Murray and McGinn appear headed to November election
Aug 6, 2013, 8:04 PM | Updated: Aug 7, 2013, 8:40 am
Early primary election results show Ed Murray leads Mike McGinn in the Seattle mayoral race.
Sen. Murray led with 30 percent and incumbent McGinn had 27 percent of the vote, but both candidates would advance to the November election since Washington is a top-two state. Peter Steinbrueck collected 16 percent of the vote and Bruce Harrell 15 percent.
This is McGinn’s second run for mayor. He says he came into office as an outsider with virtually no experience in politics, but climbed the learning curve as quickly as he could.
Murray said he was surprised by the news that he was leading. “Just a few a weeks ago, the polls had us at number three,” Murray told the Morning News on KIRO Radio.
Senator Murray is the current Senate Democratic Leader. He’s been serving in the legislature since 1995. Murray would be Seattle’s first gay mayor but if elected that’s not what he would want to be known for.
“I want to be known as an effective mayor,” said Murray. “Obviously being the first gay person elected mayor in Seattle would be a significant, historic moment, but I want to be known as an effective mayor.”
Seeking re-election, King County Executive Dow Constantine also led in early results at 76 percent of the vote. Alan Lobdell won 12 percent.
Early results show voters approved King County Prop. 1 Park Levy at 69 percent.
The Secretary of State’s Office reported Tuesday night a 20 percent turnout and about 640,000 ballots tallied. More will be counted on Wednesday with new results expected around 4:30 p.m.
MyNorthwest.com’s Alyssa Kleven contributed to this report.
