County election offices across Washington are busy counting ballots and a few races won’t be determined until next week. Yet, with roughly 80% of the statewide vote counted, there is enough election data to make a couple of general observations.

SEATTLE

Seattle voters took a step back to the failed progressive policies of its recent past with the victory of extremist Alexis Mercedes Rinck over moderate Tanya Woo in a city-wide council race. (Earlier this year Woo was appointed by the current council to fill the at-large seat vacated by the departure of Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda.)

This contest, along with Socialist Shaun Scott victory over We Heart Seattle founder Andrea Suarez in the 43^rd Legislative District, warns moderates how easily Seattle voters, bombarded with divisive extreme rhetoric, will forget the terrible condition the extremists left Seattle after they were kicked out of office by the voters in 2023.

In 2025, Mercedes Rinck, along with City Council President Sara Nelson, will need to face re-election for their at-large council seats. Mayor Bruce Harrell and City Attorney Ann Davison are also expected to seek another four-year term and be on the ballot.  Next year those seeking a more moderate approach to city government will need to do a better job of reminding voters of the last time irresponsible policies were imposed by extremist elected officials:

• Record-breaking homelessness numbers.
• Record-breaking drug overdose deaths.
• Record-breaking half-billion-dollar City of Seattle debt.
• Record-breaking violent crime rates hurting minorities the hardest.
• Employers fleeing the city or going out of business due to anti-business taxes and policies
• Police officers fleeing the SPD, causing an emergency staffing crisis.
• Retailers fleeing Downtown due to increases in retail theft and unsafe conditions for workers and customers.
• Property Managers fleeing rental market resulting in thousands of fewer units and higher rent.

Knowing these facts, it is hard to imagine why anyone would vote for a candidate who supports such policies which cause so much misery in Seattle.

STATEWIDE

Billionaires and wealthy government employee unions spent tens of millions to flood our airwaves and mailboxes with misinformation to defeat three citizens’ initiatives – forcing residents to pay higher taxes to fund the continued massive expansion of state government.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and other government employee labor groups spent nearly $15 million to defeat campaign against the four citizens’ initiatives and millions more to defeat specific measures.

Government employee unions spent an additional  $5 million  to defeat I-2109 to keep in place the state’s  capital gains tax which is the stepping stone for extremists to impose a state income tax on all Washington residents.

The unions were joined by such billionaires as Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, and Chris Stolte, and many wealthy environmental (both national and local) groups such as LCV Victory Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and far Star Action Fund to spend another $18 million to defeat I-2117, the carbon tax measure. Thus, the working class will continue to pay higher gas and grocery prices, where the tax funds will eventually land in wealthy environmentalists’ bank accounts (to fund projects that won’t help the climate).

The SEIU spent an additional $13 million to defeat I-2124, to make sure the union benefits financially by forcing all workers in Washington to purchase a poorly designed state-run Long-Term Care insurance plan (which already needs to massively increase premiums to stay solvent). The SEIU represents home care workers who will be the only people who benefit from this new government entitlement program.

These groups spent no additional money attempting to defeat the energy choice I-2066. Currently the yes vote has a 2.9% lead.

All told, the wealthy and public sector unions spent about $50 million as they continue to use government power to take more money out of your pocket and place it into their bank accounts.