Kristine Reeves
Kristine Reeves (courtesy of the campaign)

Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Kris­tine Reeves has regained a nar­row lead over Repub­li­can incum­bent Teri Hick­el in the con­test for 30th LD State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Posi­tion 2, as of the com­ple­tion of the fourth tab­u­la­tion of bal­lots since Elec­tion Night.

On Fri­day, Hick­el had a lead of just two votes, with a total of 9,009 votes to Reeves’ 9,007. Reeves had been ahead in the ini­tial two counts on Tues­day and Wednes­day of last week, but was over­tak­en by Hick­el in the Thurs­day count.

Hick­el’s sev­en­ty-one vote lead last­ed all of twen­ty-four hours, and now it’s com­plete­ly gone, with Reeves hav­ing won back a small lead of her own.

Who wins is incon­se­quen­tial for the pur­pos­es of qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the Novem­ber bal­lot, because the Top Two is an elec­tion that pro­duces two win­ners — and Reeves and Hick­el were the only peo­ple who filed to run House, Posi­tion 2 in the 30th. They’ve both been guar­an­teed a spot on the Novem­ber bal­lot since the close of Fil­ing Week back in May. And they are so close togeth­er in this beau­ty con­test that the race can be called a text­book case of a dead heat.

Regard­less, there is a sym­bol­ic vic­to­ry to be won here. Who­ev­er emerges as the can­di­date with the most votes at the end of count­ing will be able to declare on the cam­paign trail from now until Novem­ber 8th that they received the most votes in the first round. Sym­bol­ic vic­to­ries are use­ful for ener­giz­ing sup­port­ers and donors.

Democ­rats and Repub­li­cans are watch­ing the con­test between Reeves and Hick­el close­ly (along with the con­test between Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Mike Pel­lic­ciot­ti and Repub­li­can incum­bent Lin­da Kochmar for the oth­er House posi­tion) because it’s in the 30th that con­trol of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives could well be decided.

 

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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One reply on “Kristine Reeves takes thirteen vote lead over Teri Hickel in 30th District House race”

  1. The Sec­re­tary of State’s web­site says Reeves is up by 6 votes, 10,103 to Hick­el’s 10,097. But Kris­tine Reeves con­tin­ues to demon­strate she turned out the late vot­ers. Vot­ers show up when the can­di­dates and their cam­paigns fig­ure out how to make them pay atten­tion. Amaz­ing­ly, almost as many votes have been cast in this top-two August elec­tion as were cast in the Novem­ber 2015 Gen­er­al Elec­tion when Hick­el beat her Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nent. There’s some­thing impor­tant hap­pen­ing here in the 30th Dis­trict. Also, Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Mike Pel­li­ciot­ti has a sol­id 5 point lead over 2‑term Repub­li­can incum­bent Lin­da Kochmar, who also served for years on the Fed­er­al Way city council.

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