ELECTION RESULTS, ROUND 2: No changes in Seattle/King County races

Short sum-up of the second round of election results, released this afternoon: No changes in Seattle/King County races.

A few notes:

*West Seattleite Mitzi Johanknecht widened her lead over incumbent Sheriff John Urquhart, now almost 13,000 votes. (Here’s our coverage of her election-night speech.)

*Cary Moon has just formally conceded in the race for mayor, won by Jenny Durkan, who maintained 60 percent of the vote. From Moon’s statement:

I ran for Mayor because I felt an immense duty and responsibility to ensure Seattle — our beautiful, vibrant, diverse city — works for everyone.

While the election results will probably continue to tighten, the outcome is unlikely to be what we hoped. We should not let that discourage us. Despite being outspent 3:1, we ran a strong, transparent, and honest campaign about vision and solutions. We drove the conversation around housing affordability, real estate speculation, municipal broadband, and wealth inequality.

l have offered my congratulations to Jenny Durkan, Seattle’s first woman mayor in 90 years. I urge her to boldly confront the challenges facing our city and to remember that Seattle’s prosperity should provide shared opportunity and success for everyone, not just the wealthy few. …

(added 6:11 pm) *Mayor-elect Durkan has sent a statement too. Excerpt:

… I want to congratulate Cary Moon on the strong race that she’s run and the ideas she brought to the table. In nearly 100 debates and forums, I saw firsthand her love for our city and her commitment to compassionately address the toughest challenges facing Seattle. I have no doubt that Cary will remain active in our city and continue to contribute to its vibrant future.

I am honored that the voters have given me this great opportunity, but with the honor comes a deep responsibility. The hard work of delivering progress starts today. Our city will – and must – come together around the solutions to address the urgent issues facing our city from homelessness to affordability to addressing systemic inequities. …

*The Seattle Port Commission Position 1 race between incumbent John Creighton (51.16%) and Ryan Calkins (48.84%) tightened a bit, with Calkins now 6,500+ votes behind Creighton – the margin was 7,400+ last night.

Next ballot count is due around 4 pm tomorrow. If you want to check to be sure your ballot has been received – follow the “track my ballot” options here.

Miles November 8, 2017 (5:05 pm)

The reason Moon was outspent 3-1 is she had at most a third Durkan’s experience but more than three times her ego. Not conceding last night was insulting to the voters.

gxnx November 8, 2017 (6:46 pm)

Her campaign money should have gone to the Food Bank , what a waste of good money.She knew she will lose – typical case of in Denial , so are her supporters. -hey, you can’t handle the truth that you are not qualified.

Mark November 8, 2017 (7:16 pm)

Hopefully Mayor elect Durkin moves to the pragmatic center left now she has won.

And I hope she gets rid of Kubley immediately. Traffic has gotten way worse due to Kubley.

And no more property or business tax increases.

JC November 8, 2017 (8:10 pm)

Yes I hope she gets rid of Kubley. He’s been nothing but joke. You can pretty much guarantee property / business tax increases as that’s how liberal Seattle works. And it’s sad as they can’t work within their budget like we have too. No wonder it’s getting to darn expensive to live in Seattle. Not all of us are making the money to afford one tax increase after another to pay for programs that don’t even work. I hope she she really looks at the City Budget and can cut out waste and maybe save money to they can fund their programs without increasing taxes.
The King November 8, 2017 (8:46 pm)

The city’s pension fund is seriously underfunded. They claim 1.2 billion but third party researchers are thinking it could be above 3 billion. Now I’m not saying that justifies tax increases by any means but be ready. Prioritizing budget allocation hasn’t been a high priority for years. They need to realize homeowners are not captive ATM machines.
MSW November 8, 2017 (11:35 pm)

They need to purge SDOT and hire people who understand the importance of traffic mobility for a growing city, and how about giving us a break from taxes too!
AMD November 9, 2017 (6:22 am)

They are legally limited on how much they can increase property taxes every year. Beyond that, they need to get permission of the voters (which is why you see so many levies on ballots instead of them just increasing when they feel like it).
It’s also worth pointing out that the property tax rate in Seattle has actually gone down since 2013 from 10.5 to 9.2. And, yes, that includes all the levies we voted for (not including the one from this week’s election).

You can find all of that information on the assessor’s website. Both the limits on city government and the year-to-year comparison of tax rates.
- Brewmeister November 9, 2017 (1:51 pm)
  
  The rate may have decreased but that is offset by the value of your home going up based on the tax assessor’s office. Trust me, property taxes are going up. They are going to get you one way or another.

rob November 9, 2017 (7:38 am)

Well they are moving ahead with 177 million dollar street car on first av. That should be a clear sign that there will be no slowdown of stupid spending of or tax dollars. Why can’t they just paint some lines on the road that look like rail tracks then just paint the buses to look like a trolly car and save a ton of money