Gilday trails Shavers by 200 votes after taking brief lead
Nov 15, 2022, 12:34 PM | Updated: Nov 17, 2022, 5:12 pm
Republican incumbent Greg Gilday now leads in the 10th Legislative District race after initially trailing Clyde Shavers on election night. (Photo courtesy of Greg Gilday Campaign)
(Photo courtesy of Greg Gilday Campaign)
Republican incumbent Greg Gilday now trails Clyde Shavers, the state legislative candidate who was accused of embellishing his military record, in the 10th Legislative District race.
The latest tally shows Shavers leads Gilday by 238 votes. Shavers has 36,327 votes (50.09% of the vote) while Gilday has 36,089 votes (49.77%), as of Thursday evening.
Shavers held the initial lead over Gilday on election night, but after Shavers’ father claimed his son lied about being a submarine officer in a letter sent days before the Nov. 8 ballot deadline, Gilday steadily gained enough momentum to take his first lead a week after Election Day. His 15-vote lead lasted for a couple of hours before Shavers retook the lead.
Republicans have since asked in-state Democrats to pull their support for him, something the Daily Herald of Everett did shortly after the letter was released.
The definitive look at Washington’s key midterm election races
“The editorial board learned Tuesday that a candidate for the 10th Legislative District, Clyde Shavers, a Democrat, had made two serious misrepresentations regarding his career record,” The Herald Editorial Board wrote two weeks ago. “Because of those misrepresentations, the editorial board is rescinding its endorsement of Shavers, first published on Sept. 20, and now endorses the incumbent, state Rep. Greg Gilday, Republican.”
Gilday was an attorney with the law office of Cole & Gilday, and a managing broker with Windermere Real Estate, before turning to politics, where he defeated Angie Homola by 891 votes in 2020 to become a state representative.
The state’s safety rest area program, the landlord mitigation program, teacher retirement pensions, and the imagination library are just some of the bills sponsored by Gilday during his first term.
He also serves as a member of the Housing, Human Services, and Veterans Committee; the Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee; and the Rules and Capital Budget committees.
WA party officials feeling confident about Election Day vote
Heading into this election, the state’s budget, inflation, and overall economic downturn were three areas Gilday focused on in his campaign, stressing these issues need “immediate attention.”
“Unfortunately, the majority party passed higher taxes and fees and spent too much in the last budget,” Gilday said at a public forum. “Fixing that huge mistake is going to be job one. We also need to fix the bad bills that stopped police from doing their job and address the harm to kids from the pandemic school closures.”
