Sawant's browness has nothing to do with her apparent election failure. It is her revanchist social attitude that people don't like. The SA party should realize that you catch more flies with honey rather than vinegar.

Can you cite a single example where Sawant's "browness" was used by anyone?

I guess based on last night's election results, we can now say that Kentucky is more progressive than Washington.

Washington is a solidly blue state, it has only the 32nd highest tax burden of the 50 states, and still we are susceptible to a Tim Eyman message of what a terrible tax burden we suffer under. And apparently most of our voters/drivers would have no problem identifying with the hero in an Ayn Rand novel.

I'm still hopeful that I-976 will get struck down in court, but that doesn't strike away the political challenge. We can abhor our fellow Washingtonians' world view, but we're still going to have to live in the political reality of that world view. Can we still make progress in this region toward building out a reliable mass transit system that gives a viable alternative to automobile dependence and fossil fuel dependence? More narrowly, can we prevent the victory that was ST3 passing in 2016 from being reversed?

Now THIS makes me proud to be an American.

From the Human Rights Campaign: “Danica Roem has won re-election in Virginia, making her the first-ever trans candidate to win re-election in a state legislature.”

@5, this would be interesting. Seeing the results this morning, I was reminded of James Carville's quote: "Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between."

Washington is still Seattle surrounded by Alabama. Or perhaps this just goes back to The Stranger's fine "Urban Archipelago" story from years ago.

Unless we can accomplish everything within the political bubble that is Seattle or King County, the progressives among us are going to have to find a way to craft a winning political message to an electorate that still harbors a Ronald Reagan world view. BTW, one lesson of (what I hope is) the defeat of Kshama Sawant is that there's only so much we can accomplish within our own little political bubble.

@4 -- Oh please. A bill like that would pass overwhelmingly in Kentucky.

Look, people in most of the state don't like car tabs. At the same time, people in Seattle and Bellevue like what they pay for. So some of it is just demographic divide -- more densely populated areas being will to pay for things. But a lot of it is that people will routinely vote for lower taxes, then turn around and vote for more stuff. We've even done it in same election. It is this dynamic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chMCU5VSuqw.

On top of that you have particulars that people don't like. They chose a stupid way to evaluate car value. The tax on hybrids (that don't plug in) is really unfair. But mostly, people just don't like car tabs, even though they will vote for them in the most progressive areas (especially if they fund something they really want).

I will be very surprised if the initiative passes a court test. It sure looks to me like it is unconstitutional, failing the "one issue" test. It was also vague, and misleading. Eyman has a long history of either losing at the ballot box, or losing in court. He doesn't give a shit.

@3....Sawant's browness is mentioned in today's Slog AM.

Ross @8: "@4 -- Oh please. A bill like that would pass overwhelmingly in Kentucky."

Ross, if you seriously thought I believed that Kentucky is more progressive than Washington, you're even more Ross-like in your Ross-ness than I thought. I need to remind myself to occasionally amend my comments: "Disclaimer: I don't mean this literally."

And yeah, I understand the rest of the points you're making. Voters respond in certain exasperating ways to certain inputs. I'd still like to take a moment to mourn that reality.

The Kansas City story is so fucking stupid. Renaming a street after Dr. King would have been fine but the idiot city council picked a historic, popular street to rename, thus creating a divide. They could have picked any other street and shit would have been fine. Headlines will make you think it's a story about racism but what we have is one about stupid decisions and predictable consequences.

@6 I surprised you've come around so far that you're willing to recognize the legitimacy of an election in a capitalist representative democracy. Every journey starts with a single step, I suppose.

@5 @7 The fact that you're already well aware of the voting trends in King County vs. the rest of the state suggests that the media has been doing a decent job of making people aware of it. The kind of spreadsheet you're asking for is an everyday tool in the electioneering trade. Reporters have seen them, but they choose to summarize and highlight the interesting bits instead of risk putting their audiences to sleep.

One tiny, hopelessly wonkish detail I'd like to have someone explain is the discrepancy between King County Election's count of ballots returned as of noon on election day (~423k) vs ballots counted in the initial results (~313k). Last night before the first results were released, I used the former number to estimate a turnout of >60% (really high), while the latter gives us 46% (a bit low, but within the normal 40-55% range for an odd-year election). 110k is a pretty big gap, more than I'd expect from damaged ballots, signature challenges, or what have you.

I should have also mentioned that this is an off-year election. Sound Transit, for example, has stopped having their votes in off-year elections. They don't even have them during midterm elections. They have them during general elections, when they can expect the biggest turnout for progressives. Eyman, at least in this case, did the opposite.

As for my taking your Kentucky statement seriously, my apologies. But your ignorance and general lack of insight about politics (both local and national) suggested you really were that stupid. (Are you really surprised that I-976 passed -- or is all that satire too?). So, yeah, when making comments that are meant satirically, you might try adding a little smiley face or something.

@12 -- Are there really 110K ballots being challenged, or have they simply not gotten around to tallying all the votes?

@11 And that's how we ended up with the situation Chris Rock lays out so starkly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hJxWr1TKK8

You're not honoring anyone by naming your shittiest streets after them. If you really mean it, you give 'em one of your good streets.

@14 it's possible they weren't tallied, but why not? They'd been taken in and at least started to get processed by noon. Are staff busy with other duties on election day?

I'm not suggesting there's anything amiss here, I'm just wondering why the discrepancy is so large.

@8 The essential nature of tax revolt is that the plan sold to the public always takes the cuts out of Someone Else's Services.

First they came for the Mental Hospitals, but I did not live in a mental hospital. Then they came for the Light Rail, but I did not ride the Light Rail...

@ 12,

As soon as you find a “capitalist” democracy, please do let me know.

What we’re cursed with is a racist kleptocracy that would make Adam Smith vomit with rage, featuring endless government-financed, socialist bailouts for the rich who own most politicians, combined with cruel, failed market capitalism for all of the rest of us to enjoy. It’s the worst of both systems, and it needs major reforms.

/Great election details(!!!)/

*Kentucky ousted Tr666p-slut governor Matt Bevin in favor of Democrat Andy Beshear.
Kentucky, OMFG!
There’s a real chance to ditch Moscow Mitch next year.

*The Dems took control of the Virginia senate, thus giving them full control both the legislature and the governor’s office for the first time since 1994.

*Juli Briskman, the cyclist who was fired for flipping off Tr666p’s motorcade, has won election to a Virginia county board of supervisors, and her district includes Tr666p’s golf course/dicktator spider hole.

*”Democrats have won the city council majority in Columbus, Indiana, hometown of VP Pence and Congressman Pence, for the first time since 1981.”

If Scott and Sawant lost because they are "brown" why did Solomon lose to that rich white lady?

@15 I can't say I've been to Kansas City but I'm willing to bet they have more than one decent street to sacrifice. Or, here's an idea: poll the populace about decisions rather than wasting stupid amounts of money and angering your constituents.

I should point out any ballot postmarked by last night still would not be counted as "returned", and won't show up until the Friday afternoon vote totals, so you can't actually say "turnout is down" yet.

You can on Saturday, but it won't be.

Sondland paid a million dollars for the humiliation he's feeling now. I hope he gets off on it at least. I really hoped he would end up in jail for the trouble but it looks like he at least recanted his perjury so maybe not.

"[trump] Voter: 'We'd have to know, why did he ['our' "Prez"] shoot him?'"

Acceptable (for trumpfys base) reasons:
He was a Lefty
He wasn't very White.
He wasn't gonna vote for hair Furor.
He was a woman.

If our President isn't above The Law, who the fuck is?

Pointing to Sawant’s ethnicity as the reason people didn’t vote for her is an insult to all of us regardless of race.
Her years in office highlighted her condescending rhetoric and attitude, and not getting much done if anything at all due to her inability/unwillingness to work with others.

@20 I dunno, but I'm guessing it might be because that rich white lady ain't quite as white as you seem to think she is.