good news in WA state

[snickfic]

Washington had its primary today, and you guys, there is a ton of good news coming out of it. Dems have greater than 50% combined percentage in two House races, and are at >48% in a third. So that's obviously the big news.

However, stuff is coming up awesome downballot as well. Journalist Melissa Santos's twitter has a bunch of nitty-gritty numbers, for the curious. Here are the big highlights.

https://twitter.com/MelissaSantos1/status/1027066575742939136
Went through all the results and did a rough tally. In WA state House, I am counting 15 (maybe 16, it's late) GOP-held seats where Democrats are leading right now. A good dozen or so of those have GOP incumbents trailing Democratic challengers, i.e. not open seats #waleg #opengov

https://twitter.com/MelissaSantos1/status/1027067023824543745
There are 4 state senate seats that are currently held by Republicans that I count in jeopardy: the 26th District in Gig Harbor area; Doug Ericksen's seat in 42nd Leg. Dist.; Mark Miloscia in the 30th district; and Jeff Holy (Mike Baumgartner's old seat) in the 6th #waleg #waelex

Washington state currently holds the Senate with a majority of 1 seat and the House with 2 seats. In the short 2017 legislative session, after winning that Senate seat and a Dem trifecta, the Dems enacted a bunch of good legislation but were stymied on a bunch more because of the slim majorities. If the Dems can retain their current seats and pick up just half the seats in the above tweets, it would make a world of difference.

EDIT: and as soon as I posted, the Seattle Times posted a whole article on the topic.

Comments

a footnote on Washington elections

[redbird]

Washington uses non-partisan "primaries," meaning that the top two vote-getters will be on the ballot in November, regardless of party. In a lot of cases, these results are suggestive of November, though there's one mentioned in the Seattle Times article where the general election ballot may be a choice between two Democrats. I haven't looked at the rest of the state, but I'd be unsurprised to learn there are districts where the November choice will be between two Republicans.

(This always seemed odd when I was living there, since I'd spent the first forty-odd years of my life in New York, where each party has its own primary. New York's system is weird in its own ways, which this margin is too small to explain.)

Re: a footnote on Washington elections

[snickfic]

Oh yes, the top-two aspect is key to interpreting these results. Thanks for clarifying! I think after California's primary this year, a lot of people were at least aware of the concept.