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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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