Justice Richard Sanders has kinda-sorta conceded his race to challenger Charlie Wiggins, after yesterday’s tally left him trailing by 5,787 votes. Writing in an email to supporters, Sanders explained that “campaign experts say that we are unlikely to make up that difference as the counties finish their tally over the next few days.”
And to what does Sanders attribute his upset loss?
In an interview Friday night, an emotional Sanders blamed The Seattle Times for what he called certain defeat, saying the newspaper unfairly portrayed him as believing African Americans are more prone to commit crimes.
Yeah, as I wrote over on Slog, the Times pulling its endorsement likely was the straw that broke the camel’s back. But you’ve got to give credit to the Stranger too, for setting the frame on Sanders. Indeed, you gotta wonder if the Times would have reported on or reacted to Sanders’ comments quite the same way if not for the other Sanders’ devastating expose?
And in case you’re wondering about the numbers, and why “election experts” believe a 5,787 vote gap out of nearly 2.5 million ballots cast is an insurmountable lead, well, there are now less than 93,000 ballots remaining, more than half of them in King County, where Wiggins is currently leading by a 58.6 percent margin. If you just project county-by-county based on cumulative margins, Wiggins would end up with about a 9,800 vote lead; if you project based on the post-election-day trend, that lead jumps to over 12,000.
That’s not much different from the projection I made, back when I called the race on Tuesday.
It was the Stranger article that influenced my decision on Sanders. I don’t bother to read the Times.
Last night on KCTS Connects, as Joni Balter was taking credit on behalf of the ST for this result, Joel Connelly interjected some props to The Stranger and Eli Sanders.
http://kcts9.org/series/kcts-9-connects
Holy shee-it. Wiggins only won 8 counties and only half of them are highly populated ones.
Thank you King County!
Michael @ 3,
Psssst…counties don’t vote, people do.
@4
Thank you to the people of King County!
The editorial board of The Seattle Timespulled their endorsement of Justice Sanders because of the following story, which appeared in their own newspaper:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....es22m.html
Goldy,
Agreed 100%. The Stranger has quietly (well, only quietly if you haven’t been paying attention) become one of the most influential papers in the state. You might even make the argument that it has become the most influential paper.
Sure, the Times has a larger readership, but its readers widely ignore the editorial page’s opinions whereas I’d venture to say that the Stranger’s readers are highly influenced by the SECB’s endorsements.
-Nuthin’
Whatever or whoever produced it, this race looks more like a “cliffhanger” than “certain defeat.” Now I’m expecting Sanders to write an opinion describing a woman as “almost pregnant.”
@4 Yeah that’s one of the wingnut memes: They think 38% of the voters should run this state because they can carry two-thirds of the counties.
They can’t grasp that King County throws around more weight in elections than, say, Garfield County because King County has a third of the state’s population. King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties together have a majority of the state’s population. So why shouldn’t those three counties run the state? Since when does a minority get to tell the majority what to do, based on acreage?
Eastern Washington has two-thirds of the state’s land area but only a fifth of its population. They’re entitled to a fifth of the seats in the Legislature, no more, no less, and a fifth of our state’s congressional seats (in fact they have more than that, so what are they complaining about?). A fifth is not a majority or within a country mile of a majority, therefore eastern Washington does not get to run this entire state.
Psssst. They ARE prone to commit more crimes.
Rabbit @ 8
Now I’m expecting Sanders to write an opinion describing a woman as “almost pregnant.”
Not so many more opportunities for that. A little under two more months in office, plus opinions in all the cases argued but not decided by the time he leaves office.
So does a woman who is “almost pregnant” have the right to “choose”?
In an interview Friday night, an emotional Sanders blamed The Seattle Times for what he called certain defeat, saying the newspaper unfairly portrayed him as believing African Americans are more prone to commit crimes.
you mean they don’t?
1. past racism and institutional racism today plus acts of individual racism today within the system can account for the entire disproportionality at issue.
2. If you think these things don’t exist, you’re either ignorant or racist.
3. Sanders as an educated person can’t be said to be ignorant.
therefore……connect the dots dude..