KVI hosts John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur are 0 for 3 in their 2017 “contests that matter”

Last week, pri­or to Elec­tion Day, right wing talk show hosts Kir­by Wilbur and John Carl­son (both long­time fix­tures on KVI who also have served the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty in dif­fer­ent capac­i­ties) released a pod­cast in which they dis­cussed their key picks for the 2017 local elec­tions.

The pair chose to focus on three con­tests in par­tic­u­lar, describ­ing them as “three con­tests that make a dif­fer­ence.” They pushed for a NO vote on King Coun­ty Propo­si­tion #1 (and had the temer­i­ty to call the pro­posed increase in our Vet­er­ans, Seniors, and Human Ser­vices Levy “greed”), called for the elec­tion of Repub­li­can can­di­date Jiny­oung Lee Englund in the 45th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict, and urged Seat­tleites to fire Pete Holmes and replace him with oppo­nent Scott Lindsay.

The ini­tial results are now in, and it looks John and Kir­by’s picks will all lose.

• Vot­ers in King Coun­ty are enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly say­ing yes to Propo­si­tion #1, which renews and expands a levy that passed hand­i­ly four years ago. Even the levy-averse Seat­tle Times edi­to­r­i­al board called for the pas­sage of the Vet­er­ans, Seniors, and Human Ser­vices Levy, say­ing it was need­ed and effec­tive. The Approved vote cur­rent­ly stands at a whop­ping 66.06%.
• Vot­ers in the 45th are deci­sive­ly back­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic stan­dard bear­er Man­ka Dhin­gra in the spe­cial elec­tion to pick a suc­ces­sor to care­tak­er Dino Rossi. Dhin­gra has 55.42% of the vote so far and is on track to win. As a result, the Sen­ate will be in Demo­c­ra­t­ic hands as of the end of this month.
• Vot­ers in Seat­tle have resound­ing­ly decid­ed that incum­bent City Attor­ney Pete Holmes should be returned to office for a third term. Holmes is hav­ing no trou­ble dis­patch­ing oppo­nent Scott Lind­say. He has 72.35% of the vote, while Lind­say could­n’t crack 30%. He will con­tin­ue to be the city’s chief legal offi­cer even as the city gets its fourth new may­or in twelve years.

This is not the first time vot­ers have dis­re­gard­ed the pair’s elec­toral advice.

In 2005, Wilbur and Carl­son used their radio pro­grams to spear­head a cam­paign to repeal the major fund­ing com­po­nent of the 2005 Trans­porta­tion Pack­age. That effort became Ini­tia­tive 912. NPI vig­or­ous­ly opposed I‑912 and worked with Keep Wash­ing­ton Rolling coali­tion part­ners across the state to defeat the measure.

Vot­ers ulti­mate­ly said no to I‑912, hand­ing then Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire a major vic­to­ry and empow­er­ing WSDOT to embark on nec­es­sary projects large and small. High­way cor­ri­dors in every cor­ner of the state received safe­ty improve­ments like cable medi­ans, while megapro­jects in Puget Sound moved forward.

The Ever­green Point Float­ing Bridge across Lake Wash­ing­ton has now been replaced with a mod­ern, seis­mi­cal­ly safe struc­ture and con­trac­tors have fin­ished dig­ging a new tun­nel under­neath down­town Seat­tle to sep­a­rate State Route 99 from the city’s water­front. It is due to open to motorists in 2019.