NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, August 5th, 2014

Senate challengers Matt Isenhower, Irene Bowling looking strong in 45th and 35th LDs

Democ­rats’ hopes of retak­ing the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate this autumn may rest on the fate of the cam­paigns of first time can­di­dates Matt Isen­how­er and Irene Bowl­ing, if tonight’s elec­tion results are any indication.

Isen­how­er, thir­ty-four, is trail­ing incum­bent Repub­li­can Andy Hill in the 45th by just a few per­cent­age points. He’s out­per­form­ing every oth­er Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­ate chal­lenger, which is note­wor­thy. Isen­how­er is con­test­ing a seat in an area that is increas­ing­ly blue, but still con­sid­ered a swing dis­trict. It will be inter­est­ing to see tomor­row if the gap between Isen­how­er and Hill tight­ens at all.

The 45th, in east­ern King Coun­ty, takes in part of Kirk­land, a slice of Red­mond, most of Wood­inville, a big chunk of Sam­mamish, and incor­po­rat­ed Duvall, along with many unin­cor­po­rat­ed King Coun­ty precincts in between those cities.

In the 35th LD, Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Irene Bowl­ing is mak­ing an incred­i­bly strong show­ing, per­form­ing beyond the expec­ta­tions of most pun­dits. She leads entrenched incum­bent Tim Shel­don and his Repub­li­can chal­lenger Travis Cou­ture, and now seems set for a Novem­ber duel with Sheldon.

Take a look at the numbers:

Irene Bowl­ing
Demo­c­rat		34.85% (8,240 votes)
Tim Shel­don
Repub­li­can (incum­bent)		33.41% (7,900 votes)
Travis Cou­ture
Repub­li­can		31.74% (7,504 votes)

Shel­don, read­ers will recall, is one of two leg­is­la­tors elect­ed as a Demo­c­rat who defect­ed to the Repub­li­can cau­cus at the end of 2012. The oth­er, Rod­ney Tom, opt­ed not to run for reelec­tion — his suc­ces­sor is like­ly to be pro­gres­sive Demo­c­rat Cyrus Habib, who has more than 60% of the vote in ear­ly returns.

The 35th is a rur­al west­ern Wash­ing­ton swing dis­trict that cov­ers much of Mason Coun­ty. Shel­don has rep­re­sent­ed it for years; he also serves on the Mason Coun­ty Com­mis­sion, which has long been a sore spot with many of his constituents.

Written by Andrew Villeneuve :: 8:24 PM

Categories: Breaking News, Elections

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2 Comments

  1. Good luck to the Democ­rats. The Repub­li­can Par­ty is a joke. The few­er state Leg­is­la­tures it con­trols, the better.

    # by Maik L. :: August 11th, 2014 at 10:40 PM

  2. Shel­don’s hold­ing two offices is not such a sore point with his con­stituents as it is with the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Party.

    # by clagett 23 :: August 18th, 2014 at 9:38 PM

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