Liberal Talk Radio

Few Flaws or Voters Seen in King County.

I have to say it wasn’t much of a race. I voted, but I can definitely see why one wouldn’t. Most of these races are nonpartisan, and so the top two vote-getters end up advancing to the general election in November. So the only races worth watching are the ones where there are three or more serious contenders, and those are few and far between. The one surprise to me was that political vet Dwight Pelzis having such a hard time hanging on to a 2nd-place finish to take on Richard McIver for Seattle City Council. I guess Robert Rosencrantz’s goofy, Dylan-inspired TV spot worked. Heck, I remember it…

If anything, the election is useful as a bellweather for November. In that sense, it was a disappointing night for monorail supporters as incumbents trailed challengers in the two open seats by healthy margins. Both challengers have said they’re running to shut the project down. Of course, the logical time to shut the monorail down would have been last year’s Initiative 83, which failed by a wide margin. But, of course, the only institution around here more incompetent than the local government is the local anti-government, and, predictably, they bungled the recall. Had they run it this November instead, or bothered to calculate the eventual $11 billion financing plan, they would have won easily.