Updated Nov 7, 2009 - 11:04 am
McGinn widens lead in Seattle's mayoral race
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Environmentalist Mike McGinn has widened his lead over cell phone executive Joe Mallahan to 2,384 votes in the race for Seattle mayor.
King County released a new batch of ballots Friday night that nearly doubled the 1,209-vote lead McGinn held on Friday afternoon. Thousands of votes remain to be counted next week.
State law requires a recount if the margin is fewer than 2,000 votes and less than one-half of 1 percent of the total vote.
Even after early results came out in McGinn's favor, he remained cautious, preparing for a long week of waiting for county workers to count the mailed-in ballots.
"Elections in Washington state can take a long time to be decided," McGinn said. "We'll have to watch it everyday."
McGinn credited his early lead to his opposition to the tunnel replacement project, even though he was criticized for softening his position in the final weeks of his campaign.
"I think the voters appreciated that an elected official just spoke honestly and straightly with them," said McGinn.
After the initial results Mallahan said he was stunned and blamed McGinn's negative messages and scare tactics about the tunnel.
"I don't want to sound like a victim, but Mike was very effective at telling people that I was a bad guy. I thought that would turn against him, but apparently some people listened," said Mallahan.
In an election night speech, Mallahan said, "This thing is far from over." He joked, "I want a whole lot of you in a plane down to Miami tomorrow to do the recount."
Mallahan and McGinn are two political newcomers. Both outpolled Mayor Greg Nickels in the August primary and advanced to Tuesday's election. Nickels had been dogged by criticism of his handling of a snow storm last year.
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