perhaps a little more to vote. He had been in line 25 minutes already. For some reason, he hadn’t received his absentee ballot but his wife had.

He came by Monday afternoon to get one but arrived 15 minutes too late. “It just seems to make sense not to shut down at 4:30 p.m. when they knew they had ballots that didn’t arrive,” he said.

Betty Payne of Puyallup was in line to find out if she could vote there and not make the trip to University Place where she was still registered. She, too, was taking time off from work.

Reporter Debbie Cafazzo sent over this tasty morsel:

Even politicians gotta eat.

The folks at Infinite Soups in Tacoma were thrilled at lunchtime today when Gov. Chris Gregoire stopped in for a cup of mushroom stroganoff.

First gentleman Mike Gregoire and a Gregoire daughter walked in first. They debated which soup to order for the governor, who was waiting in the car.
But the aroma of the bubbling soup must have called to her because before her family could make a choice, the governor walked in and settled on the mushroom.

“She said it was good,” said Infinite Soups co-owner Wendy Clapp, who points out that her belly-warming concoctions are served on a strictly nonpartisan basis.

“We keep our politics to ourselves,” she says. “But I did tell her that I hoped she had a good day.”

Beth Frick pulled in to vote at Zion Lutheran Church, 3410 Sixth Ave., and the parking lot was full. Ditto for street parking.

So Frick wondered why there was no line extending from the church.

"They had them wrapped around like a coil inside," Frick said. "It was thrilling."

Normally, she said, she runs into two or three other people when she votes at the church.

The line was tough on a few adults who had come with children. Some got impatient and left. The vast majority of people stayed for the wait of over an hour.

"Someone said, 'I'm looking for the young people, first-time voters,'" Frick said. "This woman raised her hand in the M-through-Z line. She had gray hair. I asked her how old she was, and she said 41. She said there was never any reason before to come out and vote. She was very excited. She was there with a friend. I said, 'Well, welcome to the fold.'"

Frick enjoyed a conversation with the man standing next to her, a long-time Republican who was voting Democratic.

"It's very emotional when you see so many people in line," she said. "It was excitement, excitement, excitement."

When Frick left, the parking lot was still full.

"There are more cars in the lots than on a Sunday morning," she said. "That's the Gospel truth."

The Associated Press moved this story today. Challenger Rob Welch, a former Richland City councilman, is the candidate in question. He and incumbent state Rep. Larry Haler are both Republicans, one of those same-party runoffs produced by Washington's new Top Two primary election.

State house candidate on mental health hold

KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) _ A Republican candidate for the 8th District House seat in the state Legislature is being held on a 72-hour mental health evaluation.

Kennewick police responded to a call about 43-year-old Rob Welch at about 10 p.m. Sunday when his wife reported he may be suicidal. Sarah Welch said her husband had punched a pane of glass and walked out of the house following an argument with his son.

Welch was found safe when he walked back home. He was taken to Kennewick General Hospital for treatment to his hand, then detained and taken to a counseling center for evaluation.

Welch served six years on the Richland City Council, including four as mayor. He is challenging incumbent Rep. Larry Haler for the House seat.

Dean J. Koepfler / The News Tribune
Less than a month after suffering a stroke, 90-year-old Willie Mae Goodman-Stacker received a day pass from Tacoma's St. Joseph Medical Center to cast her vote. Bernard Williams, Stacker's 4-year-old great-nephew, helped push her wheelchair to a waiting car after casting her ballot on Tuesday.

Ever since she voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Willie Mae Stacker has cast her ballot in person. She likes to be in the thick of democracy, and there's no better place than the polls to experience that.

Today, even though she is a patient at St. Joseph Hospital, she voted in person again.

Stacker, 90, suffered a stroke Oct. 13. It paralyzed her right side, including her voting arm. Occupational therapist Scott Mars and nurse Maria Scanlan-Coen have been part of the team helping her recover. It's tough, they said, but she's got grit.

And style.

Stacker enlisted her niece, Anea Williams, and her pastor, The Rev. Freeman McKindra of Miles Memorial Church, to get her to the polls at First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ. She asked the hospital for a day pass. And she set out in the blue velour casual suit that Williams bought her for the event. Her hair and nails were done. For this election, she wanted to dress up.

Mars and Scanlan-Coen have worked at St. Joseph for 20-some years, and they cannot remember a patient asking for a pass to vote. That Stacker did so does not surprise them. She is, they agreed, a remarkably hard-working woman.

=> Read more!

I was out at polling places last Election Day, when the lines weren’t nearly as long. Then again, there wasn’t a presidential election, a gubernatorial election, divisive initative measures, etc.

But back then, the county was ready to write off polling places. Here’s an excerpt from my Nov. 7, 2007 story:

The county operated 58 polling locations this year, down from 92 a few years ago.

(Auditor Pat) McCarthy said about 75 percent of voters use mail-in ballots and that neighboring counties have transitioned to all-mail. The driving force behind closing polling places is the move to instant-runoff voting, which she said adds another layer of complexity to a complex process.

"When we looked at implementing ranked-choice voting in a presidential year . . . it may put us over the top with the challenges we face," she said.

Joe Barrentine/The News Tribune

People wait in line to cast their votes at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Tacoma's North End this morning. The wait exceeded 90 minutes.

Reporter Sean Robinson squeezed off a shot of his polling place in Puyallup, just before a sharp-eyed elections volunteer told him to turn off his wireless phone. This was the mid-morning scene at the Shepherd of the Hill Church on South 112th Street. Three lines divided alphabetically, and a milling crowd waited for harried workers to hand out ballots. On a typical Election Day in this place, you can cast your ballot in about 30 seconds. Not today.

I've just come from First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, 602 North Orchard St.

It was packed.

Some people breezed through in 15 minutes or so, but others waited half an hour or more. At times, the line was out the door.

It was a line encouraging in its diversity, with people of all ages and several ethnicities. Most people were using the wait to chat with one another. One person, encouraged by the turnout, called it "a good line."

The polling place had two touch screen machines, and one broke down was carted away. If you're in a line, your best bet for speed might be a paper ballot. If you use paper, you'll notice that the box that receives it not like those used in previous years. It's a secure box with a slot, not a machine that counts your ballot as you slide it in. The change accommodates the two ballots used this year, one for the county, and one for all other races.

We are hearing via the blog that lines at Bethlehem Lutheran Churcgh, 101E. 38th St., are very long. One voter reports shoing up at 9:30 a.m., standing in line just to get a number to vote, and being told that it would then take two to three hours to vote.

Mornings are generally the lightest time of the voting day, and lines are still long. It might be a good thing to vote as early as you can.

A dozen damp patriots were clumped outside By His Word Christian Center in Midland at 7 a.m. this morning.

When the polls inside opened, there was little waiting. Poll judges signed them in and handed them two ballots, one for Pierce County's ranked choice voting, and one for state and national races. Voters could stand at open booths or relax at tables, browsing their voter pamphlets as they connected the dots.

"This is unusual for us," said poll judge Annelies Perry.

So far, she said, no one had had any problems with the ranked choice ballots. On Monday, when she'd worked the express booth, though, she's gotten lots of complaints.

The electronic voting machine malfunctioned around 7:15. The card activator for the touch screen machine was not working properly. Within 20 minutes, trouble shooter Ron Landberg was there with a replacement.

Landberg was still there when voter Robert Yerberg waslked in wearing an Obama-Biden long-sleeve tee shirt.

"You have to put on your jacket," Landberg told him. "Really."

Yerberg complied with good humor, then sat to rfill out his ballots.

Judges don't know how many voters had come and gone. In past years, the machine that accepts the ballots keeps a running tally. This year, it's been replaced by a secure box that holds both ballots.

Theodore Charles	Maren Anderson	Sarah Kehoe
Emily Hoppler-Treichler	Kari Plog	Emily Nelson
Alex Burch	Elizabeth Anderson	Mallory Shoemaker

We’re pleased to announce that our election coverage tonight will be supplemented by students from the journalism department at Pacific Lutheran University.

Professor Joanne Lisosky does a great job over there, and she offered up a group of students who’d like to get some professional experience. They’re going to cover the state and county Democratic Party gatherings in Seattle and Tacoma, respectively, and the state and county Republican gatherings in Bellevue and Lakewood, respectively. Peter Callaghan, who will anchor our coverage here on Political Buzz, will post their reports throughout the evening.

Here’s the latest lineup so far:

Emily Nelson, a sophomore journalism major from Milwaukie, Ore.

Emily Hoppler Treichler, a junior psychology major from Olympia

Sarah Kehoe, a senior journalism major from Olympia

Kari Plog, a sophomore communications major from Spanaway

Maren Anderson, a senior Norwegian major from Tacoma

Theodore Charles, a freshman anthropology major from Bow, Wash.

Elizabeth Anderson, a junior studying finance and communications, from Billings, Mont.

Alex Burch, a senior communications major from Everett

Mallory Shoemaker, a junior journalism major from Kent

If ever an election called for a mobile journalist, it's this one.

Locally, we're pioneering with ranked choice voting.

Statewide, we have the Rossi-Gregoire rematch.

Nationally, the contest is drawing record crowds of early voters.

Beginning at 7 a.m., I'll be roaming the South Sound, checking in with voters to see how the process went. I won't pry into your choices, though you're welcome to tell me.

I'd like to hear from you if voting turned out to be easier than you expected, or if, heaven forfend, you ran into problem.

You can contact me by:

• Commenting on this blog.

• E-mailing me at kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com.

• Calling my work land line at 253-535-9552. I will be checking messages.

• Calling my cell phone, 253-241-9098.

Here's my schedule so far:

7 a.m. Vote at By His Word Christian Center. Chat with willing vote-in-person types outside the polling place.

8:15 a.m. Meet photographer Dean Koepfler at St. Joseph Hospital to accompany Willie Mae Stacker, who is 90 and in the hospital, as she leaves on a day pass to go to the polls.

We got a tip that some people who used the state's new online voter registration tool may not have been added to the county rolls, but that's not the case, according to Nick Handy, elections director at the Secretary of State's Office.

As part of their normal cross-checking, elections workers examined the database of online registrations with the master database of registered voters and came across some that did not appear to have made it into the system, Handy said.

But when county elections workers looked into the issue, they found good – and routine – explanations for the names that appeared to be missing, Handy said, including:

• People died
• People moved
• People were already registered to vote and didn't realize it
• People were in the system under multiple names, such as Robert and Bob
• A felon tried to register online
• An underage voter tried to register online

"There were no systematic problems with online voter registration," Handy said. "Most were in fact in the database but with a twist, such as a name mis-spelled or an address that was different."

Washington began offering online voter registration in January. So far, the system has received more than 150,000 transactions, but officials say some folks use it twice to make sure they're really registered. They estimate 140,000 people have used it.

Here's an update on a story I wrote early last week. It will run in Tuesday's paper.

Washington prison officials on Monday were still looking for four ex-convicts in who were released from community supervision too early because of a miscalculation in how large a threat they pose to the community.
All four of the former inmates were released to King County, said Armando Mendoza, southwest regional administrator for community corrections for the state Department of Corrections.
Prison officials last week thought they had given early releases to as many as 75 prison inmates who had been under supervision of community corrections officers.
DOC spokesman Chad Lewis said it turned out that only eight of the 75 had been released too early. Four of them were located last week. The other four remain at large.

=> Read more!

Seems that Gov. Chris Gregoire's supporters can't figure out how to spin today's Seattle P-I article that claims Gregoire's re-election bid is threatened because voter turnout is lower among Democrats than Republicans.

First, the governor's campaign played it for money, sending out this plea for help:

The Seattle P-I just reported that turnout among Democrats is lower than among Republicans.

We have an aggressive plan to tip the scales in our favor in the next 24 hours, but we need your support to put this program into action.

Continuing our state’s progress won’t come without a fight, and your support could make the difference.

Please contribute $25. Governor Chris Gregoire will stand and fight for working families and healthcare for low-income kids. And she’ll continue our state’s leadership in the fight against climate change. In order for this to happen, we’ve got to finish strong and make sure to Get Out The Vote. That’s why I’m asking for your last-minute support. The election is tomorrow and this is your last chance. Please contribute $25. Will you wake up on Nov. 5 and wonder if you could have done more? More than 4,000 volunteers are reaching out to voters during our campaign’s final push. And donors are supporting their efforts by giving last-minute contributions. They understand that this campaign is only as strong as the support it receives. Join them today and strengthen our campaign when it matters most. Please contribute $25. Thanks for all that you do, Kelly Evans Campaign Manager People for Chris Gregoire

Then, a little while later, comes a response to the P-I article from Kelly Steele, spokesman for the state Democratic Party, claiming the newspaper's analysis of voter turnout is "deeply flawed and laughably inaccurate" partly because it fails to account for the fact that King and Pierce counties still have polling place voting.

Here's Steele's memo:

Interested Parties
FR: Washington State Democratic Party
DA: November 3, 2008
RE: Inaccurate analysis in today’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer today published an “analysis” of the early voting in the Governor’s race that is deeply flawed and laughably inaccurate. The P-I concludes that Governor Gregoire is facing a turnout deficit based on two fundamentally inaccurate methodological assumptions: (1) the analysis fails to account for the fact that King County uses both vote-by-mail and poll voting and (2) projections, according to the P-I, “are based on doubling the percentage of absentee ballots that had been received late last week.” Amazingly, the P-I notes that when its methodology resulted in over 100 percent turnout in pro-Rossi counties, “the number was adjusted to reflect 99 percent turnout,” which would be a historically unprecedented turnout rate in any county.

It is all downhill from there. In short, the article falsely claims that King County is underperforming – even though close to 300,000 voters will cast their ballots at the polls tomorrow – and relies on universal participation in the smaller, pro-Rossi counties. When you unpack this “analysis,” the news is actually quite bad for Dino Rossi. King County is actually performing well for Governor Gregoire, and we are expecting 85 percent turnout there. Rossi’s strongest counties are not likely to perform at 99 percent turnout, as the P-I assumes.

=> Read more!

Be careful what you ask for.

Under pressure from ranked choice voting advocates, Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy announced Friday she will run a computer program on election night that will give a snapshot of early results.

The unintended consequence: you won’t get results for any other races – including governor, president, etc. – between 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and 3 a.m. Wednesday.

Originally, the office also planned to issue results at 10 p.m. Tuesday and 12 a.m. (midnight) Wednesday.

McCarthy had not planned to run the ranked choice voting computer program until Friday. The rationale: the office wouldn’t have enough ballots Tuesday night to produce a meaningful result (She planned to release a tally of first-place RCV results along with results from other races).

But RCV advocates (and The News Tribune editorial page) demanded McCarthy run the program sooner than Friday. They suggested it wouldn’t look good if McCarthy – a candidate for county executive – withheld full results for the RCV races.

Saying she didn’t want anyone to question the integrity of her staff, McCarthy gave in. If all goes well on election night, her office will run the ranked choice voting computer program and issue results for the affected county offices at 11:30 p.m.

But in announcing the decision Friday, McCarthy said she’d be forced to stop counting ballots for two to three hours to run the computer program. Thus the revised schedule for releasing other results.

Here’s the revised schedule from the auditor’s office:

"Revised" Tentative schedule (subject to change)
Absentee results for Traditional and Ranked Choice ballots will be reported in the 1st release at approximately 8:30 p.m. Poll site results will be released throughout the night until all poll site ballots are counted.

=> Read more!

Over at Business Buzz, they're reporting that Starbucks wants to thank voters for doing their civic duty. Simply say you voted and they'll give you a free 12-ounce coffee.

That's pretty cool except for the fact that it might violate federal law. David Ammons, spokesman for the Washington Secretary of State, said the office has contacted Starbucks to tell them that the feds allow no remuneration for registering, voting or not voting.

"It was aimed at vote-buying, and there is no exemption
for innocent or minimal giveaways," Ammons wrote.

UPDATE: Starbucks says it thinks it can get around the legal questions by simply giving coffee to everyone, whether they voted or not.

Here is the response from the company

We've been excited by the number of positive responses received about our free coffee offer. To ensure we are in compliance with election law, we are extending our offer to all customers who request a tall brewed coffee. We're pleased to honor our commitment to communities on this important election day. We hope there is a record turnout on Tuesday and look forward to celebrating with our customers over a great cup of coffee.

Tara Darrow
Starbucks Coffee Company

Replies Ammons:

The secretary of state's office is pleased with this decision, and wishes hypercaffeinated Washington voters a double-tall Happy Election Day.

flannigan

This just in from the celebratory committee at Rep. Dennis Flannigan campaign HQ:

Tomorrow is finally here - election night. Hope and fear connect us all until the results are clear. That should be Tuesday evening, and Ilse and I hope you to join us for the Friends O' Flannigan's Victory bash, 7:00--9:30 pm, at the Muse, 2509 6th Avenue. Great spot. Good food, light libation.

If you're sick of politics, here's a change-of-pace talk the day after the election.

Maj. Gen. Timothy J. Lowenberg, commander of the Washington National Guard, will be speaking to the City Club at 6 p.m. Wednesday at UPS.

From the news release:

Traditionally, most National Guard personnel served “one weekend a month, two weeks a year”. But that slogan has lost much of its relevance since the breakup of the Soviet Union , according to Maj. Gen. Timothy J. Lowenberg, adjutant general of the State of Washington. The current face of the National Guard has Washington State’s Guard troops now serving in 13 countries.

"Weekend Warriors" no longer.

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The last campaign flier has been mailed. The last TV minute has been sold. The last yard sign has been stolen (OK, just kidding about that).

Now it comes down to this: Pierce County voters will choose a new county executive from among Shawn Bunney, Calvin Goings, Mike Lonergan and Pat McCarthy.

Who will it be? You’ll have a tough time finding a local political observer willing to make a prediction on the record (County Councilman Dick Muri is an exception). So I’m throwing it open to Political Buzz readers.

Tell us who you think will win the executive’s race and why. If you’re feeling bold, throw in the percentage of first-choice votes you think each candidate will win. If you’re feeling like a genius, give us the proportion of final vote (after redistribution of second and third choices) you think the remaining candidates will get.

If you’re right, you win … bragging rights. But in a year like this, you can brag for a long time if you’re right.

The campaign of Republican challenger Larry Faulk sent out an e-mail over the weekend, showing how incumbent state Sen. Debbie Regala, D-Tacoma, filled out a candidate questionnaire from the Poverty Action Network.

At first, I wasn't going to post it because we generally try to refrain from publishing "hit pieces" so close to the election, which, by the way, it tomorrow.

But I reconsidered, mainly because Regala's support of an income tax is hardly a "hit." She's proud of it. And it probably makes no nevermind in the 27th District anyway.

Sorry, Larry. I don't think this revelation will be much help to you in a district where Democrats are elected for life. This is not the same district that elected you to the Legislature 40 years ago.

And this isn't the governor's race, where the income tax issue actually seems to matter.

Here is the Poverty Action Network election brochure. Scroll down to see Regala's comments.

Incidentally, neither Reps. Dennis Flannigan nor Jeannie Darneille, Regala's North End seatmates, filled out the questionnaire.

That shouldn't be taken personally by the Poverty Action Network. Candidates gets dozens and dozens of questionnaires to fill out by just about every organization out there.

The final Washington Poll of this campaign season was released over the weekend with some interesting numbers.

Dino Rossi has closed to within two points of Chris Gregoire in the final days. Compared to an earlier sample by the University of Washington faculty members, Gregoire's lead has dropped from 51-45 to 50-48.

"The latest data shows undecided voters slightly breaking for Rossi,
making the election for Governor very, very close headed into the final days" said Matt Barreto, assistant professor of political Science at UW and director of the poll.

"At the same time, polling data have shown Gregoire appears to maintain a lead over Rossi, not just in our poll, but across multiple polls released recently," he said.

The same poll shows that John McCain has closed the gap with Barack Obama in Washington, though not by much. Obama now leads McCain 51-39. The earlier sample had the Obama lead 55-34.

The poll also has number numbers on the state initiatives as well as the regional transit vote. Take a look at the poll here.

Adam Wilson at The Olympian posted this story. And since it's a sister, (the paper, not Adam) I'm stealing it.

Here's a link to Adam's story.

Pierce County has drive-up Vote By Mail Express booths located at various sites.

All will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. today, Monday and Tuesday.

Here are the locations:

Browns Point
Town Center at Browns Point, 1000 Town Center

Bonney Lake
Fred Meyer, 20901 Hwy 410

Edgewood/Milton
Surprise Lake Shopping Center, 900 Meridian E

Gig Harbor
-Purdy Fire Station, 5210 144th Street NW
-Safeway/Big 5, 4811 Point Fosdick Square

Lakewood
Lakewood Towne Center, 6000 Main Street SW

South Hill
Thun Field, 16715 Meridian E

Sumner
Sumner Fred Meyer, 1201 Valley Avenue

Puyallup
Fred Meyer, 1100 N Meridian/River Rd

Parkland/Spanaway
-Bethel Station Rite Aid, 22311 Mountain Hwy E
-Sprinker Recreation Center, 14824 South C Street

University Place
Green Firs Shopping Center, 40th and Bridgeport Way

Tacoma
-Pierce County Annex, 2401 S 35th St
-Rite Aid, 1912 North Pearl Street
-Oasis of Hope, 1937 South G Street
-County-City Building (drop box), 930 Tacoma Ave S, 2nd Floor Lobby, Open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The mother of U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks died Saturday in Bremerton, the Belfair Democrat’s office announced.

Eileen Dicks, 87, died at Harrison Medical Center after a short illness. She was a graduate of Bremerton High School and an active member of the Order of the Eastern Star fraternal organization.

She is survived by two sons, Norm and Leslie, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Her husband of 61 years, Horace Dicks, died earlier. Services are planned for Friday at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Bremerton.

We've been telling you for months that Pierce County is a key battleground in the Chris Gregoire/Dino Rossi rematch for governor. To recap, Rossi won it by four percentage points in their historic 2004 campaign that was decided by 133 votes. In August, Gregoire edged Rossi by 0.09 percentage points in Pierce County in the "top two" primary: 72,388 to 72,258.

So it should be no surprise that both candidates are scheduled to pay a visit on Sunday.

Gregoire is making an appearance with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. The event will be held at 12:30 p.m. at the ILWU Hall, 1306 Alexander Ave. E, Fife.
(Maybe Dean will say this: "We're going to Roy and Eatonville and Graham and Orting! We're going to Gig Harbor and Purdy and Fircrest and Lakewood! And we're going to DuPont and Puy-, uh, Puy- ... I don't know how to pronounce that one. Anyway, YEEEEAAAAWWWWWW!")

Or not.

Rossi plans to visit a campaign phone bank in Puyallup at 3 p.m. The address is 11713 101st Ave.

An hour later, Rossi is scheduled to drop by a phone bank in Federal Way. That one is located at Kalchik Realty LLC,
2025 S.341st Place.

Rossi will be back on Monday with a 10 a.m. rally at the AmVets Hall, 5717 South Tyler, Tacoma.

Update: The Rossi campaign issued an updated schedule and said the event at the AmVets event starts at noon.

Through Friday, 38.4 percent of Pierce County residents who vote by mail had submitted their ballots. The raw numbers: 125,330 out of 326,078 ballots distributed, according to the county auditor's office.

That percentage lags the return in the last presidential election. In 2004, 43.9 percent (117,609 out of 267,373 ballots) had been submitted at this point.

Certainly, there are more close races on the ballot this time.

I presume a lot of folks will vote this weekend. We'll see just how many when the auditor's office updates the numbers at the end of the day on Monday.

If you're one of those folks, then consider checking out our elections page, which includes an archive of the election stories we've published in the past two months (broken down by state, county, local and national), as well as the "Truth O'Meter," which tests the truthfulness of statements made by the presidential campaigns.

It also has a link to the TNT voter guide, which features candidates answers to our questionnaires.

I wrote an article for today's paper that describes how the state's political parties are becoming more aggressive in their use of public records to ensure that every vote is counted, particularly when it comes to voters who cast ballots with a missing or mis-matched signature.

Katie Blinn, assistant elections director for the secretary of state's office, sent the following guidance to elections officials addressing that topic and a variety of others that are likely to come up.

Here's what the elections officials received:

Dear Election Staff,

I have met with both State Parties the past few weeks, and continue to receive lots of questions from them in anticipation of the General. I want to share with you some of what I shared with the Auditors at the WACO conference yesterday.

County Chairs:

I have encourage both State Parties to work through their respective County Chairs as much as possible. I explained to them that the local County Chairs have a better understanding of the procedures in each elections office because they are there every year, not just the Presidential/Gubernatorial elections. Hopefully, the County Chair has built a rapport with your office, and you have built a rapport with each County Chair. Communication will likely be more effective between people who know each other, rather than with “suits from Seattle.” I have also encouraged them to make litigation a last resort, rather than a first resort.

Public Records:

Both parties plan to be submitting many public records requests to our office and your offices. I know that some of these requests are already coming in.

Provisionally Registered Voters:

Both parties are asking many questions about voters who are provisionally registered because they did not clear the ID check during registration. Just a reminder that the applicable WACs are 434-324-045, 434-250-045, 434-253-024, and 434-261-055.

Felons:

I am receiving many questions about felons. In case you receive inquiries, the applicable laws are RCW 29A.08.520 and WAC 434-324-100 and 434-324-106.

Missing or Mismatched Signatures:

I am receiving many questions about how a voter may correct a missing or mismatched signature on the absentee/mail envelope. I fully expect both campaigns to be very geared up for this, contacting voters in counties favorable to their candidate. The applicable statute is RCW 29A.60.165, but please be aware that this statute is ambiguous regarding which signatures actually have to match, so it was clarified a few years ago in WAC 434-261-050.

Voter Registration Challenges:

I am receiving many questions about challenging a person’s voter registration. In case you receive inquiries, the applicable law is RCW 29A.08.810, 29A.08.820, 29A.08.835, and 29A.08.840, and WAC 434-324-115.

Thanks very much!

Katie Blinn

Assistant Director of Elections

Office of the Secretary of State

kblinn@secstate.wa.gov

(360) 902-4168

And one more:

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