With the latest count of primary votes Democrats appear to be in pretty good shape (compared to speculation) going into November’s election with just a few exceptions.
Washington State’s election system uses a “Top 2 Primary” in partisan races where the two candidates who receive the most votes in the Primary Election qualify for the General Election.
You will find the results of the Legislative races here.
If you remember back in 1994 several conservative Democrats decided not to run for re-election in several legislative races and those that did run trailed in many of their races. Republicans actually finished stronger in the general election in 1994. Thanks to vote by mail, voter apathy is a little less of a factor but there are a few races that concern me but this is not even close to the Republican sweep of 1994.
For starters Democrats in the 1st Legislative District are running way too close for comfort against the Republicans in a race for two open House seats.
Spokane’s urban 3rd District looks to be in really good shape. However, in Spokane County’s 6th District, Democratic incumbent Senator Chris Marr trails in his race and the Democratic incumbent House Representative John Driscoll only garnered 40% of the vote in the primary against two Republicans.
Things also don’t look rosy in the 17th District where incumbent Democrat Tim Probst collected only 47% of the vote and Democrat Deb Wallace is not running. The Republican in that open seat has 55% of the vote in the primary.
Openly gay incumbent Representative Marko Liias did earn over 51%, however, the other Democratic Representative in the 21st District has over 58% of the vote in her race.
While four-term Democratic incumbent Dawn Morrell earned only 40% of the vote against five other challengers in Puyallup’s 25th District, this one is winable in the general election.
In the 27th District, Laurie Jinkins could be the state’s first openly lesbian legislator and she leads in the primary with 33% of the vote. She will face either Democrat Jake Fey or Independent Ken Nichols in the general election.
A very surprising development in the 31st District, Senator Pam Roach earned 40% of the vote BUT could possible face another Republican Matt Richardson, who earned 22% of the vote. Democrats would be forced to choose between one of the Republicans in the general election. And not to mention also in the 31st District, incumbent Democrat Chris Hurst earned over 58% of the vote.
In the 34th District’s open seat, 23-year-old Democrat Joe Fitzgibbon will face fiscal conservative Democrat Mike Heavey in the general election.
In 35th District House races, the two incumbent Democrats, Fred Finn and Kathy Haigh, were much too close to their Republican challengers for comfort.
Same in the Eastside’s 41st District, where Senator Democrat Randy Gordon (appointed to Fred Jarrett’s open position) and incumbent Democrat Marcie Maxwell are too close to feel comfortable for the general election. In the 45th District, incumbent Senator Democrat Eric Oemig has less than 50% of the vote.
Seven term Democrat Kelli Linville (42nd District) gathered less than 50% of the vote but should be able to squeak by in the general election.
Democrat Steve Hobbs (37%) will face Republican Senator Dave Schmidt (36%) in a battle to watch in the 44th District.
In the 47th District, incumbent Democrats Claudia Kauffman and Geoff Simpson appear to need the most help in getting re-elected in November.
While I pointed out some races to watch this is certainly not 1994, back when Republicans won in districts that they don’t even bother to run for office in today. The whole posting was kind of thrown together quite quickly but I promise to do a much more detailed analysis following the November election, though we may not know the final results for several days.
Update: While the anti-gay Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson was re-elected and will not need to run in the general election, Richard Sanders is still below 50%, which means he will need to face Charlie Wiggins in the general election to be re-elected.
