Charlie Wiggins cuts Richard Sanders' lead again; Rick Larsen declared victor in WA-02
It's almost been a week since Election Day, but elections officials across Washington are still busy tabulating ballots, especially in King County, where higher than expected turnout is lifting Democrats and progressives in many important races.
In the one remaining contested Supreme Court race, Kitsap County attorney Charlie Wiggins continues to close in on entrenched incumbent Richard Sanders. As of this evening, Wiggins had cut Sanders' lead to just 3,785 votes, out of more than 1.7 million votes cast. The Supreme Court race isn't partisan, but most progressives are rooting for Wiggins because Sanders is a paleoconservative who is on record as opposing marriage equality, reproductive rights for women, and supporting Tim Eyman's destructive, unconstitutional initiatives.
Wiggins is doing reasonably well in King County, capturing 57% of the vote. He's also winning San Juan, Kitsap, Thurston, Jefferson, Clallam, Pacific, and Garfield counties. It's remarkable that he's nearly pulled even with Sanders, considering he's losing the densest swing counties (Snohomish, Pierce, and Spokane). But he's got Thurston and Kitsap in his corner, which is incredibly important, because it's not possible to win a statewide race by only winning King County.
This contest may go to a recount — we'll have to see.
Meanwhile, Representative Rick Larsen continues to remain ahead of John Koster, who he first beat ten years ago in 2000 when he was initially elected to Congress. Koster's team, led by theocon Larry Stickney, hasn't admitted defeat yet, but it's evident that Larsen is on his way to victory.
It was actually apparent last week to anybody who was tracking election results, but media outlets waited to "call" the race until today.
We don't care much for predictions and projections, otherwise we might have joined David Goldstein in riffing on the traditional media and using their form to proclaim Larsen the victor, then joined in congratulating ourselves for beating them to the punch. But that's just not our style, so we didn't bother. Anybody can get into the business of picking winners and losers. Providing meaningful analysis — which the media does a lousy job of these days — is a lot harder.
Finally, in what has to be one of the best comeback stories of the election, Roger Goodman has succeeded in almost completely reversing his position on Election Night, when he trailed Republican challenge Kevin Haistings 51% to 49%. Goodman hasn't cracked 51% yet, but he's close, and he'll probably cross the mark tomorrow. As of today, Goodman had a nine hundred and seventy five vote lead, up from three hundred and seventy five on Friday.
The numbers:
Roger Goodman: 50.93% (24,190 votes)
Kevin Haistings: 49.00% (23,273 votes)
Goodman's colleague in the 45th, State Senator Eric Oemig, continues to edge closer to Andy Hill, but not by enough to claim the lead.
However, it's possible that Hill's margin of victory could end up being less than twelve hundred votes. The difference between the two candidates is just 1,588 votes now, down sixty two from Friday.
In the one remaining contested Supreme Court race, Kitsap County attorney Charlie Wiggins continues to close in on entrenched incumbent Richard Sanders. As of this evening, Wiggins had cut Sanders' lead to just 3,785 votes, out of more than 1.7 million votes cast. The Supreme Court race isn't partisan, but most progressives are rooting for Wiggins because Sanders is a paleoconservative who is on record as opposing marriage equality, reproductive rights for women, and supporting Tim Eyman's destructive, unconstitutional initiatives.
Wiggins is doing reasonably well in King County, capturing 57% of the vote. He's also winning San Juan, Kitsap, Thurston, Jefferson, Clallam, Pacific, and Garfield counties. It's remarkable that he's nearly pulled even with Sanders, considering he's losing the densest swing counties (Snohomish, Pierce, and Spokane). But he's got Thurston and Kitsap in his corner, which is incredibly important, because it's not possible to win a statewide race by only winning King County.
This contest may go to a recount — we'll have to see.
Meanwhile, Representative Rick Larsen continues to remain ahead of John Koster, who he first beat ten years ago in 2000 when he was initially elected to Congress. Koster's team, led by theocon Larry Stickney, hasn't admitted defeat yet, but it's evident that Larsen is on his way to victory.
It was actually apparent last week to anybody who was tracking election results, but media outlets waited to "call" the race until today.
We don't care much for predictions and projections, otherwise we might have joined David Goldstein in riffing on the traditional media and using their form to proclaim Larsen the victor, then joined in congratulating ourselves for beating them to the punch. But that's just not our style, so we didn't bother. Anybody can get into the business of picking winners and losers. Providing meaningful analysis — which the media does a lousy job of these days — is a lot harder.
Finally, in what has to be one of the best comeback stories of the election, Roger Goodman has succeeded in almost completely reversing his position on Election Night, when he trailed Republican challenge Kevin Haistings 51% to 49%. Goodman hasn't cracked 51% yet, but he's close, and he'll probably cross the mark tomorrow. As of today, Goodman had a nine hundred and seventy five vote lead, up from three hundred and seventy five on Friday.
The numbers:
Roger Goodman: 50.93% (24,190 votes)
Kevin Haistings: 49.00% (23,273 votes)
Goodman's colleague in the 45th, State Senator Eric Oemig, continues to edge closer to Andy Hill, but not by enough to claim the lead.
However, it's possible that Hill's margin of victory could end up being less than twelve hundred votes. The difference between the two candidates is just 1,588 votes now, down sixty two from Friday.
# Posted by Andrew : 6:18 PM
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