Voters in Kent, swept up in the same blue wave that sent Democrats to the White House and the governor’s mansion, sent four Democrats of their own to Olympia to represent them for the next two years.
Returns from the 33rd and 47th district legislative races show Democratic incumbents Dave Upthegrove (33rd), Geoff Simpson (47th) and Pat Sullivan (47th) all easily winning reelection with fellow Democrat Tina Orwell (33rd) elected to replace the outgoing Shay Schaul-Berke.
As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, Orwell was beating Republican Todd Gibson by a margin of 63.89 percent to 36.11 percent for Position 1 in the 33rd District.
“We’re pretty happy with the outcome,” Orwell said Wednesday, adding that she was grateful for the public support during her campaign.
Orwell said it was her time spent in the district during the campaign knocking on approximately 5,000 doors that helped put her over the top, as well as her focus on issues like healthcare, education and the economy.
“We certainly spent a lot of time in the district listening and responding,” she said.
Orwell also thanked Gibson for running a “strong and positive campaign.”
Gibson said he was still watching vote totals, but said even if the early results held, the campaign had been an “awesome experience” and he was very happy with how his campaign was run.
This race was Gibson’s first run for public office, and he said he appreciated the opportunity to meet the people in the district and to get involved in their lives.
“It’s not about me, it’s about the people I’ve met on the journey,” he said, adding that he was unsure of his own political future, but was not counting out another run in two years.
In the position 2 race, incumbent Upthegrove was ahead 71.34 percent to Republican challenger Tan Lam’s 28.66 percent.
“I’m excited to get back to work with the governor and get back to the issues we’ve been working on,” Upthegrove said.
Upthegrove attributed his victory to several factors: changing demographics in the district that favor Democrats, his work during his previous terms in office, and the strong Democratic turnout brought by President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign — whose election Upthegrove called the “most significant by far” of the night.
Upthegrove also congratulated Orwell and said he looked forward to working with her.
“She and I are going to make a great team,” he said.
In the 47th district, voters reelected Simpson to his Position 1 office by a margin of 53.52 percent to 46.49 percent over Republican challenger Mark Hargrove.
In the race for position 2, incumbent Sullivan received 59.03 percent of the vote to challenger Timothy Miller’s 40.97.
Sullivan said he felt pretty good about the results but was still watching as the remaining votes trickled in.
He also said he was looking forward to continuing his work with the basic education funding task force, which is scheduled to make its recommendations to the governor early next year.
“It will be a relief to know I’ll be able to go back down in January and work on the recommendations,” Sullivan said.
For the latest vote totals, visit www.kentreporter.com, or check out the county and state election Web sites at www.kingcounty.gov/elections, and www.secstate.wa.gov/elections.
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