44th district races close

  • Jana Hill<br>Mill Creek Enterprise editor
  • Thursday, February 21, 2008 12:08pm

The 44th district saw some close races in the primary election, but when the first numbers came in for the general election at 8 p.m. Nov. 5, no race was closer than the Senate race.

Vying for the position of 44th District Senate are Dave Schmidt and Democratic challenger Phil Doerflein. First numbers from the Snohomish County Auditor’s web site showed the two nearly neck-and-neck: Schmidt drew 50.63 percent of the votes, and Doerflein was at 49.27 percent.

Schmidt is a legislative veteran with eight as House representative and political involvement that stretches back to 1986. Doerflein has not held any political offices, but is a Bothell business owner. He and wife, Ann are Mill Creek residents and together own “Bothell Ski &Bike.”

Both candidates promised voters to push for a more “business friendly” Washington and a more efficient state government. Both said the economy would be their top issue, if elected. And both support a simple majority vote for school district levies. Their messages went out in a newly redrawn district, and the two were running for a position that had no incumbent. The Senate seat was left vacant by 14-year veteran Jeanine Long, a Republican who resided in Mill Creek.

Yet, even with a political newbie hot on his trail, Schmidt maintained a sense of confidence.

“That’s closer than I anticipated, but if it’s anything like the primary, it should just go up after that and I should be in good shape,” Schmidt said on election night.

Doerflein was reserved in reaction to the first set of numbers.

“I’m hopeful. I know they’re just first numbers … it’s hard to put a lot of bank in it, but we’re hopeful,” he said.

By early morning Nov. 6, Schmidt’s prediction came true. He pulled ahead with 53.27 percent of the votes, and Doerflein followed with 46.65 percent.

But the race isn’t over yet. There are still more ballots left to count.

“A very rough and probably low estimate is 50,000, probably close r 60,000” uncounted ballots, said Wendy Mauch, voter registration lead at Snohomish County Auditor’s Office.

The races for two House positions in the 44th district, while too early to call, were further apart than the Senate’s race when first numbers came in at 8 p.m.

In House position one, Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish had 53.67 percent of the votes while Republican challenger Tim Krivanek had 46.20 percent.

Krivanek is a Boeing financial analyst and has never run for office. Dunshee is a small business owner with eight years as a legislator.

Just after viewing the 8 p.m. numbers, Krivanek said, “We feel good. We ran a good campaign and it’s still early so we’ll see what happens. So one way or another, we feel good about what we’ve done and it’s going to be a long night.”

“I’d rather be where I am then where he is,” Dunshee said of the first numbers. “So far, they’re good. So far, a positive, progressive agenda and straight talk seems to be proving true.”

By early morning Nov. 6, the the race got closer with Dunshee at 51.41 percent and Krivanek at 48.45 percent.

In the race for House position two, incumbent Rep. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek looked to be hanging onto his seat with 55.06 percent of the vote, while Republican challenger Randy Nichols trailed with 44.81 percent.

On Nov. 6, the race tightened a bit with 51.72 percent for Lovick and 48.17 percent for Nichols.

On election night Lovick had an 8 percent lead under his belt. He said his lead showed that voters were listening. His campaign focused on transportation, education and public safety.

“I feel very very good. We’ve worked very very hard nonstop, and I think the voters listened to us,” Lovick said.

Nichols said of the early results, “we’re really proud of what we put together in three months. (I) filed the last two hours of the last day. We had a great group of people working for us and we got a lot done.”

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