Election 2013: First primary results in Seattle Mayor race – Murray #1, McGinn #2 – and more

8:14 PM: King County Elections expects to be out with election results any time now. They will publish the first ballot count tonight – then another update around 4:30 tomorrow afternoon, and more updates daily (or near-daily) from there.

8:18 PM: The numbers are in, and we have updated below:

SEATTLE MAYOR – Results are here.
Murray 30%
McGinn 27%
Steinbrueck 16%
Harrell 15%

SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL, POSITION 2 – Results are here
Conlin 49%
Sawant 33%

SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL, POSITION 8 – Results are here
O’Brien 57%
Shen 35%

KING COUNTY PARKS LEVY – Results are here
Yes 67%
No 31%

KING COUNTY EXECUTIVE – Results are here
Constantine 76%
Lobdell 12%

A plain-text file of all races is here.

West Seattle Hipster August 6, 2013 (8:20 pm)

Wow. Looks like Murray and the incumbent in November if these totals hold up.

I am relieved Steinbrueck is a non factor, and surprised in Harrell’s poor showing.

WSNimby August 6, 2013 (8:45 pm)

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey (Steinbrueck) goodbye…

Wes Cider August 6, 2013 (8:46 pm)

I’m surprised that McGinn’s in second. I didn’t think hizzoner would advance out of the primary.

JimClark August 6, 2013 (9:56 pm)

will be interesting to see where all those non Murray and McGinn go

Charlie August 6, 2013 (10:17 pm)

Yes, well, where will the other 70% of voters go?
http://www.king5.com/news/politics/70-percent-of-King-County-voters-not-expect-to-vote-in-Primary-Election-218445771.html

Diane August 6, 2013 (10:35 pm)

agree Jim; I’ve heard so much “anyone but McGinn”, so wonder if the 43% leftover from all the other candidates will go mostly to Murray

Diane August 6, 2013 (10:41 pm)

very pleased with the 33% for Sawant
~
but KC Elections is showing Conlin with 49%, not 39%
~
if Sawant can pick up Carver’s 17%, she could have a good shot at it in Nov

WSB August 6, 2013 (10:52 pm)

Diane, thanks for catching the typo, I have fixed it.

visitor August 6, 2013 (10:57 pm)

I think most of Harrell’s and Steinbrueck’s will go to Murray; I know I will! Conlin’s position looks worrisome. King County and Seattle voters are always so generous with parks, which is wonderful. Dow is a force, no doubt about it.

DF August 6, 2013 (11:30 pm)

It may not be fashionable to support an incumbent nowadays, but I for one do support McGinn and all he’s been able to accomplish in a difficult environment during his first term over the past four years. He’s put good people in place, challenged the City Council in areas where debate was needed, kept critical services intact and moved forward on several initiatives that I favor. As it turns out I think he was right on the tunnel, but that’s now a done deal.

But my main point is, now that we’ve passed the primary, there’s a chance for a more substantive debate. Primary voters for non-McGinn candidates will need to take a look, as will the 70% who didn’t bother with the primary. Murray’s got a lot of well-deserved goodwill on his side, but he’ll have to make a convincing case that he’d be more effective than McGinn during a second term.

CandrewB August 7, 2013 (5:35 am)

They should just quintuple the Parks Levy and fund all kinds of things with it since it looks like we’ll vote for a “parks” levy no matter what.

Seattlite August 7, 2013 (6:24 am)

935 I agree. Weak and Weaker — so Seattle goes for weaker. Mayors can be recalled — let’s wait and see…

JD August 7, 2013 (6:56 am)

Anyone but Mcginn

Gene August 7, 2013 (7:03 am)

Be specific DF- please- I read posts like yours all the time — generalizations. Truly- please state specifically what exactly he had been able to accomplish- which good people he has put in place. How has he challenged the City Council- moved forward on what initiatives you favor?
If someone wants to say they support so & so- fine- but to state “reasons” but not really is disconcerting.

Michelle August 7, 2013 (7:21 am)

I really like Harrell. I am disappointed he is below Mr. Pike Place. Also, I will support Murray moving forward but I hated his Statement. Absolute dross.

Lee Bui August 7, 2013 (8:03 am)

I like the ways of mayor Mc Ginn done last 4 years. He is focus into the community’s needs.
Seattle need Him another 4 years.

JoB August 7, 2013 (8:06 am)

when you continually replace mayors without giving them a chance to put that on the job learning curve to good use, you create a self fulfilling continuation of anybody but the incumbent..
.
and what you get in return is anybody…
not somebody ready to do the job

SEA August 7, 2013 (8:14 am)

Michelle,
I’m just curious – if Murray is dross, which seems to be the main issue against him (he’s a bland boring politician who doesn’t know city government), why are you supporting him? Is it an anybody-but-McGinn, or are there positives you see that outweigh the dross?

alki forever August 7, 2013 (8:22 am)

Talk about very,very weak choices to vote for. I’d rather be sedated in a mental home if this is the best we got. Who ever you vote for you’re screwed! No more giving homeless people $500,000 to stay put. Fix potholes first before wasting money on bike lanes too. A joke!

East Coast Cynic August 7, 2013 (8:23 am)

I’m with McGinn. At least he gives a damn about us west seattlites getting light rail when the time comes.

I think Harrell’s problem was that he could not expand his base beyond South Seattle. Beyond his social justice stands and his “hey I’m a local guy with a great family”, I don’t believe he did enough to define what he would do as mayor for the broader population and how he would address issues outside of the social justice realm.

Lesser Steinbrueck is stuck in neighborhood parochialism and a 1970’s Seattle perspective of no light rail, no right of way transit and JP Patches.

BWD August 7, 2013 (8:40 am)

Murray it is. Anyone but McGinn.

chris August 7, 2013 (9:13 am)

This should put the last scoop of dirt on top of Peter Steinbruek. He is more Portlandia than Seattle.

Gene August 7, 2013 (9:21 am)

Doesn’t matter if our Mayor likes light rail for WS or not.

Thistle August 7, 2013 (10:08 am)

I am genuinely curious regarding some comments about how McGinn has been on top of Neighborhood needs. I attended four of the Community Town Hall meetings that he has held over the years and was completely underwhelmed and kind of embarrassed. He genuinely seemed interested and was nice, but was always caught off guard by people with questions about major neighborhood issues (I am not talking micro level things – bigger things like the Rapid Ride routes/roadwork, the huge maintenance issues at Highland Park Elementary, the zip line proposal at Lincoln Park). That and the propensity to answer literally everything with “I have a committee that will look into that”. I truly get that he is Mayor of the whole city, but honestly, it is not rocket science to at the very least have your aid make up a quick regional cheat sheet of “big news” topics and maybe bring a map so you know where Lincoln Park and California Avenue are.

a August 7, 2013 (11:49 am)

Woohoo!!! Bye bye steincrook! Maybe if you weren’t against a huge number of us who like sports you would have had a chance. Huge victory for sports in Seattle today!

wscommuter August 7, 2013 (12:22 pm)

DF – with all due respect – what if anything has McGinn accomplished? Yes, I’m biased – I think he’s an incompetent boob. But seriously – what has he actually done? The City Council just works around him, as they must. His transparently silly campaign ads touting job growth in the City are as facile as they are pandering to the ignorant. Job growth in the city is coincidental to his term as mayor – in no way has he done anything to grow Seattle’s economy.

ECC – you are kidding yourself if you think McGinn actually cares – much less will do anything – about getting light rail to W. Sea. That is nothing more than campaign fluff trying to trick us. He refuses to work with Sound Transit – and like ST or not, ST is the ONLY agency that will be building any light rail in this area for the forseable future. You’re simply kidding yourself to think that McGinn would actually try to put a city-funded line to W. Sea. Pure delusion.

Diane August 7, 2013 (12:27 pm)

@Thistle; totally agree

wsparent August 7, 2013 (1:42 pm)

I think I will write-in a candidate for Mayor… I don’t want either of those two!

Dank August 7, 2013 (1:49 pm)

Steinbrueck wasn’t AGAINST sports, he was FOR labor and industry, which means pro growth, pro living wage, pro middle class. Being against the location of another stadium in the middle of Seattle’a industrial core apparently didn’t translate to the simple minded win-or-lose mentality that characterizes a certain segment of sports fanatics.

a August 7, 2013 (2:45 pm)

Steinbrueck was against the enormous number of us who want this arena to happen and it cost him this election. Dank- if he was for labor and industry wouldn’t he be for the amount of labor and industry that would be put into building a world class arena that would also contribute billions in tax revenue once that arena is operating? He was just a puppet for the port and thankfully our citizens are smart enough to see that.

AlkiGrl August 7, 2013 (4:09 pm)

McGinn got my vote last round and again in General. I have no idea if he will win but I’m behind him 100%. Nice to have someone willing to take a stand and fight for it.

Sorry, comment time is over.