u 2010 Washington Primary Election

Democrat state Sen. Chris Marr made up some ground in Wednesday’s counting against Republican Michael Baumgartner, but Marr said it won’t be enough.Marr conceded defeat a few moments ago in an interview with KHQ.His campaign just released this statement:”No matter the outcome of this election, our hopes and aspirations have not changed. … Read more

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Democratic incumbent Patty Murray has expanded her lead over Republican challenger Dino Rossi in the latest Washington state Senate vote totals. Read more

Republican challenger Rob Chase holds a narrow lead over Democratic County Treasurer Skip Chilberg in the vote counting. But an analysis of the vote shows that Chilberg ran strongest in the city of Spokane, while Chase built his margins in the Valley and unincorporated areas. Read more

The GOP tidal wave is being credited with delivering election night victories to candidates at all levels of the political spectrum.Here’s how Kootenai County Coroner-elect Debbie Wilkey described the 2-to-1 trouncing of her co-worker and Democratic opponent, chief deputy coroner Jody DuLuca Hissong, for the open position:“If residents of the county came out to make a change, I’m glad I’m part of that change,” Wilkey, who ran as a Republican, said. “I’m so fully looking forward to doing the job of coroner, it is a true dream come true.”. … Read more

Challenger Vicki Horton is leading incumbent assessor Ralph Baker in many precincts throughout the cities of Spokane, Spokane Valley and Liberty Lake, as well as much of the unincorporated area.For this map, because both candidates are Republicans, we opted out of the standard red and blue format (we didn’t want to decide which Republicandeserved the red shades.) Instead, we used green for Horton and brown/tan for Baker, with gray for precincts where they are currently tied. Read more

Republican challenger Mike Baumgartner is beating Democratic incumbent Sen. Chris Marr in Spokane’s 6th Legislative District by strong showings in precincts outside the city of Spokane.This map shows vote percentages from the end of election night. Read more

The race for Spokane County commissioner, between incumbent Democrat Bonnie Mager and Republican challenger Al French, is currently close, with French holding a lead of about 1,000 votes. But it wasn’t close all over the county. As the map of the ballots counted Tuesday night, French scored victories in much of the suburban and rural areas while Mager did better in many Spokane city precincts. Read more

Election officials say a big surge of votes in the final day likely will push voter turnout over 70 percent in Spokane County.Election drop boxes in a few cases filled up, and election workers had to make extra trips to collect them, said Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton. About 30,000 ballots were collected from thedrop boxes on Tuesday. … Read more

At the end of counting last night, many local Democrats said they suspected that votes from the city of Spokane were under-represented in Tuesday’s counts.Since the city leans strongly in favor of Democrats, that would bode well for the party in later counts. But Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said Wednesday that as of the end of counting on Tuesday, city votes were counted around the same rate as those from outside city limits.That was true even in the 6th Legislative District, she said. … Read more

The tight race for U.S. Senate would have to get noticeably tighter to trigger a mandatory recount.Although tens of thousands of ballots have yet to be counted statewide, including more than 100,000 in King County alone, incumbent Democrat Patty Murray’s current lead over Republican challenger Dino Rossi (722,396 to 708,391 as of the latest election night tabulation) is beyond the one half of 1 percent margin that would trigger a mandantory machine recount under state law.A machine recount also can triggered in statewide races if the the margin between the candidates is less than 2,000 votes. … Read more

Outgoing Congressman Walt Minnick issued a statement early this morning, saying, “It now appears that Raul Labrador will be the victor when all the votes are finally tallied. Therefore, early this morning I placed a call to Raul and wished him every success as Idaho’s next Congressman. Read more

Democrats will hold a three-seat majority in the state Senate and an eight-seat majority in the state House if current trends in election results hold. Read more

Democrats will hold a three-seat majority in the state Senate and an eight-seat majority in the state House if current trends in election results hold.That’s a fairly big if, considering several of the races are within a couple percentage points and subject to change. One, Snohomish County’s 44th, has Democrat Steve Hobbs leading Republican Dave Schmidt by just eight votes. Read more

Patty Murray and Dino Rossi both think the numbers are on their side for a win in Washington’s close U.S. Senate race.Republican challenger Rossi’s campaign released a statement late Tuesday night citing his favorite statistics that would make the race go his way. Among them are that Republicans usually gain a couple percent in ballots counted after election day and that he’s doing very well in Spokane County, which still expects to count large numbers of ballots.Democratic incumbent Murray’s campaign countered just after midnight with a different analysis, noting that King County, where she was polling about 62 percent of the vote, may have as many as 350,000 votes left to count.As morning dawns Wednesday, they are separated by about 14,000 votes, or 1 percent of those counted so far. … Read more

Washington voters removed some taxes and made it tougher for the Legislature to create new ones, but seemed to turn down plans to privatize some state services. Idaho voters passed a string of changes to the state’s bonding rules designed to help hospitals, airports and other public projects. And Spokane voters turned thumbs down to Proposition 1, a plan to raise $5 million per year to help fight high school dropout rates. Read more

Washington Republicans were lifted by a national tide in Tuesday’s elections, one that cost Democrats at least one of the state’s congressional seats and left a key U.S. Senate seat in doubt. Early returns indicate the tide will carry more Republicans into the still solidly Democratic-controlled Legislature in Olympia, and to the already Republican-dominated courthouse in Spokane. Because Washington votes will continue to arrive in the mail for more than a week, close races might not be decided until right before Thanksgiving. Read more

The Sasquatch of politics has come and gone again. And we’re left to consider whether the Undecided Voter really exists, and if so, what natural phenomena provide an explanation. Read more

For 11-03-2010 Read more

Washington • Initiative 1053 Read more

Here are initial results from contested races elsewhere across the Inland Northwest. • Assessor Read more

Running election updates for Spokane County and Eastern Washington. Read more

Jaime Herrera was elected to Washington state’s open 3rd Congressional District seat tonight, becoming the first Republican to represent the district in a dozen years. Read more

Spokane County will release two rounds of vote totals tonight, one shortly after voting closes at 8 p.m., and another between 10:30 and 11 p.m.Old election hands can remember when the county had poll site voting and would release up to a dozen updates on election night. After switching to all-mail balloting, the county has had election nights where it released one tally, and others when it released two.Other than keeping people in suspense, what this means is that folks at the election parties will have a reason to stick around and have a new round of results to either cheer or boo. Read more

Deputy Kootenai County Prosecutor Jim Reierson has been campaigning for write-in votes for the top prosecutor spot in Spokane County, but it’s a race he can’t legally win.Running as a candidate who prefers the “Law and Order” Party, Reierson lost his bid for that job in the primary. Washington state has statutes and administrative law that prevent a primary loser from filing a petition for a write-in campaign in the general, and without such a petition on file, write-in votes aren’t tallied.”The votes will not be counted,” State Elections Director Nick Handy said.”No write-in vote for that candidate is valid,” Katie Blinn, legal adviser to the Secretary of State’s office said. … Read more

Candidates up and down the ticket scrambled for votes on Election Day. Read more

Candidates for Washington’s top electoral prize, a U.S. Senate seat that could determine which party controls that chamber of Congress for the next two years, started their full final day of the campaign at dawn, on opposite sides of the state.Republican challenger Dino Rossi had breakfast at a downtown diner, greeting the morning crowd at the counter and telling eight longtime supporters “We’re getting there.” Rossi said he tries to stop at Frank’s Diner just south of the Maple Street Bridge whenever he’s in town. … Read more

We did it, my friends. We have somehow reached the finish line of Campaign 2010. Tonight the votes will be counted, the winners will be declared, and the country will be polarized even worse than it was before all the name-calling started. Read more

State Sen. Chris Marr addresses Democrats at the Lincoln Center on Tuesday night, Nov. 2, 2010. Read more

Michael Baumgartner celebrates with supporters at the Spokane County Republic Party’s election night event at the Davenport Hotel on Tuesday night, Nov. 2, 2010. Baumgartner was leading state Sen. Chris Marr in early returns. Read more

State Rep. John Driscoll, a Democrat, talks about the early returns in Spokane County on Tuesday night, Nov. 2, 2010. Read more

Democratic challenger Daryl Romeyn reacts to early numbers in his race against Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010. Read more

Democrat Andy Billig reacts to his early lead in a state House race on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010. Read more

State Sen. Chris Marr, a Democrat trailing challenger Michael Baumgartner, talks about the second drop of results Tuesday night, Nov. 2, 2010. Read more

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers speaks to supporters at the Davenport after cruising to re-election to Congress on Nov. 2, 2010. Read more

Months of television commercials, weeks of campaign mailers and days of street-corner sign waving end today. The election is now out of the hands of the candidates and the consultants, and in the hands of the voters.In Washington, which has all-mail voting in all counties except Pierce County, today is the day voters must have their ballots postmarked, or placed in a deposit box before 8 p.m. … Read more