Angry voters to confront new primary on Tuesday

By Andrew Garber
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Related stories Welcome to the new ballot

While many key races are up for grabs in Tuesday's primary election, one outcome seems certain: a bunch of ticked-off voters.

Pierce County has even put up posters pleading with voters to be nice to poll workers, bracing for voters angry that they can no longer vote for any candidate they want in the primary.

"Change is tough, and a lot of folks are not happy about this," said Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy. "Some people are going to walk into the polling place and we're going to say you need to pick a party ... and they're going to just go ballistic."

The change comes during one of the biggest, most expensive election cycles in years, with almost every major political office in the state in play.

Tuesday's primary will determine the fate of candidates in a number of key races, including the Democratic nomination for governor where Attorney General Christine Gregoire faces King County Executive Ron Sims. Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi has no significant primary opponent.

Other elections of interest include the hotly contested attorney-general race where a field of four candidates will be narrowed to one Republican and one Democrat.

Then there's perhaps the most expensive legislative primary on record, in Seattle's 36th district, where Democratic Rep. Helen Sommers is battling Alice Woldt, a community activist backed by the Service Employees International Union.

Election information Washington's primary election is Tuesday Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Mail-in ballots must be signed and postmarked or delivered by Election Day. If your absentee ballot arrived too late to mail back on time, you can deliver the completed ballot to any polling place on Election Day. If you don't receive your absentee ballot, you can vote at your assigned polling place by asking for a special ballot. Information on where to vote is on the back of voter-registration cards. For more information, or to find out your voting precinct, check the King County Elections Web site, www.metrokc.gov/elections/, or call 206-296-VOTE for election information or to find out your polling place. For polling-place information in Snohomish County, call 425-388-3422. The Web address for Snohomish County elections is www1.co.snohomish.wa.us/Departments/ Auditor/Divisions/Elections_Voting/.

Some have speculated that the new primary, because it eliminates the ability to cross over to another party, will attract more hardcore party activists to the polls than usual.

Sims is the highest-profile candidate poised to take advantage of such a shift in voting patterns. He has actively courted liberal Democrats with talk of a state income tax, universal health care and support for gay marriage.

Seattle pollster Stuart Elway, however, says his polls show Gregoire with a growing lead over Sims. "If he gets clobbered, it's hard to say the primary had any effect," he said.

It's clear a lot of voters don't like the new primary.

The Secretary of State's Office has been inundated with thousands of phone calls and e-mails from upset voters, most of whom cast their votes by absentee ballot.

County election officials say they've trained their staffs to deal with angry voters. In some cases they'll give them a phone number to call state lawmakers, who changed the election system after Washington's old blanket primary was ruled unconstitutional in court last year.

Election worker Lynn Johnson, who will work at a poll at a church in Bremerton, said he's prepared for whatever happens. "Some of them will be fairly passionate about their feelings," he says. "It's a major change. I think people don't understand fully what's behind it."

Still there's an election to be held, he said.

"You just stay quiet and calm them down and tell them their feelings will be attended to," he said, but "at the poll we're busy issuing the ballots. We don't have time for a discussion group."

Some of the key races:

Governor: The election will decide who will be the Democratic nominee to face Rossi.

U.S. Senate: Congressman George Nethercutt is looking to get past college professor Reed Davis in the Republican primary. The winner will face Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.

Nethercutt has refused to debate Davis, the former chairman of the King County Republican Party. Though polls don't show Davis with much support, he has continued to run a campaign appealing to Republican conservatives who believe Nethercutt is soft on gay marriage and government spending.

8th Congressional District: The primary will narrow a field of seven candidates down to two. Bellevue City Councilman Conrad Lee, state Sen. Luke Esser, King County Sheriff Dave Reichert and Diane Tebelius, a former assistant U.S. attorney for Seattle, are vying for the Republican nomination.

In the Democratic primary, former RealNetworks executive Alex Alben, interior designer Heidi Behrens-Benedict and radio talk-show host Dave Ross are running.

5th Congressional District: State Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Colville; state Sen. Larry Sheahan, R-Spokane, and corporate bankruptcy attorney Shaun Cross are running for the GOP nomination. The winner will face Democrat Don Barbieri, a former chairman and chief executive officer of WestCoast Hospitality.

Attorney general: In the race to succeed Gregoire as attorney general, former Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn faces former Seattle City Attorney Mark Sidran for the Democratic nomination. In the Republican contest, three-term Metropolitan King County Councilman Rob McKenna is facing Seattle attorney Michael Vaska.

The race between Senn and Sidran has focused on Senn's pitch that she is the more experienced, more feisty consumer advocate and Sidran's insistence that as the only candidate with experience as a prosecutor, he knows best how to run the state's law office.

On the Republican side, Vaska, who is seeking office for the first time, has tried to chip away at McKenna's advantages in name recognition and fund-raising by saying that the attorney general's job is better served by a career lawyer than by someone making a career in politics. McKenna contends that his work on the County Council only adds to his qualifications.

36th District legislative race: Sommers, D-Seattle, chairwoman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, is facing the biggest challenge in her political career from Woldt, a longtime community activist. Woldt is backed in the Democratic primary by the Service Employees International Union, one of the most influential labor groups in the state.

The SEIU portrays Sommers as being too conservative and blames her for not aggressively supporting raises for its members.

The campaigns have poured more than $350,000 into the race, making it one of the most expensive legislative primaries on record.

Andrew Garber: 360-943-9882 or agarber at seattletimes.com.

Seattle Times reporters Jim Brunner and Beth Kaiman contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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