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 7th, 2018

5th District Democrats celebrate as early returns put Bill Ramos and Lisa Callan ahead

At an elec­tion night watch par­ty for Demo­c­ra­t­ic state House hope­fuls Bill Ramos and Lisa Callan in Issaquah, a cheer erupt­ed as the ini­tial elec­tion results appeared on the big screen. The num­bers showed both can­di­dates with a major­i­ty of the vote.

Ramos, an Issaquah City Coun­cilmem­ber, has 53.64% to Repub­li­can Chad Magen­danz’s 46.36%, while Callan, an Issaquah school board mem­ber, has 52.92%. Oppo­nent (and incum­bent) Paul Graves has 45.67%. A third can­di­date, Ryan Dean Bur­kett, has 1.42% of the vote and will not be going on to November.

Callan and Ramos were joined at the Rogue Issaquah Brew­house by a large con­tin­gent of fam­i­ly, friends and volunteers.

The night began with casu­al con­ver­sa­tion and warm greet­ings as guests took an occa­sion­al peek at the devel­op­ments in Ohio’s 12th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, where Demo­c­rat Dan­ny O’Con­nor remains locked in a fierce bat­tle with his Repub­li­can oppo­nent Troy Balder­son in a spe­cial election.

Both cam­paign man­agers took time out to rec­og­nize some of the most active callers and door-knock­ers for their vital efforts over the past sev­er­al weeks.

Min­utes after the bal­lot drop box­es closed, the first results were post­ed and it was clear both can­di­dates were going to fin­ish the night in first place.

Ramos and Callan gath­ered with their cam­paign man­agers at the front of the hall, smil­ing and pos­ing for cel­e­bra­to­ry pictures.

Hap­py phone calls were made and there were plen­ty of hugs to go around.

As the can­di­dates took a moment to thank their guests and sup­port­ers, Callan made a point of high­light­ing the vol­un­teers who fueled both cam­paigns, knock­ing on over 31,000 doors and mak­ing more than 3,000 calls to voters.

As she put it, vol­un­teers formed the “back­bone of this campaign.”

“It’s absolute­ly all about vot­er con­tact,” she added. “Peo­ple are engaged, they’re lis­ten­ing, and they like what they hear.”

Ramos also focused on vol­un­teer efforts and how they reached more than 30,000 donors so far. “And we’ll reach 30,000 more in the next nine­ty days,” he pledged. “The work pays off. It’s the work that does it.”

The evening con­tin­ued with food, drink and joy­ful con­ver­sa­tion as guests stayed to vis­it, cel­e­brate, and watch the rest of the results roll in across the state, with cheers for every Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date lead­ing and win­ning tonight.

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