The morning after…

…the big double-drop at King County Records & Elections, Shoreline City Council candidate Shari Tracey's still holding on to 51% and a fraction. It was a lead too small to call just a day or two ago, but I'm satisfied that she's going to unseat incumbent Cindy Ryu. There's about a 44% turnout based on the votes already counted, and I don't imagine that's going to change by more than a point or two as late ballots are counted (I understand that everything on hand has been reported.)

That means from top to bottom, there were only two races that came out differently than my ballot. For Port Commission, Tom Albro defeated Max Vecich, not the ideal outcome but hardly as awful as it would have been had Rob Holland lost to the conservative ideologue David Doud. My nostalgic pick for County Assessor, Gene Lux, finished fifth in a field of five, but that wasn't a surprise and I felt perfectly comfortable with either of the front runners, Lloyd Hara and Bob Rosenberger, who had split Democratic endorsements and ultimately over 60% of the vote between them. Lloyd, a fixture in Democratic politics for decades, won, and that's fine.

Other than that, though, I called 'em all. I can't remember being so satisfied with an overall election outcome. Good on all y'all who voted the right way.

And they finally seem to have straightened out the mayoral mess in the big city down south. Good on them, too.

The people have spoken.

Or written. Or filled in the blanks. Whatever you want to call what we did since ballots started appearing in mailboxes, we've had an election. King County has counted all the votes they're going to count today, and those early returns appear decisive in several races.

Dow Constantine is sitting on 57% of the vote and about a 35,000 vote lead over Susan Hutchison for King County Executive. I don't know if Hutchison has conceded, but Constantine has declared victory and he seens to be on safe ground doing so. This is a big Democratic win in a "non-partisan" election.

For King County Assessor, my old friend and mentor Gene Lux is holding 5.11% of the vote. I'm part of the .11, I guess. It's hardly a surprise - I'm not sure Gene's campaign extended beyond a voter's pamphlet statement. At any rate, it looks like former Seattle City Treasurer and Port Commissioner Lloyd Hara will get the nod, with a little over a third of the votes in a crowded field. That's fine.

For Port Commission Position 3, Rob Holland has nearly 55% of the votes counted and should handily, and happily, defeat David Doud. Max Vekich didn't fare so well, drawing little over 42% of the first day's vote count. Tom Albro, the apparent winner, wasn't my choice, but he was the choice of a lot of folks I respect and, frankly, he's not as bad a choice as Doud would have been in Position 3. I wish it was Max and Rob, but the Holland win is still one to savor and celebrate.

So far so good.

Exercising the Franchise, Part 5.

At the top of the back of my ballot are two contested races for the Seattle Port Commission, and the choices are pretty clear cut.

For Position 3 my choice (and the choice of the King County Democrats, the King County Labor Council, Governor Gregiore, County Council members Dow Constantine and Bob Ferguson, my own personal Congressman and many others) is Rob Holland. He's extraordinarily well qualified for the Commission having worked with and around the Port for nearly two decades. If he were half as experienced and capable, he'd be a good choice.

His opponent, David Doud, is a conservative activist who brings little more than ideology to the position. He's been running one of the nastiest smear campaigns of the year (perhaps the nastiest, but it's getting hot and heavy in my local city council contests, too. More on that to come.) This is a chance to reward a great candidate and punish bad behavior.

The choice isn't quite as clear in Position 4. Seattle Monorail owner Tom Albro brings strong business experience and some impressive endorsements to the race. He leans a little hard on the "not a career politician, nor a pawn of special interests" angle for my taste (experience tells me that candidates who make too much of not being a pawn often end up being pawned by those very interests), but there's no doubt we could do worse.

We can do better, though, too. My choice is career longshoreman and former legislator Max Vekich. Max knows the Port from the inside out, and his commitment to the Port as a driver for local employment is unparalleled. He brings understanding, integrity, and energy to the race, and he'll deliver the same on the Commission.

Rob Holland and Max Vekich for Port Commission.