Election Night Recap: Feng Shui, Hot Buns, and Getting Kicked Out of a Republican’s Party

Last night the SECB was out in force. You can read all of our coverage here.

Later this afternoon, King County Elections will post the next set of results. The nail biter is the mayor’s race, where the three leading candidates (Mike McGinn in first, Joe Mallahan in second, and Greg Nickels in third) are separated by less than 1,000 votes. But a few things are clear: Nickels is in trouble, Hutchison has a fierce challenger, and Mike “hot buns” O’Brien is kicking some ass.

Seattle Mayor

Mike McGinn 26.58%
Joe Mallahan 25.77%
Greg Nickels 25.06%

Nickels, surrounded by supporters trying to stay upbeat, said the election “has no feng shui.” Uh, sorry, man. But you’re not losing because you didn’t hang a red coin over your waterfall or something. Those television ads didn’t convince people (neither did the last eight years in office). If McGinn holds his lead, the general election will be a guns-blazin’ showdown. But—god forbid—Mallahan and Nickels emerge in the top two spots. Mallahan couldn’t wipe a shit-eating grin off his face and couldn’t be bothered to talk to the SECB last night. If it’s Nickels versus Mallahan, we may be sending an expert to adjust the mayor’s desktop waterfall.

But McGinn thinks he can win. “I think we already knew that conservative voters are early voters,” he said last night standing in the parking lot of Havana on Capitol Hill. If later voters are more progressive, the next set of returns could keep him in the lead. Moreover, McGinn’s polling numbers climbed in the weeks after ballots were mailed. “We feel like our momentum was growing,” he said. (An interview with McGinn is here.)

McGinn plans to stick with his unconventional campaign strategy if he goes on to the general election. He hasn’t been buying television ads (like Nickels and Mallahan), doesn’t have a campaign manager, and it’s unlear who calls the shots. “I’ll tell you one good thing about a grassroots model is that you can scale up,” he says. He plans to stick to his anti-tunnel message, relying on phone banks, social media, and direct mail.

King County Executive

Larry Phillips —11.73%
Fred Jarrett — 12.04%
Susan Hutchison — 37.37%
Dow Constantine — 22.41%
Ross Hunter — 10.89%
Goodspaceguy — 1.34%

The burn is on Larry Phillips, who spent more dough than anyone else in this race and ran a bunch of hokey television ads, but landed in fourth place. His fellow county council member Dow Constantine is the clear winner among Democrats (exceeding his placement in recent polls). The moral of the story: If you’re running against a closeted Republican in King County, aggressively call him or her out and the voters will reward you for it. The question for Constantine going into the general election is how to balance his line of attack without becoming a dick. It would be easy for his anti-GOP message to get lost in the dynamic of a man picking on a woman, which is a dangerous situation that, no doubt, her California-run campaign would be quick to exploit.

The other burn is on Hutchison, who kicked out a Stranger photographer from her party last night at the Edgewater. But we had another reporter there who cornered her sexy campaign manager, Jordan McCarren. You haven’t heard the last from us, Hutchison.

Also—god bless Goodspaceguy and the 2,368 people who voted for him. One day, he’s gonna get all the votes and take King County skyward. You’ll see.

City Council Position No. 4

Sally Bagshaw 49.99%
David Bloom 18.20%
Dorsol Plants 12.27%

Dorsol Plants won’t be going on to the general election, but—let’s be real—nobody thought he would. Plants, an Iraq War vet, assembled an enthusiastic team of supporters and he’s virtually certain to return to politics. He needs to fill out his resume—we need someone who can shoot and talk at the same time—and take another shot in the next election.

Bagshaw is smart, but she held a dull party in a dull neighborhood, and we couldn’t wait to leave. She’s beholden to the downtown business interests as most of the city council. David Bloom, despite having some terrible ideas (retrofit the viaduct!), has proven a stalwart ally of progressive causes and poor folks. But Bashaw looks nearly impossible to beat; she’s got the numbers and she’s got the money.

City Council Position No. 6

Nick Licata 52.82%
Jessie Israel 29.99%

The unknown quantity going into he general election here are supporters of Marty Kaplan, who took nearly 17 percent of the vote. He ran as a friend to downtown development interests, and those folks seem likely to lean toward Israel. Of course the general election electorate will be more liberal, so that could tip scales in Licata’s favor.

City Council Position No. 8

Mike O’Brien 35.58%
Robert Rosencrantz 19.38%

Mike O’Brien has hot buns and he kicked everyone else’s ass. The surprise here was David Miller’s terrible showing (coming in fourth place with 12 percent) and his lonely party. Despite a strong set of union and nightlife endorsements, that didn’t translates to votes (at least not yet). Mike O’Brien is going to mop the floor with Rosencrantz (who is very pleasant) in the general election.

King County Elections will post most more results late this afternoon and we’ll run an update.