As depressed as I am over the turn of events in LD-25, where neo-fascist wunderkind Hans Zeiger has retaken the lead over incumbent Democratic State Rep. Dawn Morrell, I have newfound hope in LD-41, where just a few days ago incumbent State Sen. Randy Gordon appeared to be hopelessly trailing faux-moderate Republican challenger Steve Litzow.
In fact, if the trends from the last few days of returns hold up, my calculations suggest that Gordon, now trailing by 336 votes, is currently on pace to take a small lead.
Gordon, who was appointed to replace former Sen. Fred Jarrett after he stepped down to take the number two position in King County, is widely regarded as one of the most liberal members of the Senate. So holding this seat in the former Eastside GOP stronghold would be a huge victory.
This is great news. I’m sure Randy drove his advisors nuts. He has never backed away from his support of labor, living wages, education, environment, health care, social justice, and human and civil rights. Being from the 41st, he was suppose to tack to the right in order to convince moderates that he was one of them. He isn’t, and doesn’t pretend.
He was one of the most productive members of the Senate this year, his first, sponsoring 7 bills and co-sponsoring 40 others. He is the only practicing attorney in the State Legislature, and the body has found that invaluable, depending on his legal expertise often, including relying on him to help write the proposed Constitutional amendment that appeared on the ballot and passed with nearly 85% of the vote.
Nobody worked harder than randy in the Legislature or on the campaign trail. He deserves to win.
Being from the 41st, he was suppose to tack to the right in order to convince moderates that he was one of them. He isn’t, and doesn’t pretend.
does this mean gordon really was against I-1098 in his heart?
I spent an afternoon with Randy before he entered politics. He is one of the sharpest individuals that I have ever met.
After getting piles of daily “vote smiling-Litzow” (prefers stealth GOP party) cards in the mail, nothing would be more pleasing than his defeat, on this basis alone.
@2 ? I don’t think Gordon took any official position on the initiatives.
I expected Litzow to win, having received five or ten mailings to every one of Gordon’s. And Gordon didn’t attack Litzow except on a crosswalk issue. Gordon didn’t seem very informed when I spoke to him; is it true, as suggested, that he lives in Florida, at least some of the time? In any event, if he wins anyway, and even if it’s close, it show some considerable Democratic sentiment in this district.
Keeping Randy Gordon, a true star, in government, would be far more valuable than suffering Hans Zeiger, a true troglodyte, for the one term he could have. Gordon is the type of politician we need. Zeiger is inexplicable. How could anyone vote for this guy?
sarge: what’d he tell you? you guys are tight aren’t you? screw official positions. what did he tell seattle no-on-1098 times?
p.s. i swear i received a mailer from gordon that said he opposed 1098.
140 Billion budget defecit spending just last month – Way to go Dems, that would have put a few million back to work, if it hadn;t been p’d away on new social programs and stimulous.
Soon to be 20 Trillion, then 40 trillion…how much more…
And How about King County, buying a massive parcel of new land to develop as a park, while they are laying off police and closing facilities. Only in Lib Land Coo Coo
Fred Jarrett was a perfect representative of our district. Gordon is no where near Fred on issues, leadership or approachability. To say he is pro-education is inaccurate. He is pro-WEA which is not pro-education. When asking him to support a measure to improve the teacher evaluation process, he said that “teacher quality does not matter…it is the parents.” If that is his reaction, why have public schools then? Steve Litzow may be slick but I voted for him because he want realistic fixes to our educational system…the same ones that parents and really good teachers want to see.
@ 10
Oh, I can solve that problem right now.
End the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bring all the troops home from wherever they are. Raise taxes on the top 5% of income earners to 75% of their income, which is mostly stolen money anwyay. Stop buying fancy, gold-plated weaponry that only a person with a post-doctoral degree could operate. Stop paying money to religious organizations for any purpose. Arrest and convict all the big bankers that caused these problems and confiscate every penny and every asset they have. Eliminate the maximum income level for Social Security withholding.
That should do it.
@12) Link, please, for the Gordon quote.
Here’s hoping Randy pulls it out. Randy is a great Senator – willing to take on the issues. That’s what we need. And being a lawyer, he helps the Legislature avoid problems arising later from technical issues that come up in bill drafting.
@12: Umm, can you document that so-called teacher quality measures are in any way relevant to how well the kids are learning?
If the kids come in to the class unable to read – should a superb techer be penalized becuase of what came before? How can you document how well the students are learning? Standardized test scores can’t do it – research has shown that it may take 2-3 years or many more for a superb teacher to show tangible results for their students.
That is the problem – some idiots think that a few objective measures can determine who is a good teacher and who is not – and it just is not that simple. Teaching to the test may enhance the careers of some teachers but the students end up deficient in reasoning skills.
On the other hand, I think the math and science curriculum in this state is weak and that students need a lot more practice in basic math skills and less “verbiage” practice.
Yeah, it’s depressing, but at this point Zeiger is only 28 votes ahead so it could flip back to Morrell in the remaining ballots or recount.
@10 A Republican complaining about deficit spending is like Ted Bundy complaining about the crime rate in his neighborhood.
@12: Didn’t think you had one.
@8/9 notaboomer: No, Randy did not mail anyone about 1098. There is some rule that prohibits Senators from trying to influence peoples initiatives, which is why Randy only spoke about initiatives in general terms, without endorsing one way or the other.
And we aren’t “tight”. I’m a 41st LD PCO, so I run into him occasionally, and was part of the process that got him appointed, but I don’t know him well and we don’t have heart to hearts. I’ve never had a discussion with him about any initiative.
OK, the latest numbers are in. King County Elections managed to count 838 whole ballots for the 41st LD Senate race since Wednesday. Randy Gordon got 51.07 % (428), Litzow got 47.85% (401) and “write in” got 1.08% (9).
The lead for Litzow is now 309. The good news for Gordon is the difference between counted and cast votes has increased (again) from 3065 to 3112. So the vote deficit is lower, and the remaining ballots is higher.
On Tuesday, Gordon was down 554, and the uncounted ballot total was 2904. Now he is down 309, and the uncounted ballot total is 3113. I like the trend!
Linville is less than 250 votes behind her challenger with 400 ballots to count. She probably can’t make up the deficit from uncounted ballots but this race is in recount territory. What happens in a recount is you pick up ballots that aren’t counted by the optical scanner machines because of frayed edges, tears, stains, or stray marks. There’s usually quite a few of those; and because Democratic voters are more prone to damage their ballots, a manual recount usually will give the Democratic candidates net gains. This race could come down to a few votes.
Sanders apparently has failed to keep his seat as Wiggins pulls about 5,700 votes ahead.
As of 5pm, Wiggins leads Sanders by about 6300.
With Pierce County having reported, Herr Zeiger leads by 18 (down from 28) in the 25th LD. Pierce said they had 350 remaining ballots going into today, counted exactly 200 new votes, and still has 350 ballots remaining.
N@23: How can the ballots in King and Pierce be coming in, 10 days after the election, as fast or faster than they can count them? I know there was a holiday and all, but I think I could hand count 200 ballots in about an hour, while watching a football game.
sarge, I think the remaining ballots in Pierce County might be the ones with signature problems. Most of the voter-chasing in Pierce is in the Morrell-Zeiger race, so it’s likely that a higher-than-expected proportion of the votes they’ll add from here on will come from there.
@19…sorry so late to respond but was away for the day. There is no link. He said it to my face in the wings off the senate during the session. Current teacher evaluation in this state is for 2 years of teaching only and is not scaled. Just pass/fail. I do not advocate using test scores. There are good models out there that would work in evaluating teachers. Most have been created by educators. Jarrett supported improved evaluation processes.
Wow you guys are hilarious. You give credit to Gordon for writing the constitutional amendment that passed with 85 percent. Wrong-o!! That’s Rep Mike Hope’s bill, a REPUBLICAN. And the bill was drafted by Republican HOUSE PARTISAN STAFF. No Democraps involved.
And as far as recount, ill give it to you Democrats are stupider and don’t know how to properly fill out ballots. But Linville is toast. At maximum, she will net 15 votes in a recount.
And once the ballots are counted, Zeigers race will not flip more than 10 votes. Right now its all about rehab ballots, the recount itself won’t change anything.
Go Litzow go!!!
@27. You are wrong. Gordon wrote key language that was included in the amendment.
Looks like Litzow will win barely. He only lost 10 votes in the latest posting. Not many ballots are left.