Tonight, voters ended a lively four-way contest for a battleground county council district by sending the oldest candidate (a well known incumbent who has served several terms) and the youngest candidate (a first time office-seeker) on to the general election for a November matchup.
In the returns just released by King County Elections, Republican Jane Hague and Democrat Richard Mitchell hold the top spots. Hague is far and away the leader with 39% of the vote, but collectively, her opponents have 61% of the vote, which isn’t a good sign for her campaign. Mitchell, meanwhile, leads the group of challengers with 27.87% of the vote. John Creighton is close behind with 25.15% of the vote, and Patsy Bonincontri was a distant fourth with 7.30%.
The numbers:
Ballots Cast/Registered Voters: 24517⁄121139 (20.24%)
Patsy Bonincontri: 7.30% (1,681 votes)
Richard E. Mitchell: 27.87% (6,420 votes)
Jane Hague: 39.30% (9,054 votes)
John Creighton: 25.15% (5,795 votes)
Write-in: 0.39% (89 votes)
Only six hundred and twenty five votes separate Mitchell and Creighton. While it’s possible that Creighton could make up the difference, it’s unlikely. This is a low turnout election, and there won’t be a huge flood of late ballots like we saw last year, with the potential to alter the outcomes of races.
Creighton needs to substantially close the gap tomorrow when the next batch of tabulated ballots are factored in to have a reasonable shot at catching up. Mitchell is assured of moving on as long as he doesn’t give up too much ground.