Election Results: A Great Night for Transit
7 More "Rapid Ride +" corridors, now funded
In initial results posted last night, Seattle voters largely embraced the center-left urbanism of Mayor Murray, approving Move Seattle, retaining all 5 City Council incumbents, and easily beating anti-growth candidates such as Bill Bradburd. Happily, here at STB we are enjoying a 9-0 lead in our Council endorsements, though races may shift as more ballots come in. Here's a roundup of the early returns.
Council Races- In West Seattle's District 1, Shannon Braddock has a narrow lead over Lisa Herbold, 53-47. Expect this race to tighten.
- In Southeast Seattle's District 2, Bruce Harrell has a comfortable lead over Tammy Morales, 55-45. However, low voter registration and low turnout means that his nominal lead is small, just 889 votes.
- In Central Seattle's District 3, Kshama Sawant opened a 52-47 lead that will surely grow as late ballots trickle in. Sawant's 8,200 votes nearly exceed Harrell and Morales' combined tally in District 2, giving you a sense of the imbalance in turnout between districts.
- In Northeast Seattle's District 4, the win-win race between Rob Johnson and Michael Maddux tipped toward Johnson, 55-45.
- In North Seattle's District 5, Debora Juarez handily beat Rev. Sandy Brown, 63-46.
- In Northwest Seattle's District 6, incumbent Mike O'Brien had a tighter race than expected but still won easily, 58-40.
- In Downtown's District 7, Sally Bagshaw faced no credible challenger, winning 80-20.
- In a heated at-large race in Position 8, incumbent Tim Burgess opened a 58-42 lead, a difference of 13,000 votes. Tho Grant did not concede and the final tally will be tighter, his likely insurmountable deficit is exactly double the one overcome by Sawant against Richard Conlin two years ago.
- In a sleepy race for at-large Position 9, Lorena Gonzalez easily dispatched Bill Bradburd, 76-23.
Despite internal polling predicting doom that had election party attendees nervously nursing their beers, Move Seattle jumped out to a comfortable lead, 56-44. The Northgate Bridge is now fully funded. 7 more corridors will get bumped up to RapidRide standards. Half the Bicycle Master Plan is now funded on top of normal appropriations. Graham Street Station is still alive and kicking, though in need of more funds and more political persuasion. Routes to school all over town will be slower, safer, and more humanly scaled. Thank you to Seattle voters for being generous with your dollars and supportive of our mutual rights to a safer, saner city.
In a race too close to call, Snohomish County voters within Community Transit's tax district are approving Prop 1 by razor thin margins, 50.83% to 49.17%, just a 746 vote lead. This measure would build two more Swift BRT lines, create a frequent service network in Snohomish County, and prepare Community Transit to optimize for Link's arrival in 2023.
I-1366Tim Eyman's $8B missile aimed at the state budget is regrettably passing, 54-46, with only King, Thurston, Jefferson, and San Juan counties opposing. The measure would cut the state sales tax from 6.5% to 5.5% unless the legislature puts before the voters a two-thirds threshold for raising taxes.
Other Races- In King County Council Position 6, Bellevue Mayor Claudia Balducci beat incumbent Jane Hague handily, 60-40.
- Incumbent Snohomish County Executive John Lovick was beaten by Dave Somers, 57-42.
- In Mercer Island, Mayor Bruce Bassett fended off a challenge from anti Sound Transit and "Save Our Suburbs" founder Thomas Acker.
- In Burien, pro-transit newcomer Austin Bell has a mere 2 vote lead over Darla Green.
As the results came in last night, Martin and Frank recorded their latest podcast. Tune in to hear Martin nearly perfectly predict the results.
https://media.blubrry.com/seattletransitblog/s3.amazonaws.com/stb-wp/wp-content/podcasts/STB_podcast_5.mp3What else interesting happened last night? Let us know in the comments.