Two Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates are com­fort­ably ahead of their oth­er ten rivals in the twelve per­son race for Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor in ear­ly Top Two elec­tion results, which means that the office is pret­ty much guar­an­teed to remain held by the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty until at least the next pres­i­den­tial elec­tion cycle.

Retir­ing Unit­ed States Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Den­ny Heck and State Sen­a­tor Marko Liias are eas­i­ly out­pac­ing five Repub­li­cans, two Lib­er­tar­i­ans, and one oth­er Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date to claim the top two spots in the race to suc­ceed out­go­ing Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Cyrus Habib, who is leav­ing pol­i­tics to join the Jesuits.

Heck is com­fort­ably in first place with 27.71% of the vote, while Liias has a firm grasp on sec­ond place with 16.6%. Repub­li­can Ann Davi­son Sat­tler is in third place, with 11.55%. The Repub­li­can vote is split between a total of five can­di­dates, as men­tioned above, with the oth­ers being Mar­ty McClen­don (10.8%), Dick Muri (9.9%), Joseph Brum­bles (7.58%), and Bill Penor.

Den­ny Heck and Marko Liias, can­di­dates for Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor (Cam­paign photos)

The dynam­ics in this race mir­ror those in the 2016 Trea­sur­er’s race, which saw two Repub­li­cans advance to the gen­er­al elec­tion from the Top Two elec­tion due to three Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates (one of whom was Liias) each split­ting the vote almost equal­ly and com­ing in behind the Republicans.

In a real pri­ma­ry, vot­ers pick nom­i­nees to rep­re­sent each par­ty on the gen­er­al elec­tion bal­lot, so this sort of out­come would be unheard of in most oth­er states. Wash­ing­ton, how­ev­er, does not have a real primary.

That’s because Wash­ing­to­ni­ans vot­ed in 2004 to insti­tute a “top two” qual­i­fy­ing elec­tion sys­tem at the urg­ing of the state Grange and its allies.

The Top Two can be thought of as the first round in a mul­ti-round gen­er­al elec­tion, with the autumn elec­tion serv­ing as the final round or runoff. The pur­pose of the first round is to win­now every field of can­di­dates down to no more than two, and the law says it does­n’t mat­ter what par­ty they asso­ciate with.

That’s why a gen­er­al elec­tion bal­lot can fea­ture two Democ­rats and two Repub­li­cans, even in statewide races like this one.

The Top Two is an awful sys­tem, deny­ing minor par­ties bal­lot access and reduc­ing ide­o­log­i­cal diver­si­ty on Wash­ing­to­ni­ans’ autumn bal­lots, and deserves to be repealed. Hope­ful­ly, at some point in the 2020s, it will be.

The Heck vs. Liias out­come is sure to frus­trate Repub­li­cans, just as the Trea­sur­er race frus­trat­ed Democ­rats four years ago. Though Repub­li­cans were not like­ly to win any­way, they have no chance at all and no can­di­date to ral­ly behind in the gen­er­al because they did not cull the field of can­di­dates who want­ed the job.

The Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty clear­ly learned from its expe­ri­ence in the Trea­sur­er’s race, as it put up one and only one can­di­date for the posi­tion this year (Mike Pel­lic­ciot­ti), who is incum­bent Repub­li­can Duane David­son’s sole challenger.

Both Heck and Liias are expe­ri­enced elect­ed lead­ers with broad sup­port behind their can­di­da­cies. Heck is endorsed by the state’s for­mer liv­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nors, most of his col­leagues in Con­gress, and by four term Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Brad Owen, Cyrus Habib’s pre­de­ces­sor. Liias is endorsed by Habib and near­ly all of his col­leagues in the Wash­ing­ton State Senate.

Both can­di­dates are backed by the Wash­ing­ton State Labor Coun­cil and the Wash­ing­ton Con­ser­va­tion Vot­ers, which dual endorsed.

Heck is cur­rent­ly win­ning every coun­ty in West­ern Wash­ing­ton except for Lewis Coun­ty, which is extreme­ly right wing. He’s also win­ning Whit­man and Wal­la Wal­la coun­ties. Liias is not win­ning any coun­ties, but will nev­er­the­less advance on to the gen­er­al elec­tion thanks to his per­for­mance in King and Sno­homish counties.

Repub­li­can Mar­ty McClen­don is win­ning most of the small­er coun­ties east of the Cas­cades, though he has few­er votes over­all than Ann Davi­son Sattler.

The Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor of Wash­ing­ton State has three prin­ci­pal respon­si­bil­i­ties: pre­side over the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate, fill in for the gov­er­nor as need­ed, and serve as a bridge between the con­suls based in the cities of the Pacif­ic North­west and the gov­ern­ment of Wash­ing­ton State. (Con­suls are diplo­mat­ic offi­cials who rep­re­sent oth­er coun­tries, like Swe­den, Mex­i­co, or Japan.)

The Con­sti­tu­tion per­mits the Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor to cast a vote in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate in order to break a tie. Ties are uncom­mon, since the Sen­ate had an odd num­ber of mem­bers, but they do occa­sion­al­ly happen.

If Heck wins in the runoff, he could be spend­ing a lot of time inter­act­ing with Liias in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate if Liias keeps his cur­rent posi­tion as Major­i­ty Floor Leader. It is the Major­i­ty Floor Lead­er’s job to bring pro­ce­dur­al and busi­ness motions on behalf of the cham­ber’s major­i­ty cau­cus, which entails apply­ing for (and receiv­ing!) recog­ni­tion from the Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor on a con­stant basis.

If Liias wins, he will need to resign from the Sen­ate (he’s mid­way through a four year term) to take the job he’s now seek­ing. A spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus would be called to draw up a list of poten­tial suc­ces­sors, one of whom would be cho­sen by the Sno­homish Coun­ty Coun­cil to take Liias’ place in the Sen­ate. All names on the list would be Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates, sub­mit­ted by the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Party.