Sawant trailing Orion in Seattle City Council race
Nov 6, 2019, 7:11 AM | Updated: 4:13 pm
A campaign sign for Councilmember Kshama Sawant. (AP)
(AP)
The second round of results for Seattle’s seven City Council races have rolled in, with razor thin races, as well as a mix between “massive change” and “more of the same” depending on the district.
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In terms of rock solid results with a clear winner, there appear to be just three races mostly decided with just a sizable portion of votes tallied: District 2, District 4, and District 5.
In District 2, progressive Tammy Morales holds a 12% lead over challenger Mark Solomon. CASE-endorsed Alex Pedersen holds a 15% lead in District 4 over socialist candidate Shaun Scott.
In District 5, incumbent Debora Juarez has a commanding 16 percent lead over Ann Davison Sattler.
District 6’s race — while not over by any stretch — still features a decently-sized gap, with former legislative aide and policy adviser Dan Strauss leading former Seattle councilmember Heidi Wills by just over 1,263 votes.
Other races are much tighter, although the biggest upset can be seen in District 3, where incumbent Kshama Sawant is trailing Egan Orion by 1,925 votes.
Sawant has yet to concede, with her campaign labeling the race “still too close to call.”
Another Seattle council incumbent is in the midst of her own close race in District 1, with Lisa Herbold maintaining a 710-vote lead over Phil Tavel.
Perhaps the tightest race of all can be found in District 7 — former interim Seattle Police Chief Jim Pugel holds a 20-vote lead over Andrew Lewis.
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In an election season defined by a heated battle between big corporate money and progressive campaigns, neither side won big as of Tuesday night. The Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy (CASE) — which received over $1.4 million in contributions from Amazon — was far from declaring victory in a written statement issued after the first round of results.
“(Tuesday)’s initial returns are not definitive enough to call these close races,” said CASE president and CEO Marilyn Strickland. “We know from our polling that voters want more solutions and less ideology from councilmembers. We are looking forward to the next ballot count (Wednesday) afternoon.”
As of Tuesday night’s latest tally, four out of seven CASE-endorsed council candidates were leading: Debora Juarez, Alex Pedersen, Egan Orion, and Jim Pugel (albeit by the slimmest margin of any candidate).
That being so, if Herbold, Strauss, and Morales all hold on to win, that would also represent a victory for progressives who decried corporate money involved in Seattle’s council races. Morales especially represents an approval of left-leaning politics from voters, with proposals for six new taxes in her platform.
The next run of results will arrive Thursday at 4 p.m., hopefully providing more clarity for a handful of tight races for Seattle City Council.
