Results mixed in Whatcom and Spokane

Both Spokane and What­com Coun­ty have released the first wave of their elec­tion returns to unclear results, with many of the races too close to com­fort­ably call.

For the may­oral race in Belling­ham, it seems that for­mer 42nd Dis­trict leg­is­la­tor Kel­li Linville has tak­en the lead by about 400 votes; we’ll see if that lead is main­tained as time goes on. Incum­bent Dan Pike has been try­ing to dis­tin­guish him­self from Kel­li by tak­ing a strong stance on the pro­posed Cher­ry Point Coal Ter­mi­nal despite it being an issue he or the city coun­cil would not be able to direct­ly decide and Linville’s sim­i­lar repeat­ed oppo­si­tion to coal ter­mi­nal. Con­sid­er­ing union endorse­ments of Kel­li Linville, play­ing up the divide the coal ter­mi­nal cre­ates between envi­ron­men­tal­ists and the labor move­ment seems to have been a move on Pike’s part to dis­play the dif­fer­ences between the can­di­dates and appeal to a dif­fer­ent vot­ing bloc.

In this vein the cur­rent results are curi­ous, because either the coal ter­mi­nal did­n’t res­onate as a the­mat­ic issue with vot­ers in this year’s elec­tion or the enivi­ron­men­tal votes still need to be count­ed by the audi­tor’s office; Alan Black and Christi­na Mag­in­nis are behind in the What­com Coun­ty Coun­cil races, and Pete Kre­men, the cur­rent Coun­ty Exec­u­tive, only holds a slight lead in his Coun­ty Coun­cil elec­tion, a run­ning for posi­tions which will have deci­sive pow­er in the next few years to set up obsta­cles to SSA Marine’s permit. 

Pete Kre­men will prob­a­bly widen his lead to Tony Lar­son; Christi­na Mag­in­nis and Alan Black will move clos­er to pulling off a vic­to­ry in their respec­tive races as more bal­lots are count­ed, espe­cial­ly because of the ten­den­cy of young vot­ers to vote lat­er in the elec­tion peri­od (Mag­in­nis is los­ing by a small­er mar­gin than Alan Black is). We’ll stay hope­ful on this front. All three were endorsed by the Wash­ing­ton Con­ser­va­tion Vot­ers in their oppo­si­tion to the coal terminal. 

Back to Belling­ham, Cathy Lehman has trounced Bar­ry Buchanan in the race for the city coun­cil seat in Ward 3; Lehman has run a very per­son­able cam­paign and has embraced a vari­ety of issues in her first run for office. She’ll be a strong voice on the coun­cil for solv­ing many of the prob­lems which Belling­ham will face in the com­ing years. Incum­bent Seth Fleet­wood has defeat­ed the Tea Par­ty-inclined chal­lenger Lar­ry Farr for the coun­cil at-large position.

Mov­ing across the state to the City of Spokane, one bal­lot item shines out; Propo­si­tion 1, which was the most recent iter­a­tion of a push to give the city a Com­mu­ni­ty Bill of Rights, includ­ing a pro­vi­sion to give enforce­able rights to the Spokane Riv­er and liv­ing wage pro­tec­tions inside the city. The propo­si­tion, put for­ward by Envi­sion Spokane, failed the last time it was put on the bal­lot, in large part to an advi­so­ry ques­tion insert­ed by a city coun­cilmem­ber which implied that tax­es would have to be raised if the Bill of Rights was passed. Such a ques­tion was not put on the bal­lot this year, and cur­rent­ly the mea­sure is only behind by 115 votes. If this pass­es, it would be a his­toric event, and it is def­i­nite­ly a sit­u­a­tion which should be kept an eye on.

There are def­i­nite­ly a lot more inter­est­ing races in these areas, but we decid­ed to give you an overview of some of the most per­ti­nent. We’ll make sure to keep you updat­ed on any new devel­op­ments in these races as we get more infor­ma­tion from the audi­tors’ offices.