UPDATE:
From this, it looks like there are about 10,000 more ballots to count, so maybe Halvorson isn't sunk yet. Too damn close for someone who spent that much though.
Wow. Have to say the surprise of the night so far is Jon Halvorson seemingly packing his bags early from the county commissioners race.
I think everyone sort of assume that it would be Halvorson and Romero facing off in November and the nominally funded Republican and Independent would head home. But, despite spending the most of any candidate ($39,000) and raising the most ($51,000) it just goes to show that money isn't everything.
County Commissioner District No. 2
Vote for One 1
Sandra Romero . . . . . . . . . 3,885 31.49
Robin Edmondson . . . . . . . . 3,792 30.74
Jon W. Halvorson . . . . . . . . 3,245 26.31
Bill Pilkey. . . . . . . . . . 1,059 8.58
Lucius Daye. . . . . . . . . . 342 2.77
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 13 .11
Total . . . . . . . . . 12,336
Just a few thoughts:
1. Halvorson was running for a really long time. If memory serves, he announced in February of 2007, even before most city council candidates had gotten on the ground. Were people just tired of him?
2. He was
endorsed by the local builders and well-liked by
other local conservatives, but he failed to get the nomination of the
local Dem party. I don't think this had anything to do with it exactly, but...
3. Despite fears by some that Thurston County would be the prototypical "Top Two" locality with two Dems in the running in November, maybe voters really do sort themselves by party.
You have to admit that with the endorsement of the builders, Halvorson was cutting to the right of Romero. Maybe voters who wanted to vote for a more conservative candidate just couldn't bring themselves to vote for someone who preferred Democrat?
Maybe Halvorson was just plain bad at spending his money and people just voted the labels and Romero just did a plain better job getting her name out to people who vote the Democratic label. I think that's likely.