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Top Two Primary day open thread

Tue, 08/19/2008 - 8:14am — emmettoconnell

I have to admit, even though I'm a cautionary fan of all mail voting, election day doesn't hold the same zing (I guess that's the word I'm looking for) as it did back when I would have driven to a polling station this morning.

This would have been the first time I'd have brought my son with me too. Oh, the romance.

Ok, so what's everyone looking for today in the results?

Personally, I'm looking to see who ends up being in the Top Two with our congressman, Brian Baird. There are some local races that are interesting, like who is going to face off in the open seat in the 35th and whether Ed Holm will have a new job.

UPDATE: Forgot to add these links ealier today:

Thurston County Results

Statewide results 

Comments

Tue, 08/19/2008 - 8:45am — Logarithm

Voter turnout

I'm looking for a lot of people participating in the process.
Tue, 08/19/2008 - 9:45am — Robert Whitlock

I am looking for some upsets

I am looking for some underdog winners.

Emmett, so you're pretty confident that Brian Baird will advance?

I think it might be too close for comfort.




Tue, 08/19/2008 - 9:47am — emmettoconnell

yupper

I'm pretty sure he'll get over 50 percent.

Tue, 08/19/2008 - 11:08am — wilson

Emmett, who do you endorse

Emmett, who do you endorse for Dog Catcher?
Tue, 08/19/2008 - 7:38pm — emmettoconnell

Romero

Since Thurston County has an animal control department, county commissioner is about as close as I can get to dog catcher. And, in that race, Halvorson and Romero are the only two serious candidates, both Democrats. And, I'd go for Romero (and I know you and I disagree on this) because of Halvorson's track record in Lacey.

Tue, 08/19/2008 - 4:11pm — Laurian

My guess is 62%

n/t
Tue, 08/19/2008 - 4:28pm — the original ep

Baird

should go back to whatever he was doing before, I went for Christ. His support of the surge is plain nuts. Iraq denied the oil contracts the other day, no news coverage, of course, the whole thing was in vain, it makes me sick and he is partly responsible.
Tue, 08/19/2008 - 5:36pm — Robert Whitlock

Baird and the Surge

Baird also lost me on the surge. I have also been meaning to ask him what he meant when he used the adjective "bloody" to describe Olympia.

Yes, of course the USA owes it to the Iraqi people to fix the wrongs. But fixing the wrongs must start with holding responsible parties to account. The invasion was wrongful. And so is the occupation. When Baird endorsed the 'Surge' he offered some legitimacy to whole wrongful incident.




Tue, 08/19/2008 - 4:29pm — the original ep

Baird

should go back to whatever he was doing before, I went for Christ. His support of the surge is plain nuts. Iraq denied the oil contracts the other day, no news coverage, of course, the whole thing was in vain, it makes me sick and he is partly responsible.
Tue, 08/19/2008 - 8:07pm — emmettoconnell

The first counts are up

Right now, Gregoire at 48 percent, Rossi 45. Practically no one is voting outside the top two in this one.

Tue, 08/19/2008 - 8:09pm — emmettoconnell

only Kitsap reporting

And, with 29,000 ballots still to count there it looks like 50 percent plus turnout. Wow.

Tue, 08/19/2008 - 8:16pm — emmettoconnell

Holy Cats, Halvorson!

I know I'm talking to myself right now, but if I'm reading the results correctly, Jon Halvorson didn't make it into the Top Two!

 

          County Commissioner   District No. 2
          Vote for One  1
           Sandra Romero .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     3,885   31.49
           Robin Edmondson  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     3,792   30.74
           Jon W. Halvorson .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     3,245   26.31
           Bill Pilkey.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,059    8.58
           Lucius Daye.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       342    2.77
           WRITE-IN.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .        13     .11

Wed, 08/20/2008 - 12:41am — Matthew Green

Holy Lacey-ites!

If this holds up, it is the BIG story in the Thurston County elections.

Jon Halvorson is the former mayor of Lacey, and the ultimate political insider/good ol' boy in that part of the county. He has endorsements from nearly all county elected officials, and many city councilmembers and fire commissioners.

And he's getting his butt kicked and then handed to him not just by Sandra, but also by Robin Edmondson. Robin who?! From voters in Lacey!!!

Wed, 08/20/2008 - 7:55am — Laurian

The Halvorson debacle is interesting

I think there are two things going on here. 1st, the county's traditional female gender bias and 2nd the Master Builders connection. The well publicized kerfuffle over Triway, along with other visible unbuilt or abandoned projects in the east county, have stoked anti-developer sentiments. Rightly or wrongly Jon got painted with that brush. In a five way race these two issues were enough to cost Jon the election.

Baird's convincing win, or rather Crist's quite convincing loss, raises the specter of  single issue anti-war voters voting for an anti-war Republican.

I find it interesting the Secretary of State reported the Thurston County Auditor's office estimated it had 25,000 untallied ballots on election night. This could be the real under-reported story from election night.

25,000 is an interesting estimate in that when added to the 41,000 tallied ballots, voter turn out in Thurston county rises to 49.5%, a unusually high number for a primary in any county and in light of a State wide voter turn out is projected at 32%. Then again maybe we in Thurston County are 17.5% more committed to democracy than the rest of the state.

Wed, 08/20/2008 - 8:01am — emmettoconnell

Top Two doesn't actually hurt parties in swing districts

I think there might be another reason Halvorson lost. If you assume that there are a group of people that are just going to choose a Dem or a Republican (up to tonight I wasn't so sure), you could argue that Halvorson lost the Dem core vote to Romero. And, you could also say he didn't do enough to convince the Republican core voters to vote for him, especially with someone with "Republican" next to his name on the ballot.

Wed, 08/20/2008 - 8:26am — Laurian

Interesting point Emmett

Perhaps my analysis should be limited to that core Dem voting block.

I did love the quote from Edmondson. From the Olympian: "...the campaign "has been an outstanding value to me as an individual"" Now that's the spirit of public service I know we all are looking for.

 

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