Washington State Shifts Further to the Left

Posted By: Corey Hjalseth Advocacy, Government,
FEDERAL AND STATE EXECUTIVE:

Well, the general election held a few surprises when it came to the national and statewide stage, but also many expected results. Donald Trump will once again be the next president of the United States and locally Bob Ferguson will be the next governor of Washington. We do want to make a note; at the cutoff time of this article and publication many of the local races are still being tallied so we will try to disseminate as best we can with the current votes tallied, but please forgive us if any race has major changes after time of printing.

Governor:

Bob Ferguson (D) led this race in the August primary and not only held those numbers but gained significantly on his opponent former congressman Dave Reichart (R). The longest streak of any state in the nation with a single party governor will continue for another four years. Current Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck (D) will also be back in Olympia as well as Secretary of State Steve Hobbs (D).

Commissioner of Public Lands:

After the primary this looked to be the single statewide office held by a Republican in former congress woman Jamie Herrara Beutler (R). However, at the time of this printing, Democrat and current King County Councilman Dave Upthegrove looks to take this race with 53% of the vote. This outcome is puzzling considering Upthegrove only made it out of the primary by less than 300 votes over another Republican challenger.

Insurance Commissioner:

Senator Patty Kuderer (D) defeated fellow State Senator Phil Fortunato (R) to gain this seat. This new position will move Kuderer away from her current Senate seat and more importantly for housing providers, she will no longer be chairing the Senate Housing Committee.

LEGISLATIVE RACES:
District 2:

No surprise here, RHAWA is extremely pleased that State Representative Andrew Barkis will be back as our housing champion in Olympia in January.

District 3:

Current State Representative Marcus Riccelli won this open senate seat with ease and will represent the City of Spokane in Olympia. Riccelli has worked and is willing to work with rental housing providers statewide.

District 4:

Current district Representative Leonard Christian will claim victory in this senate race and occupy this districts senate seat vacated by retiring Mike Padden. Current Representative Suzanne Schmidt will easily keep her seat and be joined by Rob Chase.

District 10:

It is likely Senator Ron Muzzall (R) will lose his seat in the 10th. As of writing this, his opponent Janet St Clair (D) holds a lead of 2,445 votes. This district is important because it is one of only two districts to have two party representation, the other being District 26 which we will get to momentarily. The two house representative seats will still be held by the incumbent Democrats.

District 14:

This was a completely newly drawn district from the statewide redistricting that took place over the last few years. One of the main goals that Democrats hoped to accomplish with this district was to pick up some more seats east of the cascades. That will not come to pass. Senator Curtis King (R) who was redistricted out, moved a short distance to once again live in District 14 and will keep his senate seat with ease. The two house seats were wide open new seats and will be won by Republicans Gloria Mendoza and Deb Manjarrez.

District 26:

This district, encompassing much of the Kitsap Peninsula, flipped a former Republican seat to a Democrat seat with the victory of Addison Richards (D) over former State Representative Jesse Young (R). The other seat will be retained by Representative Michele Caldier (R). Additionally, the current senator for this district, Emily Randall, won her bid for US Congress. This means a senator will be appointed for this seat temporarily and then there will be a special election in November 2025 to determine a permanent replacement for this senate seat.

District 27:

State Representative Jake Fey (D) easily defeated his competitor, Devin Kelly (D). Kelly was one of the architects of Tacoma Measure 1 and we are pleased to see that his ideas were too extreme for the voters in Tacoma. Additionally in this district, Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins won by a landslide to retain her seat.

District 28:

As of this printing this looks to be a tough hole for candidate Maia Espinoza (R) to climb out of. She is currently losing; with 46% of the vote. Espinoza was one of the best chances statewide for Republicans to flip a senate seat and you could tell this by the effort of Espinoza’s campaign in this district. Representatives Mari Leavitt (D) and Dan Bronoske (D), the same representatives who voted No on the house rent control bill, both held their seats with commanding victories.

District 43:

Unfortunately, this house seat is being vacated by long-time speaker of the house Frank Chopp, has been occupied by socialist Shawn Scott. Andrea Suarez mounted a great campaign and would have been a thoughtful and pragmatic Democrat in Olympia. This seat will help lead the radical progressive charge with neighboring district Representative Emily Alvarado.

District 49:

Our housing savior from last year’s legislative session Senator Annette Cleveland (D) handily won her race and will be back in Olympia to help protect the rights of rental housing providers. For those readers not aware, Senator Cleveland single handedly stopped the senate rent control bill from moving out of committee and possibly coming up for a floor vote. In her refusal to support the policy, Senator Cleveland referenced piles of research from all over the country showing rent control leads to a vast array of unintended consequences anywhere implemented and leads to less housing and higher rents.

 

LOCAL RACES:
Seattle City Council:

Tanya Woo will not retain her seat as she is currently trailing with 42% of the vote. This is an unfortunate outcome as she would have been a great support on the council for housing providers.

Spokane County Commissioner:

Al French (GOP) won a tough victory here and will help keep Spokane County a place where people want to build housing and provide housing to members of the community.

Pierce County Executive:

This was an extremely tight and tough race but it appears as though former Tacoma Councilmember and current Pierce County Councilmember Ryan Melo (D) will be the new executive beating out current District 25 Representative Kelly Chambers (GOP). Chambers would have continued the rational levelheaded approach to budget items and big funding packages that the current executive Bruce Dammeier (R) was famous for. We will see how the county moves forward with priorities.

Pierce County Council District 6:

Loujanna “LJ” Rohrer (R) is trailing in this race and it is looking unlikely that she will be able to achieve a majority in the Pierce County Council. Pierce County shifted significantly towards democrat candidates in this election cycle and RHAWA will be closely monitoring this area and keeping our members informed of any upcoming changes.

STATEWIDE INITIATIVES:
Initiative 2066:

This appears to be the only initiative that will pass with a 51% YES vote. This initiative will protect access to natural gas for homes and businesses that otherwise would have eventually been forced to go all electric.  This is a big win for housing providers and energy choice in general in the state.

Other Initiatives:

The initiatives to repeal the Carbon Cap and Trade Program, provide an option to op-out of the Long-Term Care Program, and repeal the states capital gains tax will all fail to pass with a NO margin of victory of at least 10% on each one.