Election Wrap-Up

Proposition 4 failed in a landslide vote, and both Nancy McLaughlin and Amber Waldref won big in their bids for Spokane City Council seats, if early results released Tuesday night stand.

Proposition 4, the so-called Community Bill of Rights, was down by a count of 76-24 percent on Friday, with nearly 102,000 ballots counted and 15,000 more to go. Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said the county would continue to count but that ballots won’t officially be certified until Nov. 24.

Check out the Election Night Slideshow.

McLaughlin and Waldref each were ran away with their respective races. As of Friday, the incumbent McLaughlin, who was running against Karen Kearney in Spokane’s northwest district, was up 67-33. Waldref, a 31-year-old environmental activist running in the northeast, led state initiative crusader Mike Fagan 63-37.

The third council seat remained too close to call for two days, but Thursday incumbent Mike Allen conceded the race to Out There Monthly founder and publisher Jon Snyder, whose lead grew from five percentage points to seven over two days of ballot counting.

The race in Spokane Valley provided ample fireworks as well. As we reported last month, a group calling itself the Citizens for Positive Change had fielded five conservative, reformist candidates with an eye for opening up regulations and tabling a massive revitalization of the Sprague-Appleway area. One of their candidates, sitting state Sen. Bob McCaslin, sought to unseat current Mayor Rich Munson.

Early results suggest all five candidates have succeeded. At the moment, McCaslin leads Munson 60-40, Brenda Grassel leads current council member and former Mayor Diana Wilhite by six points and Dean Grafos leads his closest competitor in a four-way race by 25 points. "Change" candidates Tom Towey and Gary Schimmels ran unopposed.

This doesn't mean, however, that McCaslin will necessarily become mayor. As mayors are chosen by the council — not by the citizenry — the new council will select a mayor at their first meeting in January.

State ballot measures were mixed. The Washington Secretary of State's office continued to churn out vote tallies through the week, but it's now become clear that Tim Eyman and Mike Fagan's I-1033, which would have severely limited the growth of state and local governments, has failed. Results on Friday showed the initiative down 43-57, with 1.3 million votes counted. The measure lost in Spokane County by a count of 42-58.

Referendum 71, which affirms state legislation that expands benefits to domestic partners, was declared the victor by the end of the week. On Friday, the measure was leading in the polls by a margin of 52-48 — though no thanks to eastern Washington.

Courtesy the Washington Secretary of State's office

The county-by-county map provided by the Washington Secretary of State's office (above) shows the measure was carried by counties ringing the Puget Sound, with King and Jefferson counties approving the measure by as much as 67 percent. East of the Cascades, the measure found its highest approval rating (44 percent) in Kittitas County. In Spokane, it was rejected 60-40. The highest rejection rate in the state came in the southeast corner of the state, where Garfield County turned the R-71 down by a ratio of 77-23.

With all precincts counted in Kootenai County, it appears the mayors of Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls have kept their seats, both by wide margins. Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem defeated challenger Joseph Kunka 62-38 percent. Downriver, Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin held 75 percent of the vote, to his two challengers’ 13 and 12 percent.