Absentee votes lean toward Sommers

By Andrew Garber and J. Patrick Coolican
Seattle Times staff reporters

. Helen Sommers is a key state budget writer.

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Woldt, whose campaign was heavily supported by the Service Employees International Union, says it's a long shot she could win the way the numbers are coming in but wanted to wait until today before deciding whether to concede.

Sommers, who as chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee is one of the state's key budget writers, leads Woldt by 817 votes, 11,461 to 10,644.

With the backing of the SEIU, Woldt waged one of the most expensive campaigns ever undertaken in Washington to unseat an incumbent legislator. It's also the most serious challenge Sommers has faced since she was first elected 32 years ago.

State records show Woldt and groups backed by the union spent more than $270,000 trying to defeat Sommers. Most of the money came from the union.

Sommers, 72, trailed in the money race, spending about $138,000.

In other close races, the King County rural library bond measure appeared to be on its way to approval and the Kenmore cardroom ban was closer to defeat.

Close races Here are King County races from Tuesday's primary election that remain tight after more absentee ballots were counted yesterday. A final batch of absentee ballots is expected to be counted today. King County's rural library levy was looking increasingly secure, maintaining a 63 percent "yes" vote, with 97,829 votes for and 57,754 against. Passage requires 60 percent approval. In Seattle's 36th legislative district, longtime state House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Helen Sommers increased her lead over union-backed challenger Alice Woldt in the Democratic primary. Sommers led by 817 votes, 11,461 to 10,644. In the Republican primary in the 48th legislative district, which covers parts of Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland, James Whitfield, an executive of a nonprofit health-care organization, held a slim 115-vote lead over businessman David Doud. Whitfield had 3,311, or 51 percent of the vote to Doud's 3,196 or 49 percent. The winner will take on Democratic incumbent Ross Hunter. A proposed ban on cardrooms in Kenmore was still failing, 2,128 "no" votes to 2,009 in favor.

Two other legislative races remained extremely close. In the Republican primary in Eastside's 48th legislative district, James Whitfield, an executive of a nonprofit health-care organization, held a slim 115-vote lead over businessman David Doud.

Closest of all was the 11th legislative District, which includes all or parts of South Seattle, Tukwila, Burien, Renton and White Center. As of yesterday afternoon Rosemary Quesenberry was trailing by a single vote to Bob Hasegawa. But with the latest batch of ballots counted, Hasegawa increased his lead to 52 votes, 4,115 to 4,063.

The winner of the Democratic primary will be favored to win easily in November.

"It's not so terribly unusual to have a close election, but I've never heard of anything quite like this," Bryan Jones, a political-science professor at the University of Washington, said of the single-vote margin earlier in the day.

Quesenberry said she ran a grass-roots campaign, knocking on 4,000 doors. Hasegawa spent $36,000, or about $24,000 more than Quesenberry, according to public-disclosure documents.

Hasegawa, who's running for public office for the first time, has been in a close contest before, losing a union election by — you guessed it — one vote in 2000.

By 7 p.m. today, elections officials hope to have all absentee ballots counted, said King County elections spokeswoman Bobbie Egan. Then they'll count "provisional ballots," which are special ballots given to people who've lost their originals.

They hope to have those ballots counted by Wednesday, with the election certified two days later.

In the 11th District race, there will probably be a hand recount since it's required by state law when races are decided by fewer than 150 votes and a margin of less than one quarter of a percentage point.

J. Patrick Coolican: 206-464-3315 or jcoolican@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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