Cliffhanger report.

Ronald Wastewater Commissioner Arne Lind still trails challenger Bob Ransom by over 300 votes, and it's not likely they're out there, but in close elections, never give up is often good advice.

A good example of that is in the race for the open seat on the Shoreline City Council, where Jesse Salomon, after a run of bad news in earlier returns, has slipped a scant 22 votes ahead of Robin McClelland. When the election is certified, though, a scant lead is a sufficient lead.

Still reason to stay tuned...

An update…

…on our local cliffhangers. Both City Council candidate Jesse Salomon and Ronald Wastewater Commissioner Arne Lind have closed their deficits slightly in the latest report from King County Elections, but the lack of remaining votes makes them increasingly improbable victors.

In both cases I think my description of the local outcomes as a status quo election holds. Though Salomon was running for an open seat, his opponent, Robin McClelland, was positioned as the 'establishment' candidate, the representative of the current controlling faction (not party - as I've noted elsewhere, what we have is closer to uni-partisan than non-partisan government) at City Hall. That's not awful, really - as I've said, our local races are, for the most part, between well intentioned and generally liberally minded folks - but I was hoping this election might stir the pot just a bit, and it appears it won't.

Bob Ransom, Arne Lind's opponent in the sewer commission race, was pretty transparently the agent of that controlling faction. His campaign was based on putting himself out of office by transferring the responsibilities of the Commission to the city government. The notion isn't without merit, but I agree with Lind that it should be the result of an open debate and public vote, not the administrative shift that Ransom advocates.

There'll be another count tomorrow, and it will probably be pretty definitive in favor of McClelland and Ransom, which isn't the way I voted, but isn't enough to make me contact Canadian immigration, either.

What if they had an election…

…and our side won? Won a bunch. All over the place.

Like I said, yesterday was a good one for the good guys.

Key Republican issues and political strategies took hits from coast to coast. Voter suppression? Maine offered the first blow for liberty of the day, restoring the same-day voter registration that Republican legislators had taken from them. Mississippi, of all places, scored a hat trick of sorts, setting back the Republican anti-science, anti-choice and anti-woman agendas when they rejected Amendment 26, which would have granted "personhood" to embryos.

Republican ant-unionism was dealt a critical blow by Ohio voters, with 82 of 88 counties rejecting Gov. John Kasich's attack on public-sector workers right to organize and bargain collectively. Republican anti-immigrant champion Russell Pearse, President of the State Senate, was removed in a recall election after sponsoring legislation that provided a blueprint for devastation of agriculture in several states. (Another noteworthy Arizona outcome - both Tucson and Phoenix have Democratic Mayors for the first time in decades.)

Here in the upper left, voters approved stronger training and regulation requirements for home health care workers, took the state out of the retail liquor business (a probably good thing accomplished in a highly dubious fashion) and, so far, are rejecting Tim Eyman's effort to cripple our transportation infrastructure.

Our local elections have turned out to be a pretty status quo affair. Where the results are clear, they're clearly in favor of incumbents for the most part.

Sherril Huff will continue as King County Director of Elections with over 75% of the vote against a patently unqualified challenger. Port Commissioner Gael Tarleton has a margin of 33,000 votes over her opponent, but apparently won't be joined by fellow reformer Dean Willard, who trails incumbent Bill Bryant by a margin of 37% to 62%.

Here in Shoreline, that pro-incumbency trend holds, with City Councilmembers Chris Eggen and Doris McConnell having margins of over 60% after the second day of ballot counting. I'm afraid that means my friend Janet Way won't be returning to the Council, but the Janet I know is indefatigable, and it won't be long before she sets her eyes on a new target for her effective activism.

In the open seat for Shoreline City Council, Jesse Salomon is less than 500 votes behind former Planning Commissioner Robin McClelland, still too close to call in my view.

Our School Board incumbents, Mike Jacobs and Richard Potter, appear safe at this point.

After the Huff/Greene and Willard/Bryant races, the campaign that brought generated the most search engine interest according to my logs was for our local sewer service, the Ronald Wastewater District. Bob Ransom, a fixture in local politics for decades and a former School Board member and City Councilmember, took on longtime sewer commissioner Arne Lind, largely over the question of whether and how the city should absorb the district. Ransom says it's time, and that it can be done administratively. Lind is not so sure, and favors a public vote before any change is made. Ransom, with an overwhelming advantage in name recognition, is leading by a scant 311 votes in another race I won't be ready to call for a while.

So what happened where you are?

And now, the rest of the story…

I've gone this far, so I'd best run through the rest of the races on my ballot. There are two contested school board races. There was a Shoreline School District for decades before there was a City of Shoreline. Retaining our independent school system was, in fact, a major driver behind our incorporation. There are two contested School Board seats on the ballot, and no one has successfully made a case against retaining the incumbents, Mike Jacobs and Richard Potter.

The school district's also put a levy on the ballot to support smaller class sizes in the face of state budget cuts. I'm voting yes.

There's some unusual intrigue at the bottom of the ballot. A number of services in our town, including the fire department and the water and sewer departments, are administered by independently elected commissions. That's a legacy of our not too distant past as an unincorporated suburb. They're usually no hotly contested elections, offering virtually no pay and perhaps less prestige.

There are a pair of contest this year, though, one for the fire commission and one for the Ronald Wastewater District, our local sewer service.

Jon Kennison has served as a Fire Commissioner for a quarter of a century, and I was a bit surprised to see him draw an challenge at all, and even more surprised when his opponent snagged an IAFF endorsement. The endorsement was a little less surprising when I learned that the challenger is the wife of a firefighter. In any event, this is another case where I see no reason to replace an experienced incumbent. I'm supporting Jon Kennison.

There's a hotter issue behind former City Councilman Bob Ransom's challenge to incumbent Wastewater District Commissioner Arne Lind. As I said, the commissions are a left over from the city's pre-city days, and there are some who think it’s time to consolidate service under the city umbrella. Ransom is a stalwart advocate of that view, at least with regard to sewer service. Lind hasn't argued vigorously against such a move, but insists that it only take place with the approval of a public vote. Voters created the district and have supported it over the years. They should be guaranteed a voice in any change. I'm supporting Arne Lind.

And that's my ballot. If you're a Washington voter, all the races on your ballot, and the endorsements of the legislative district, county and state Democrats, can be found with the Washington State Democrats Personal Democratic Endorsements Finder, a remarkable service from our State Party office.