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:

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.