Dana Bieber, spokeswoman for the No-on-522 campaign, makes victory lap election night — while other side insists outcome is in doubt.
OLYMPIA, Nov. 5.—The uncounted thousands of ballots will tell the story in the Kitsap Peninsula’s superheated Senate race, where Republican Jan Angel held a narrow lead on election night over Democratic appointee Nathan Schlicher.
But Washington voters delivered what looks like a knockout blow to Initiative 522, a food-labeling initiative activists had hoped would make the state the first to take action against genetically modified crops. Another measure that had attracted the national spotlight, a city-of-SeaTac proposition that would impose a $15-an-hour minimum wage, was leading on election night — but with a margin of just 261 votes that contest remained too close to call.
About the only trend in evidence in Washington’s hodge-podge off-year election was that many contests remained in doubt when the first batch of ballots were counted. Washington votes entirely by mail, and election day now is really just a postmark deadline. A low return rate in the days leading up to Tuesday meant that huge numbers of ballots are still likely to arrive in the mail. Thus any contest with a small margin on election night cannot be said to have been decided. On the other hand, there really weren’t many big-stakes races — aside from the ballot measures, the Kitsap Senate race and a mayoral contest in Seattle.
Around the statehouse there were three other races of import. As expected, Senate Democratic Leader Ed Murray will be packing up his office and returning to Seattle, where he handily defeated incumbent Mayor Mike McGinn 56-43.
Senate appointee John Smith, R-Colville, was defeated by Ferry County Commissioner and fellow Republican Brian Dansel, right.
Meanwhile voters in the 7th Legislative District just sent John Smith packing. The Senate appointee from Colville was defeated handily by Ferry County Commissioner Brian Dansel, 54-46. Because both are Republicans, partisan control of the seat was not an issue.
And in the state’s capital city, it wasn’t clear what would become of state Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia, who was appointed earlier this year as Thurston County Auditor. Alexander, prominent at the statehouse as the House Republican budget chief, has announced his intention to resign from his legislative seat by the end of the year. But on election night Alexander was trailing Democratic challenger Mary Hall by nearly 700 votes, 51-49.
No Telling About the 26th
State Rep. Jan Angel, R-Port Orchard, has a slight lead over Senate appointee Nathan Schlicher, D-Gig Harbor.
For the Legislature the biggest question mark is the 26th Legislative District, where Republican Angel and Democrat Nathan Schlicher had been locked in the biggest-spending race in state history. It was the only race this year in partisan control of a seat was at stake, and while a Republican victory will not change control, it could help cement the Majority Coalition Caucus, currently comprised of 23 Republicans and two Democrats. The astounding $2.4 million spent on the race – nearly double the previous record – demonstrated there weren’t many other places for the state’s biggest-spending interests to put their money. And it financed a barrage of campaign fliers, television ads, canvassers and phone-bank calls. In the August primary it appeared Angel had a near unshakable 55-45 advantage. But whether it was the campaign advertising or public furor over the Republican-led shutdown of Congress, Angel’s lead slipped considerably. On election night she was ahead just 51.4 percent to Schlicher’s 48.6.
The hit pieces had quite an effect, Angel said – to the point that voters got sick of it. “People were really angry about how brutal some of the lies were in this campaign,” she said. “I think I did have an advantage in that people have known me in my district for 30 years, and have known me as an elected for 13 years – they would look at the commercials and say is the Jan that we know?”
Perhaps as many as 20,000 ballots remain to be counted in the district. Late ballots have traditionally increased Angel’s score in previous county and legislative races, she said, and she is counting on them to boost her margin. Meanwhile Schlicher, a Tacoma emergency-room physician, is hoping for a surge in his numbers.
“We said all along it was going to be a nail-biter and it is living up to the billing,” he said. “We started out with a 10-point deficit and it looks like it is going to close within a point, which is where we have long said it is going to be. We hope it slips our direction with Kitsap [County] performing like we expect it to, which is outperforming Pierce [County]. We will just keep watching the ballots and keep working the process.”
Genetic Food Labeling Fails
Voters weren’t buying: Scene from Yes-on-522 ad.
They say California sets the pace for the west, and that’s how things turned out for Initiative 522, a repeat of a Golden-State measure from last year that would have required warning labels on foods made with genetically modified ingredients. The measure, favored by food activists and business interests with a stake in the organic market, was virtually a carbon copy of California’s Prop. 37. So was the campaign. The same agribusiness and food-manufacturing interests plowed money into Washington, the same arguments were sounded – and in the end, there was pretty much the same result. In California, it went down 52-48; in Washington, the result on election night was 55-45. The result can be expected to narrow somewhat when King County’s notoriously slow election numbers are posted. The state’s most populous county has a third of the state’s voters, and its generally liberal-leaning electorate was giving the measure the nod by 56-44. But it will be difficult to overcome the measure’s deficit in the rest of the state.
Here advertising was key. The opposition spent $22 million, a record for a single ballot-measure campaign. Before the ads hit TV screens Sept. 16, pollster Stuart Elway found the measure ahead 66-21. Five weeks into the blitz support had plummeted, 46-42. And apparently it continued to drop. The central argument, just as in the campaign down south, was that the labeling rules would force an increase in food prices — $450 a year for the typical family, according to a Washington Research Council report. The point was never challenged directly by the measure’s advocates.
“The numbers look very strong,” said Dana Bieber, spokeswoman for the no campaign. “We are confident that Washington voters have rightly given 522 a no vote. With Washington voters it is always about the facts, and we presented facts that could not be refuted. It was a misleading initiative that is going to be costly for Washington consumers.”
Supporters are holding out hope that King County will pull them through. Said yes-campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth Larter, “King County has a history of having a lot of people who vote later, closer to the election deadline, but we are anticipating more results to come in over the next couple of days. This race is really too close to call at this point. We’ll know more the next couple of days, and we are optimistic about where we stand.”
If the measure goes down, what’s next? Activists are readying a similar campaign next year for the state of Oregon. So a third re-run.
No Telling About Minimum Wage
SeaTac measure imposing $15 minimum wage was leading 54-46 — but because only a small number of voters are registered in city, the margin was only 261 votes.
The SeaTac minimum-wage measure, it is safe to say, probably had more people watching the outcome than actually cast ballots in the race. It was the first test of a national campaign mounted by activists and union officials for a $15 minimum wage. The measure would raise salaries at Sea-Tac International Airport and at off-site airport-related businesses, and would enact a series of rules aimed at boosting union organizing efforts. Essentially it gave the town’s 12,000 registered voters a say in the management of a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, and it threw a chill into hotel operators, parking-lot owners, rental-car companies and airport concessionaires.
On election night the measure was leading 54-46, but this was a case in which the percentages don’t tell much. The actual vote count gave the measure 1,772 yes votes and 1,511 no votes – a 261-vote difference. Money poured into SeaTac– $2 million total — and every single voter in the city was contacted and re-contacted, by mail, by phone, at the front door and on the street. It is a case where just a few votes could change the outcome. “Look, no one really knows how many votes there are left to count, but 260 votes isn’t a large margin,” said Gary Smith, spokesperson for Common Sense SeaTac, the opposition campaign. “Our side remains optimistic that when the votes are counted this will even up.”
Councilman Rick Rick Forschler, who galvanized business-community opposition, was booted by the same percentage.
Perhaps predictably, supporters were calling the margin decisive. In a statement, Yes for SeaTac spokeswoman Heather Weiner said, “This win in SeaTac gives hope to thousands of people working for record-profit making corporations at the airport; hope that they can make bills on time, take care of a sick child, pursue an education, or save for retirement. …Voters in other cities may be soon demanding new approaches like this one to create good jobs that rebuild the economy from the middle out.”
Meanwhile, SeaTac Councilman Rick Forschler, who rallied opposition to the measure in the city, paid a personal price. He went down to apparent defeat to challenger Kathryn Campbell. And it is interesting to note that he lost by the same percentage and roughly the same number of votes as were cast in the ballot measure campaign. In other words, everyone who voted for the initiative voted to boot Forschler from the council.
Other Races
Voters nix initiative on initiatives.
A handful of other contests on this year’s ballot were of interest statewide.
Initiative 517, a measure that would have given initiative signature-gatherers special protections under the law, was soundly defeated 60-40. Retail interests mounted a modest opposition that highlighted the fact it was filed by initiative promoter Tim Eyman. The inside line is that negative associations with Eyman’s name offer a five-point penalty. But that’s not enough to explain the whopping defeat, and the vote might reflect public fatigue with initiative campaigns themselves.
King County Councilman Reagan Dunn.
In King County, Councilman Reagan Dunn won easy re-election over challenger Shari Song, 58-42. Dunn, last year’s Republican candidate for attorney general, is a longtime behind-the-scenes player in Republican-party politics and is seen as a contender for Congress should U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert run for statewide office in 2016.
In Whatcom County, a slate of four progressive candidates with statewide green-group backing appeared headed for the county council. For legal reasons the four candidates aren’t saying whether they will oppose the Gateway Pacific coal terminal proposed for Cherry Point, but it seems a good bet – the Washington Conservation Voters pumped out a flier saying they would, and it spent $279,000 getting them elected. The four men beat a Republican-endorsed jobs slate by wide margins.
In Benton County’s 8th Legislative District, Senate appointee Sharon Brown, R-Kennewick, cruised to easy victory over Richland councilman Philip Lemley, 75-25.
And in the city of Yakima, voters resoundingly approved a measure that would require a two-thirds vote of the city council – five of seven members – in order to pass a tax increase. The measure passed 69-31.
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