Wednesday, November 6, 2024
LOCAL ELECTIONS
► From the Seattle Times — Initiative 2117: Voters support WA’s carbon market — Redmond hedge fund manager Brian Heywood dumped millions into Initiative 2117 to take down the carbon market along with a slate of other conservative initiatives that dominated the state’s political landscape this year. After results rolled in, Heywood shifted his focus to successes at the statehouse earlier this year. Gov. Jay Inslee, on the other hand, celebrated the early results on the carbon market as a “thrashing.” “The world looked to us for leadership, and Washingtonians responded big time,” Inslee said.
► From the Washington State Standard — Washington’s capital gains tax on track so far to survive repeal effort — Washington’s tax system has long been considered among the most regressive in the country, meaning lower earners pay proportionally more of their income than wealthier households. This is largely due to the state’s heavy reliance on sales taxes and the lack of an income tax, according to policy experts. A report the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released this year credited the capital gains tax with helping make the state’s tax system fairer for lower earners.
► From the Seattle Times — WA Cares: Voters rejecting Initiative 2124 in election 2024 — “The defeat of I-2124 is a huge victory for millions of Washingtonians, working families, and especially women and people with pre-existing conditions,” a statement from the campaign said. “This win in Washington has national implications because many other states are watching closely as they build their own long-term care safety nets.”
► From Cascade PBS — Bob Ferguson will be Washington’s next governor — “We’re optimistic for her (Harris’) campaign, but I want to be very clear to each and every one of you, if that result does not go the way we want, I want to be very clear there is nobody running for statewide office this year, anywhere in the United States who is more prepared to defend your freedoms against that administration than I am,” Ferguson told his supporters on election night.
► From the Washington State Standard — Democrat Nick Brown wins Washington attorney general race — Brown is the former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, a position he resigned from to run for office. Before that, he served as general counsel to Gov. Jay Inslee from 2013 to 2017. As Inslee’s counsel, he helped write the administration’s opposition to a federal ban on travel from predominantly Muslim countries imposed by then-President Donald Trump’s administration. He also oversaw work that led to Inslee issuing a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
► From Cascade PBS — Incumbent Marie Gluesenkamp Perez leads in WA’s 3rd District — First-term Democratic congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez leads MAGA challenger Joe Kent 52% to 48% in early ballot returns for the hotly contested seat in southwest Washington’s 3rd Congressional District. The battleground district is one of just a handful of closely contested races nationally. Holding onto the seat will be critical to Democrats’ hopes of retaking the U.S. House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a slim majority.
► From the Seattle Times — Dan Newhouse leads Jerrod Sessler in Washington’s 4th congressional district — Of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach, Newhouse is one of only two remaining in Congress. Trump has sought political vengeance, endorsing Newhouse’s Republican opponent in 2022 and endorsing Sessler this year. Sessler, who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 but says he didn’t go inside, says the 2020 election was stolen and the attack on the Capitol was a “setup” intended to make Trump look bad. He says those events, and Newhouse’s impeachment vote spurred him to run.
► From the Spokesman Review — Michael Baumgartner will be Eastern Washington’s next congressman — Baumgartner, who serves as Spokane County treasurer, had earned 59.7% of the vote as of Tuesday night, compared to former diplomat and Democrat Carmela Conroy’s 40.2%. Baumgartner appears to be sweeping every county in the 5th Congressional District, which touches the Canadian, Oregon and Idaho borders. Conroy came closest in Whitman County, home of Washington State University, with 46% of the vote.
► From Cascade PBS — Democrat Emily Randall leads in WA’s 6th Congressional District — After the initial ballot drop election night, state Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, led Sen. Drew MacEwen, R-Union, 57% to 43%. Randall was first elected to represent the 26th Legislative District in the state House in 2018. In her time in the Legislature, Randall helped pass bills focused on expanding health care access and abortion rights. Before coming to the Legislature, Randall worked for Planned Parenthood.
► From the Urbanist — Early Washington State Election Results Are Favorable for Progressives — Initial election night results — when perhaps 60% of total expected ballots are counted in Washington state elections — are in, and progressives are off to a fast start. LD10 and LD26 could give Democrats supermajorities. LD10 senate: Democrat Janet St Clair is leading Republican incumbent Ron Muzzall 56% to 44%. This will be a state senate seat pickup for Democrats, barring a reversal. LD21 House: Democrat Adison Richards is leading Republican Jesse Young 52% to 47%. This looks like a state house pickup for Democrats.
► From the union-busting Columbian — Races in 17th and 18th Legislative Districts tight in early count — Democrat Adrian Cortes seemed poised to flip the 18th Legislative District Senate seat vacated by Republican Sen. Ann Rivers, as of Tuesday night’s early returns. He had 50.82 percent (31,735 votes) to Republican Brad Benton’s 49 percent (30,599 votes). “I’m looking forward to the next batch of results, and hopefully we’ll be able to expand on that lead,” Cortes said. Republican John Ley led a tight race against Democrat John Zingale for the 18th District seat vacated by Republican Rep. Greg Cheney. Ley received 31,172 votes, or 50.1 percent, to Zingale’s 30,950 votes (49.75 percent) — a 222-vote margin. “It’s razor thin between my opponent and I,” Zingale said.
Editor’s note: candidates in the 17th and 18th LD include four union members — Terri Niles in the 17th, and Adrian Cortes, John Zingale, and Deken Letinich in the 18th. As of this morning, it’s likely two — maybe three — of these union members will be elected to the State Legislature.
► From Cascade PBS — Shaun Scott wins WA’s 43rd Legislative District, Suarez concedes — Speaking to boisterous supporters after the results were announced, Scott said, “We got this done for the essential workers, the grocery store workers, nurses and teachers who have held society together over the last four years. We got it done for students, for parents and teachers that need to see action on taxing the ultra-wealthy to keep our schools open and make college not more affordable but free.”
Editor’s note: Scott is a Path to Power alum and the WSLC, AFL-CIO’s endorsed candidate.
NATIONAL ELECTIONS
► From the AP — Trump wins the White House in a political comeback rooted in appeals to frustrated voters –In state after state, Trump outperformed what he did in the 2020 election while Harris failed to do as well as Joe Biden did in winning the presidency four years ago. Upon taking office again, Trump will work with a Senate that will now be in Republican hands, while control of the House hadn’t been determined.
► From Huffington Post — Trump Just Ran The Most Racist Campaign In Modern History ― And Won — White conservative ideology, and by extension, Trump, has long been threatened by the sense that full racial equality was just on the horizon. It is not an accident that Trump began his political career after America elected its first Black president.
► From the AP — Congressional elections live updates: Republicans win Senate majority, House control still up for grabs — Republicans have won control of the U.S. Senate, retaking the chamber for the first time in four years. It gives the GOP a major power center in Washington and a lead role in confirming the next president’s Cabinet, as well as any Supreme Court justice if there is a vacancy. Control over the House of Representatives is still up for grabs, with over 100 races yet to be called.
► From Steve Smith, AFL-CIO Public Affairs Deputy Director
Harris is outperforming 2020 numbers with union members, according to AP Votecast exit data. She’s up 57-39, which tracks with our internal data. Union voters turned out for Harris, that much is crystal clear
— Steve Smith (@ssmith_calabor) November 6, 2024
► From the Kansas City Star — Missouri voters approve $15 minimum wage, guaranteed paid sick leave for many workers — Missouri voters on Tuesday approved raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 and guaranteeing paid sick leave to workers, passing a ballot measure supporters said will help lower-income families and individuals. Nearly 59% of voters had cast ballots in favor of Amendment 3, compared to 41% against, with about 77% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press.
► From the Nebraska Examiner — Nebraskans vote yes to requiring employers to provide earned paid sick leave — Advocates had estimated that 250,000 Nebraskans were working full-time without paid sick days, leaving them to face choices that included ignoring their illness and sending sick kids to school to avoid consequences such as missing a day’s pay. However, passage of Initiative 436 means that eligible employees now will have the right to earn sick time for personal or family health needs. The issue had about 75 percent support about 11 p.m.
► From the Seattle Times — Abortion rights advocates win in 4 states and clear way to overturn Missouri ban but lose in Florida — Voters in Missouri cleared the way to undo one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans in one of five victories for abortion rights advocates, while Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place. Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado and Maryland. Nevada voters also approved an amendment, but they’ll need to pass it again it 2026 for it to take effect. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes” prevailed in New York. A measure that allows more abortion restrictions and enshrines the state’s current 12-week ban was adopted in Nebraska and a competing one to ensure abortion rights failed.
► From CNBC — Bitcoiners celebrate as $40 million campaign brings down Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown — Some $40 million of crypto money was directed at defeating Brown, with one PAC paying for five ads designed to boost awareness of Moreno, a businessman who worked as a luxury car dealer and had virtually no name recognition going into the contest.
► From the Rolling Stone — Independent Dan Osborn Loses in Nebraska, GOP Retains Senate Seat — Populist independent candidate Dan Osborn has lost his bid for U.S. Senate in Nebraska to two-term Republican incumbent Sen. Deb Fischer. The result helps solidify the GOP’s control of the chamber, which it secured for the first time in four years on Tuesday.
P.S.
Hope in hard times is a radical act of solidarity with one another. We elect the conditions we organize under. No matter what, we organize.
Dust it off. This guy is trying to get unions to align their contracts for a 2028 general strike. pic.twitter.com/ubIXhIbrak
— Sam Sacks (@SamSacks) November 6, 2024
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