EVERETT — Voters got a lot on their plates Tuesday.
Some will help decide control of Congress. Others will determine the fate of taxes to fund public schools.
And a Democratic candidate for a legislative seat will learn if his troubles with the truth will cost him at the polls.
Here are six things we’re watching when ballot counting begins. Remember what happens Tuesday may not be the final result as it can take several rounds of vote tallying before an outcome is clear.
The value of waiting
In February, voters in the Monroe School District said no to renewing a property tax levy that would generate nearly $69 million over the next four years. District leaders hope they’ll have a change of heart Tuesday.
It’s not like voters objected to how the money would be spent — for athletics, band, and special education services as well as salaries of teachers, paraeducators, nurses and custodians. They didn’t like how the district was operating then under its embattled superintendent Justin Blasko. Racial incidents. COVID mandates. Curriculum disputes. All created tension.
School board members sensed this. They held off on bringing the measure back to the ballot right away. They dumped Blasko. Mandates eased and tensions seemed to have subsided a bit. They’re hoping their patience pays off.
Moment of truth
A week ago, Clyde Shavers appeared on course to possibly unseat first-term Republican state Rep. Greg Gilday in the 10th Legislative District. The Democratic challenger won the primary. His political profile — US Navy veteran, Yale Law School grad, and a Japanese American — looks to be a good fit in the swing district that boasts a sizable military presence. The closeness of this race is drawing loads of spending.
Things have changed quickly since his father, Brett Shavers, penned a letter spotlighting his son’s trouble with the truth and sent it to Gilday’s camp where it’s been widely disseminated. We now know Clyde wasn’t a nuclear submarine officer as he’s claimed. Nor is he an attorney as he declared on financial disclosures forms. He hasn’t passed the bar. Clyde Shavers posted an apology on his campaign website. The extent of damage from his embellishments is about to be seen.
An historic moment
Two members of the Snohomish County Council are competing for seats in the state Legislature. If Strom Peterson, a Democrat, and Sam Low, a Republican, are successful it will be quite a feat. Never have two sitting county council members served as state lawmakers at the same time.
Peterson, of Edmonds, actually has both jobs now. He’s the incumbent state representative in the 21st Legislative District and a huge favorite to win re-election. Low, of Lake Stevens, is challenging incumbent Rep. Robert Sutherland, R-Granite Falls, in the 39th Legislative District.
Holding two jobs is legal. Washington has what’s called a citizen Legislature and it’s presumed members return to other jobs when a session ends. And if you’re wondering, a County Council member earns $126,571 a year and state lawmakers earn $57,876 a year.
Doing both jobs won’t be easy. Low, for example, has said he has an idea of how it’s going to work but “if I can’t make them both work, I’ll be glad to give one up.” He hasn’t said which one.
Republican versus Republican
The Low-Sutherland contest is quite the intra-party scrap.
Sutherland, a firebrand conservative, won his past elections pretty handily. However, the 39th Legislative District got seriously reshaped in redistricting. Communities along U.S. 2 where he dominated are gone, replaced primarily by the city of Lake Stevens, home base for the milder-mannered though nearly as conservative Low.
Democrats and independents may decide this one as they accounted for 40% of votes cast in the primary. Independent political committees sent mailers to potentially decisive voters urging them to oppose Sutherland and not leave the ballot blank. The Jackson Legacy Fund, which backs moderate Democrats, produced one. Responsible Leadership PAC, led by the Washington Association of Realtors and the Washington State Labor Council, did the other.
“Personally, I feel voters are turned off by these types of negative and misleading ads, causing voters to lose interest in the race and possibly choosing not to vote at all,” Sutherland said. “Or these poor ads may even back-fire and voters will choose the candidate who hasn’t engaged in such activities.”
On the front line
Control of the U.S. House of Representatives could come down to the duel between Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier and Republican Matt Larkin in Washington’s 8th Congressional District.
Republicans need to gain at least five seats in electoral battles across the country on Tuesday 8 to retake the majority from Democrats. They view the one Schrier is sitting in as a potential pick-up. And thanks to redistricting, roughly 47,000 voters in Snohomish County will get a say in how things turn out.
The redrawn 8th District is spread across parts of six counties — Snohomish, King, Pierce, Chelan, Kittitas and Douglas. In Snohomish County, Darrington, Granite Falls and communities along U.S. 2 such as Sultan and Gold Bar are in it. So too is part of Monroe.
Polling consistently shows Schrier ahead by a smidgen, a margin that could be erased by the smallest of Red waves.
Too close to call
The tussle for Secretary of State is a close one. The vote-rich, progressive-heavy electorate in Seattle and parts of King County could be the deciders. So too could conservative Republicans.
Democrat Steve Hobbs of Lake Stevens, who got appointed secretary of state in November, is up against Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson, who is running as a nonpartisan candidate.
She touts that she won’t let partisan politics into the office. The campaign is different. She’s running an ad in the Seattle market hitting Hobbs, a moderate, for voting against “progressive policies” in his tenure in the state Senate. Hobbs, for example, blocked Gov. Jay Inslee’s clean fuel standard when he chaired the Senate Transportation Committee.
Meanwhile, Republican state Rep. Brad Klippert s running a write-in campaign for the job. Any vote he gets will come from the political right, voters who might otherwise have cast their lot with Anderson.
With so many undecided voters, this could take a few days to sort out.
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dospueblos.
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