Three for Three in Washington State

David Groves, communications director for the Washington State Labor Council, writes about the tremendous Nov. 7 victories for Washington’s working families in this crosspost from WSLC Reports Today.

Working families in Washington state not only elected labor-endorsed candidates to Congress and the State Legislature on Tuesday. Voters went three for three on important statewide ballot measures and three for three in re-electing nonpartisan labor-endorsed Supreme Court justices facing well-financed conservative challengers.

In the final four days leading up to and including Election Day, Labor Neighbor volunteers completed an estimated 2,000 shifts of neighborhood walks and phone banks, contacting tens of thousands of union voters.

Says Rick Bender, president of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO:

These results confirm not just voters’ anger and frustration with the Bush administration, the Iraq War and a scandal-plagued Republican Congress; they also show that working families were paying attention to nonpartisan races and issues all the way down the ballot. I have no doubt that our aggressive Labor Neighbor activities and our targeted mail program—combined with an exceptional response Tuesday from union volunteers for get-out-the-vote activities—were key factors in making Election Day 2006 such a resounding success for working families.

Here’s a roundup of what happened in Washington state (links will take you to the Secretary of State’s website for the latest results):

Congress—Once considered the U.S. Senate’s most vulnerable incumbent Democrat, Sen. Maria Cantwell trounced well-financed challenger Mike McGavick, 58 percent to 39 percent.

All six of the other labor-endorsed incumbent Democrats in Congress were easily re-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives: U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee won, 69 percent to 31 percent; Rick Larsen, 66 percent to 34 percent; Brian Baird, 65 percent to 35 percent; Norm Dicks, 71 percent to 29 percent; Jim McDermott, 80 percent to 16 percent; and Adam Smith, 66 percent to 34 percent.

All eyes will remain on the hotly contested 8th Congressional District race for days, perhaps weeks, as Republican Rep. Dave Reichert holds a very slim 51 percent to 49 percent lead—about 2,600 votes—over labor-endorsed Democrat Darcy Burner. That race’s outcome will hinge on the more than 100,000 mail ballots yet to be counted, mostly in King County where Burner was running ahead of Reichert.

In eastern Washington, labor-endorsed 5th District challenger Peter Goldmark came up short against Rep. Cathy McMorris, 55 percent to 45 percent, and labor-endorsed Democrat Richard Wright lost to soon-to-be former House Ethics Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, 58 percent to 42 percent.

Statewide Initiatives—Labor went three for three on ballot measures. Voters rejected both Initiative 920 to repeal the state estate tax (and cut education funding) and Initiative 933, the “pay or waive” property rights measure forcing local governments to pay developers just to obey the law. I-920 was rejected, 61 percent to 39 percent, and I-933 failed, 58 percent to 42 percent.

Meanwhile, Initiative 937, the labor-endorsed Clean Energy Initiative, was approved, 53 percent to 47 percent. I-937 will create family-wage jobs by guaranteeing that, by 2020, 15 percent of the electricity from Washington’s largest utilities comes from home-grown renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.

State Supreme Court—Incumbent State Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens became the third justice to successfully fend off conservative challengers financed by corporate special interests. Owens easily defeated former Republican state legislator Stephen Johnson, 60 percent to 40 percent.

The reactionary Building Industry Association of Washington sank an estimated $1 million into the three Supreme Court challengers’ races—including financing some of the most despicable attack ads of the election season against Chief Justice Gerry Alexander—and lost all three of those races.

State Legislature—Pro-working family Democrats extended their majorities in both the State Senate and State House of Representatives. This was especially important in the Senate, where progressive legislation was sometimes stymied by the slim 26–23 majority because one or two conservative Democrats sided with the minority. Democrats appear to have picked up six additional seats to gain a strong 32–17 majority. Likewise in the House, Democrats extended their 55–43 majority by several seats, though a couple of close races will decide how many.

Here are the outcomes of Labor Neighbor targeted races. (The candidate listed in bold is the labor-endorsed candidate.)

Click here for a complete list of state legislative results.

▪ 6th LD Senate—Chris Marr, 57%; Sen. Brad Benson, 43%
▪ 17th LD House—Rep. Deb Wallace, 59%; Paul Harris, 41%
▪ 23rd LD House—Christine Rolfes, 56%; Rep. Beverly Woods, 44%
▪ 24th LD House—Kevin Van De Wege, 55%; Rep. Jim Buck, 45%
▪ 26th LD Senate—Rep. Derek Kilmer 61% – Jim Hines 39% (open seat)
▪ 26th LD House 1—Rep. Patricia Lantz, 58%; Beckie Krantz, 42%
▪ 26th LD House 2—Larry Seaquist, 56%; Ron Boehme, 44% (open seat)
▪ 28th LD House 1—Troy Kelley, 52%; Don Anderson, 48% (open seat)
▪ 28th LD House 2—Rep. Tami Green, 54%; Bob Lawrence, 46%
▪ 31st LD House—Christopher Hurst, 53%; Rep. Jan Shabro, 47%
▪ 42nd LD House—Rep. Doug Erickson, 53%; Jasper MacSlarrow, 47%
▪ 44th LD Senate—Steve Hobbs, 55%; Sen. Dave Schmidt, 45%
▪ 44th LD House 1—Rep. Hans Dunshee, 58%; Mike Hope, 42%
▪ 44th LD House 2—Rep. John Lovick, 62%; Robert Legg, 38%
▪ 45th LD Senate—Eric Oemig, 54%; Rep. Toby Nixon, 46% (open seat)
▪ 47th LD Senate—Claudia Kauffman, 52%; Mike Riley, 48% (open seat)
▪ 47th LD House 1—Rep. Geoff Simpson, 59%; Donna Watts, 41%
▪ 47th LD House 2—Rep. Pat Sullivan, 59%; Andrew Franz, 41%
▪ 48th LD Senate—Rep. Rodney Tom, 54%; Sen. Luke Esser, 46%
▪ 48th LD House—Deborah Eddy, 58%; Bret Olson, 42% (open seat)

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