Local congressional incumbents win comfortably

Links to state and local primary election results

Incumbent Democratic U.S. Reps. Rick Larsen and Suzan DelBene cruised to victory in Tuesday’s primary.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Pramila Jayapal and King County Councilman Joe McDermott are leading after the first night of ballot counting in the hotly contested race to succeed retiring Congressman Jim McDermott in the 7th District.

And Democratic U.S. Sen Patty Murray easily won her primary and will face Republican Chris Vance this fall.

Murray, who has served in the Senate since 1993, garnered 53.4 percent of the votes Tuesday while Vance, a former chairman of the state Republican Party, collected 27.7 percent.

Here is a rundown of the results in races for the three congressional seats representing Snohomish County:

• In the 1st Congressional District, DelBene, a Medina resident, received 54 percent of the vote with Republican Robert Sutherland of Granite Falls a distant second with 31 percent. Most notably, DelBene won in Whatcom County where she has previously lost to her Republican opponents.

Trailing the two of them by a wide margin were Republican John Orlinski, Libertarian Scott Stafne and Independent Alex Storms.

Sutherland also challenged DelBene in 2014 but finished third in the primary. He didn’t enter this year’s race until May when state Rep. Elizabeth Scott, R-Monroe, ended her campaign for this congressional seat.

DelBene, who is seeking a third term, has campaigned on her record since arriving in Congress in late 2012.

She said she’s worked to pass bills to increase email privacy protections and preserve work training for qualified food stamp recipients.

She’s also pushed for passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act, requiring online businesses to collect sales tax, and recently introduced legislation aiding communities dependent on timber industry, such as Darrington.

She has raised $1.53 million and had nearly $1 million in cash on hand in mid-July. Sutherland, with $7,043 in contributions, is the only other candidate to report raising money in the primary.

At stake is a two-year term representing communities from the Canadian border south to Kirkland in east King County. The district takes in a swath of Snohomish County east of I-5 including the cities of Snohomish, Lake Stevens, Mill Creek, Arlington and Sultan.

• In the 2nd Congressional District, Larsen captured 53 percent of the vote and will face Republican Marc Henneman who received 32.3 percent.

Democratic candidate Mike Lapointe of Everett is third with 9.7 percent followed by Libertarian Brian Luke of Lynnwood at 3.2 percent, and Kari Ilonummi, who states no party preference, at 2 percent.

Larsen is seeking a ninth term representing the district that stretches from Mountlake Terrace to Bellingham and encompasses all of Island and San Juan counties. Everett is the most populous city in the district.

In the primary, Larsen’s opponents criticized him for supporting legislation in 2015 making it easier for the president to sign trade agreements. He’s also been criticized for not publicly opposing the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement that could be voted on by Congress this year.

Larsen said he hasn’t made up his mind on the TPP and emphasized that the Obama Administration needs to do more to enforce terms of existing trade deals.

As of mid-July, he had raised $690,861 and was the only candidate who had collected enough money to require filing reports with the Federal Election Commission.

• In the 7th Congressional District, Jayapal, a Columbia City Democrat, got 38.2 percent of the vote while McDermott, a Seattle Democrat and no relation to the congressman, got 21.5 percent. State Rep. Brady Pinero Walkinshaw, D-Seattle, is in third at 20.9 percent. He trails McDermott by 586 votes.

In the Snohomish County portion of the district, Jayapal and McDermott finished atop the field with 29.5 percent and 19.5 percent respectively.

In all nine candidates were competing to succeed Congressman McDermott of Seattle in the district that runs from Normandy Park in the south to Edmonds in the north and takes in most of Seattle.

Craig Keller, at 9 percent, was the top Republican finisher in what is considered the state’s most liberal congressional district.

Jayapal won her state Senate seat in 2014. As a lawmaker, Jayapal pushed bills to boost the state’s minimum wage, increase access to reproductive health care and reform state gun laws. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders endorsed Jayapal and urged his supporters to donate to her campaign.

McDermott served a decade in the Legislature, as a representative and senator, before joining the King County Council in 2010.

Reforming campaign finance rules and reducing gun violence, including imposing a ban on assault weapons, are two focuses of his campaign.

Walkinshaw was appointed to the state House in 2013 and elected to a full term in 2014. He’s authored measures to improve mental health care, to combat heroin and opioid addiction, and to address climate change. He’s pledged to focus on those issues in Congress.

Jayapal led all candidates in fundraising through mid-July, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

She reported $1.28 million in contributions and, after expenditures, had $368,719 in cash on hand entering the final weeks of the election.

Walkinshaw reported raising $888,853 and had $314,355 while McDermott received $425,901 in donations and had $126,835 available.

Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com, Twitter: @dospueblos.