Seattle City Council candidate Kshama Sawant’s momentum has sometimes slowed in the days since November 5th, but it has never stopped.
Moments ago, King County Elections published new numbers that reflect the latest batch of tabulated ballots. The fresh results show that Sawant is now ahead of incumbent City Councilmember Richard Conlin by more than 1,000 votes.
Yesterday, Sawant had a four hundred and two vote lead. As of today, she has a lead of 1,148 votes, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it was bigger tomorrow.
If she defeats Conlin, Sawant will be the first openly declared Socialist ever elected to the Seattle City Council. Owing to the adoption of Seattle Charter Amendment #19, she would serve only a two-year term. She could choose to run for reelection in the district where she lives or run for one of the at-large seats.
In the meantime, she’ll have an opportunity to shape how Seattle is governed.
It took more than a week for Sawant to actually overtake Conlin, bringing back memories of Sharon Peaslee’s upset victory in 2011 and the triumph of HJR 4204 in 2007 (simple majorities for school levies).
While the outcomes in other called races and other close races have not changed, Sawant has accomplished something remarkable: she has come from behind late in the eleventh hour to take the lead (and most likely win, too).
Meanwhile, in other close races:
- After shrinking to just nineteen votes yesterday, the gap between yes and no on SeaTac Proposition 1 (the Good Jobs initiative) expanded to fifty-three votes today, a very good sign for the measure’s prospects of passing.
- Steve Kasner continues to trail incumbent Bellevue City Councilmember Kevin Wallace in the contest for Position #6. Wallace had a two hundred vote lead of yesterday; he added one vote to his lead today.
- Seattle Proposition 1 (public financing) remains behind by 3,106 votes.
- Democrat Mary Hall remains ahead of Republican Gary Alexander in the Thurston County Auditor’s race.
- Kitsap County has finally joined the Yes on I‑522 camp (we’ll have more on this later tonight in a separate post).
King County Elections’ next update will be at around 4:30 PM tomorrow.