PHOTO BY MEGHAN ERKKINEN

Democratic party chairman Howard Dean spoke at a rally for Gov. Chris Gregoire, in red, at the Longshoremen’s Union Hall in Fife Nov. 2. Fellow Democrats, including U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell, far left, and Patty Murray, far right, as well as U.S. Rep. Adam Smith and candidates for state executive seats, also spoke at the event. Gregoire won the election with about 54 percent of the vote.

County, state races heat up

By Meghan Erkkinen

In most of the races in Pierce County Nov. 4, the incumbent emerged the winner. In the state’s 25th legislative district, Sen. Jim Kastama will retain his seat, as will Rep. Dawn Morrell. Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor received 71 percent of the vote, while challengers Jesse Hill and R. P. Kollu received 21 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

The hottest races this election were those fought between newcomers. In the Pierce County Execu-tive race, Shawn Bunney received the most first-choice votes, at 33 percent, followed by Pat McCarthy with 29 percent, Calvin Goings with 23 percent and Mike Lonergan with 15 percent.

Because no candidate received the majority in the executive race,

elections staff will go through additional vote counts. Under the newly implemented ranked choice voting system, Lonergan, because he received the fewest votes in the first round, will be eliminated from future rounds of counting. Those ballots on which Lonergan was chosen first will then be tabulated according to voters’ second-choice candidates.

In the 25th legislative district, Bruce Dammeier of Puyallup and Rob Cerqui of Fife are fighting out a close battle for state representative. Dammeier leads by slightly more than 200 votes, with 10,988 votes over Cerqui’s 10,761 votes.

In Fife, the Fire Protection District #10 Proposition 1, to authorize a six-year, $0.50 per $1,000 property tax levy, is being defeated. The measure would have continued a previous six-year levy of the same amount. About 50 percent of voters approved the proposition, which requires 60 percent of the vote to pass.

For up-to-date county election results, visit www.co.pierce.wa.us/pc/abuts/ourorg/aud.

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