King County Councilmembers Girmay Zahilay and Claudia Balducci are neck-and-neck in the race for King County Executive, according to poll data from the Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI), a nonprofit public opinion research firm.
Commissioned by NPI and conducted by Emerson College, the survey polled 600 likely voters between October 22 and 27: 37 percent said they’d vote for Balducci (District 5), 35 percent said their guy was Girmay (District 2), and 28 percent didn’t know who they would vote for (District Unknown). Because the survey’s margin of error was +/- 4 percent, the race is a statistical tie. But when undecided voters were shown a sample of each candidate’s voter guide statement, 44 percent picked Balducci, and 31 picked Zahilay. Twenty-six percent still couldn’t make up their minds.
In the August primary, Zahilay walked away with 44 percent of the vote and Balducci only claimed 29 percent, but that was in a crowded, eight-way race.
NPI’s Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve said the polling released this week is likely close because Balducci and Zahilay are so similar. (For the record, The Stranger endorsed Zahilay.)
“When you consider that each of them is a King County councilmember, and each of them is a progressive Democrat, and each of them has a lot of community support, that explains why they’re tied in the poll,” Villeneuve said. The poll, however, is “just a snapshot in time,” not a prediction of what will happen, Villeneuve emphasized.
In an email to The Stranger, Balducci campaign manager Rebecca Rego says voters are responding to Balducci’s record of “delivering affordable housing, expanding light rail, and demanding immediate actions that maximize tax dollars to protect low-income families.” She also said Balducci is the “only candidate” with a consistent record on public safety and plans to address retail theft and reduce gun violence.
Zahilay campaign spokesperson Erik Houser said they’re encouraged by early ballot returns showing Zahilay’s lead. But the race was still competitive, he wrote in an email to The Stranger.
“We know that voters support Girmay after they learn about his record of leadership and how he has built the largest coalition in the history of county politics,” Houser wrote.
Well, when they read part of his voter guide statement, they went for Balducci, at least in this sample.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said that that Erik Houser was Girmay Zahilay’s campaign manager. He’s Zahilay’s campaign spokesperson. We regret the error.
Vote transit. Vote Balducci.
I agree, the Stranger makes a persuasive case for most of their other endorsements (and in choosing between candidates of equivalent merit I generally favor people of color) but Balducci just strikes me as a better fit for the job. It’s a close, admittedly subjective call. This isn’t a clash of ideologies like the mayoral or city attorney race.
Vote King-County intra-municipality consensus. Vote Balducci.
Girmay’s policies have made South Seattle more dangerous and more expensive.
Balducci is the better choice.
Balducci has earned my vote. She has a plan to revamp the permitting office which will speed up housing production. A must if we truly want to tackle to housing shortage.
“Zahilay campaign manager Erik Houser said they’re encouraged by early ballot returns showing Zahilay’s lead”
I’m not aware of any formal results – does Zahilay have access to numbers that are not yet public? Chime in if you know.
I don’t own a car. I take public transit everywhere. Balducci has been an passionate advocate for public transit. She has been one of few members of the Sound Transit Board who have tried to look after the interests of riders as opposed to the political interests of the Board members (looking at you Mayor Harrell).
The other commenters are right that Balducci is the better choice. Her record on transit is so much better than almost every other King County Council member and Sound Transit board member. She clearly pays attention to rider experience in ways most of the other board members do not.
The Stranger’s staff really showed their ignorance when they knocked Balducci for questioning the second downtown transit tunnel: the tunnel would force transfers for any riders who want to go south of SODO who are coming from north of Westlake station, removing the one-seat airport ride from the north, and the second tunnel is 9 (!) stories below the first tunnel at Westlake, so transfers there will be extremely long. Even worse, the second tunnel provides little redundancy in spite of what Constantine and most of the board claims—the northern exits of the tunnels are different, so if one tunnel goes down, only trips through downtown (where the tunnels are parallel) are preserved, but trips through downtown are already served by about 20 different busses that run by the stations on 3rd. The second tunnel is one of the main drivers of increased cost in ST3, and not only is it not worth it, it’ll make the rider experience worse throughout the system. Balducci is right to question it, and it’s frankly an indictment of pretty much everyone else on the ST board, including Zahilay, that they’re not paying attention to this.