A federal judge, in an amusing ruling Tuesday that took note that “many trees have died” in the ongoing court battle over Washington’s Top 2 primary system, has refused to toss the Top 2 primary system, but is allowing the political parties to continue their quest for some fine-tuning.

The parties have hated the Top 2 system ever since voters approved it in 2004 and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld it in 2008.  Top 2 allows voters’ two favorite candidates for each office to advance to the November General Election. It’s no longer a nominating system that sends each party’s winner forward. It’s a winnowing election.  Parties don’t like that, particularly since  they aren’t guaranteed a runoff spot, because unaffiliated voters are welcome to take part in the primary, and because candidates declare their own party preference when they file for office. (more)

City Attorney Peter Holmes' transition into office is turning out to be a bit rocky.

As SeattleCrime.com first reported earlier today, Holmes cut loose a dozen attorneys and division heads in the city's law department late last year.

While most of the staff members packed up their things without a peep, one longtime assistant city attorney lashed out at Holmes in a farewell email sent to the 100 or so attorneys in the law department's criminal division on New Year's Eve, Seattle Crime reports.

"In his letter, former criminal division head Bob Hood trashes Holmes—using a handful of Tom Carr's campaign trail talking points—attacking his leadership and inexperience as a prosecutor, and slams Holmes for firing law department staffers over the phone, just before Christmas."

Read more here from SeattleCrime.com.

 New Census projections posted today show Washington's population rose by 13 percent in the past decade to nearly 6.7 million, making the Evergreen state now the nation's 13th most populous (up from 15th a decade ago).

 Implications?

 "It could be Lucky 13 if we wind up gaining a new congressional seat," David Ammons, communications director for Washington Secretary of State office, writes in his blog, where he explains the following:

Is our population growth enough to pick up a 10th congressional seat? It’s too early to say for sure, especially since the new national Census of 2010 still awaits, to give us the official numbers.  A year ago, the analysts at Election Data Services put us in the small cluster of states that could vie for the 435th and final congressional seat.  Oregon is another possible winner.  Some states are losing population relative to the rest of the country and others are growing faster than most of the rest of the USA.

 

 ...

  Mayor-elect Mike McGinn's "open-source" transition encourages the public to tell him their top ideas for Seattle, and so far two ideas have shot to the top, garnering the most votes on his web site: "Expand as much light rail and subway as possible" stands far and above at No. 1. Lagging  behind at No. 2, "legalize marijuana and tax it."

  McGinn is in favor of both. Speaking on the public radio station KUOW today, he said that within two years, his administration will put together a proposal for expanding light rail to present to voters. And he said he supports a state bill to legalize pot for people over age 21. House bill 2401 was pre-filed last week by six House Democrats: Mary Lou Dickerson and Scott White of Seattle, Roger Goodman of Kirkland, David Upthegrove of Des Moines, Mary Helen Roberts of Lynnwood, and Sherry Appleton of Poulsbo.

 "I think the public sees that it’s just not a sensible set of laws," McGinn said of current pot laws. Marijuana should be "regulated," not...

Seattle City Council closed its meeting Monday with a salute to departing Mayor Greg Nickels. No surprise, and there will probably be lots more accolades from various quarters, but the council's remarks were rather extensive, even warm.

Councilmembers Bruce Harrell said, "We have to pause and think about all the great things" he has done. Harrell added, "Certainly he has demonstrated a clear commitment to this city and this county."

Jan Drago said that the city was in an economic downturn when he first took office. "Clearly, his great legacy will be Sound Transit," she said. Drago noted that he took an interest in Sound Transit from its beginning and stuck with it in difficult times.

Drago, who gave the council stronger leadership after Nickels began his first term acting high handedly with the council, spoke at length on Nickels' transportation successes, citing his advocacy of a waterfront tunnel and streetcars. "He also clearly understood how important it is to take care of and maintain our capital improvement...

King County Elections has released precinct-level results for the November election and the dataset for the mayor's race shows just how much Mike McGinn needed Capitol Hill for his 7,190 vote victory.

Nowhere more than Capitol Hill did such a large population throw its support so solidly behind McGinn.

Read more here on the Capitol Hill Seattle blog.

Mayor-elect Mike McGinn has scheduled three open community meetings for next week.

The first is at Northgate on Monday, followed by one Tuesday on Capitol Hill Tuesday and another in the Rainier Valley on Wednesday.  Here's the announcement from McGinn's transition website.

Mayor-elect McGinn will be hosting three town halls during the transition. The town halls will continue the mayor-elect’s work to hear from community members and will be an opportunity for members of the public to share ideas with the mayor-elect.

NORTHGATE COMMUNITY CENTER

WHERE: 10510 5th AVE. NE

WHEN: 7pm, Monday, November 30th

LANGSTON HUGHES PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

WHERE: 104 17th AVE S

WHEN: 7pm, Tuesday, December 1st

PAUL ROBESON PERFORMING ARTS CENTER AT RAINIER BEACH HIGH SCHOOL

WHERE: : 8815 Seward Park Ave. S.

WHEN: 7pm, Wednesday, December 2nd

The meeting was first brought to our attention by Lake City Live.

Mike McGinn has become Seattle's 52nd mayor after the latest vote count released today gave him a 4,900-vote advantage over Joe Mallahan. City council president Richard Conlin was moved to congratulate the "mayor elect" in this prepared statement:

On behalf of the Council, I want to congratulate our new Mayor-elect, Michael McGinn. Michael has a great track record of working for the people of Seattle. I’m very optimistic about the partnership we have the opportunity to create between the Council and the incoming Mayor. We are committed to ensuring a smooth transition as he takes on his new role.

I also want to commend Joe Mallahan and his supporters for their commitment and passion for public service. It was a hard fought race that raised many important issues that our city will face in the coming years.

We have many challenges ahead, including the economic recovery of our region, managing our budget in a difficult time, strengthening regional connections, and building a new green economy....

If the tight Seattle mayoral race didn't have enough drama aleady, King County elections officials said they would release two counts today -- one at 4:30 p.m. and another between 9 pm and 10 pm.

Elections spokeswoman Megan Coppersmith said it's impossible to tell how many of the ballots counted today will be from Seattle voters. But it sounds like the brunt of the remaining ballots will be tallied today.

Elections anticipates adding 100,000 votes to the count countywide today. The remaining 50,000 ballots on hand will be processed early next week, she said.

The second count was to have been released on Monday. But Coppersmith said elections workers decided to work late today to avoid having to work over the weekend.

Mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan camp oin Thursday said that if the trend continues a recount is inevitable.

Thursday's count left Mike McGinn leading Mallahan by only 515 votes. McGinn actual,ly increased his lead Thursday by 53 votes. But Mallahan's spokeswoman Charla Neuman said that in the...

McGinn on election night (Lucas Anderson/Neighborlogs)

Mike McGinn increased his lead over Joe Mallahan in Seattle’s mayoral race -- but barely.

McGinn now leads Mallahan by 515 votes. He’d led Mallahan by 462 votes on Wednesday, so it was a net gain of 53 votes.

But Mallahan's spokeswoman Charla Neuman said that in the two days of counts since election night, Mallahan has picked up 462 votes on McGinn's election night lead.

If Mallahan keeps creeping closer at that race, Neuman said a "recount now seems inevitable."

Overall, Mike McGinn has 65,172 votes or 49.78 percent. Mallahan has 64,657 votes or 49.38 percent.

In the batch counted on Wednesday, McGinn got 12,934 votes or 50.1 percent of the ballots counted either for he or Mallahan.

Mallahan in Wednesday's batch, added 12,881 votes, or 49.9 percent.

While it’s difficult to glean too much from Wednesday’s count, it might be some relief to McGinn, who watched Mallahan in Wednesday’s count slice his election night lead by half.

McGinn said on Wednesday that he’d be...

(Courtesy Susan Hutchison campaign)

Here is Hutchison's statement:

Although we are encouraged to see tens of thousands of additional votes in our favor this afternoon, we are certain the final outcome in this race will remain the same.  This afternoon I called my opponent, Dow Constantine, to congratulate him on his election to King County Executive.  Because the new Executive has only a few weeks until taking office, I want him to be able to move forward quickly to accomplish an orderly transition.

I am grateful for the tremendous support from our King County citizens throughout this campaign.  Hundreds of thousands of voters recognized the need for new leadership in King County and believed in our promise to bring that change.  I encourage Dow Constantine to reach out to all our...

Kay Smith-Blum and Betty Patu lead by substantial margins in the election night returns for the Seattle School Board.

Smith-Blum captured 64 percent of the vote to 35 percent for her opponent Mary Bass, in the race for the District 5 seat on the school board, a margin of more than 20,000 votes.  Betty Patu, in the race for District 7, held a more than 26,000 vote, 68 percent margin over Wilson Chin.  Michael DeBell was unopposed in District 4.

The results were as reported Wednesday morning on the King County Elections website.  More results are due to be released at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

For the latest on the school board race in Seattle, check here.

Rob Holland and Tom Albro maintained their leads as election results continued to add up Wednesday in the races for two open positions on the Port of Seattle Commission.

Albro, in the race for position 4 on the port, stretched his lead to nearly 30,000 votes over Max Vekich in returns posted late Wednesday afternoon on the King County Elections website.  That maintained Albo's edge of 57 percent as the results continued to arrive in the mail-in election.

Holland also maintained his slightly slimmer margin of 55 percent -- with a lead of almost 26,000 votes -- in the race for position 3 against David Doud.

John Creighton, also on the ballot for position 1, was unopposed.

The elections department is scheduled to release more figures  at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

For the latest on the Port Commission race, click here.

It may be that if you call the union “marriage,” it loses at the ballot box. Washington voters are appearing to approve a domestic partnership law that gives same-sex couples all the benefits of marriage without the label, while Maine voters are turning down a gay marriage law.

The Washington domestic partnership ballot measure was leading narrowly statewide as ballots were counted Tuesday night, the Seattle Times reports, and leading strongly in King County returns. The measure, a referendum on a law passed earlier this year by the Legislature, was doing well in the metropolitan Puget Sound area, and being rejected in the more rural areas of eastern Washington.

Read more here.

Former P-I producer Curt Milton is out at campaign events taking audio for his Eastlake Ave blog:

Opponents of Tim Eyman's I-1033 measure, which would have capped the growth of state and local government revenue, have just declared the measure dead.

Here's the statement from the No on 1033 campaign:

“Voters have seen the impacts of the recession in their classrooms, communities and businesses, and understood that Eyman’s initiative would have made things worse,” said Doug Shadel, president of AARP Washington. “I believe that’s why we saw tonight’s rejection of Initiative 1033.”

The No on 1033 campaign coalition was made up of more than 270 labor unions, businesses, environmental groups, education advocates, chambers of commerce, health care organizations and others who all agreed that I-1033 would have gone too far and cut too deep.

“Hospitals, health care workers, community clinics, and nurses just couldn’t afford Initiative 1033. But the people who would have been hurt worst by this initiative are our patients. The work to defeat this initiative was for them,” said Cassie Sauer, vice president of the Washington...

McGinn supporters celebrate as Tuesday’s count showed McGinn with a slight lead. (Seattle PostGlobe)

In an election that was still too close to call, Mike McGinn jumped out to an early lead over Joe Mallahan in Seattle’s mayoral race Tuesday night.

McGinn held about a 50 percent to 49 percent lead – with less than a 1,000-vote difference – after the first count in what could be the beginning of days of waiting to see who will replace incumbent Mayor Greg Nickels, who was thrown out in the primary.

Still, the early lead may augur well for McGinn. Later votes are still to be counted. And according to KING5/Survey USA polls, McGinn made up ground late in the campaign. The most recent poll showed Mallahan with the support of 45 percent of respondents and McGinn with 43 percent support. A significant percentage of voters, 12 percent, are still undecided. The margin of error was 4.1 percent. Earlier polls by Survey USA and the University of Washington showed Mallahan leading, by...

Seattle mayoral candiates Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn at the KING5 debate (KING5)

More information on the latest KING5/Survey USA poll , which shows Seasttle Mayoral candidates Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn on the eve of election day.

The political site Publicola reported this morning the margin between the two were within the poll’s margin of error. And indeed, according to Survey USA poll posted Tuesday night, Mallahan has the support of 45 percent of respondents and McGinn has 43 percent support. A significant percentage of voters, 12 percent, are still undecided.The margin of error was 4.1 percent.

If so, McGinn has made up ground at the end, probably among undecided voters. Recent polls by Survey USA and the University of Washington showed Mallahan leading, but with many voters undecided.

According to the Survey USA poll, McGinn's refinement of his viaduct stance hasn’t made a difference.

McGinn said he'd abide by the vote of legislator and council members to replace the viaduct with a tunnel, but will...

This story has been updated with a response from Seattle candidate Joe Mallahan's campaign.

Seattle Citizens Against the Tunnel, the group suing the state to try to stop the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel, released a string of emails from aides to Gov. Christine Gregoire, top state Department of Transportation officials and a DOT consultant that the group believes indicates an attempt to sway Seattle’s mayoral race.

The emails, which were released to the group in response to a public disclosure request, is being made public in the last days of a tight mayoral race that’s in many ways come down to a referendum on the $4.2 billion tunnel project.

Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn is opposing the project saying he prefers a cheaper option that relies more on transit, and criticizing a provision in a state spending bill that leaves Seattle on the hook for cost overruns. His opponent Joe Mallahan supports the project saying its greater capacity to move freight is important for the...

The local politics site, Publicola, has a couple of particularily interesting posts today.

One is about that anti-Susan Hutchison ad being run by her opponent in the King County Executive's race, Dow Constantine. Publicola reports that:

Greg Lane, head of the state public-affairs cable station TVW, released a statement today complaining that the Dow Constantine campaign violated the station’s copyright policy by using its footage in an anti-Susan Hutchison commercial. The footage showed Hutchison praising the Washington Policy Center, a conservative think tank, at its annual dinner; the commercial has also sparked claims by the WPC (eviscerated pretty thoroughly by The Seattle Times) that the Constantine camp was misrepresenting their positions on climate change, light rail, class sizes, and green jobs.

Read more

Also, the site reports that Seattle mayoral candidate Mike McGinn's internal poll shows his race against Joe Mallahan to be neck-to-neck. That's a departure from other polls.

McGinn is planning...

A non-partisan poll sponsored by University of Washington researchers found:

• Joe Mallahan leads Mike McGinn in the Seattle mayoral race, 39 percent to 32 percent, with a sizable 28 percent still undecided a week before voting ends next Tuesday. Most interestingly, the poll compared the candidates' popularity before and after McGinn's announceent last week that he would abide by the wishes of the City Council's in moving ahead with the replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel.

Almost immediately, pundits chalked up the announcement to McGinn believing his tunnel position was holding him back. McGinn has tried to draw a contrast since, saying that he opposes the tunnel and does not believe the city should move ahead if Seattle is on the hook for cost overruns. Mallahan says the project should move ahead regardless, though he'd try to remove the provision on overruns in the next session of the state legislature.

If the poll is accurate -- and McGinn's camp says it's not -- the announceent was a grand miscalculation....

Supporters of Referendum 71-- which would preserve the domestic partnership law for gays and lesbians -- released an internal poll showing the measure leading slightly.

The campaign's Greenberg Quinlan Rosner (GQR) tracking poll had the measure leading 53 percent to 36 percent, with the rest undecided.

In September, the margin was 51–44 percent.

A campaign press release said the new numbers showed that support for the measure is solidifying while the opposition is becoming more uncertain.

With the election tight, the campaign appeared to release the numbers to urge supporters to turn in their ballots in this final week before next Tuesday's election.

 "This is both good—and cautionary—news," said Approve 71 campaign chair Anne Levinson in the release. "These results show that when voters understand what the domestic partnership law is—and the many families who will be harmed if it is repealed—they will vote to approve it.

"Yet, we also know that in an off-year election, older, more conservative voters turn out...

Seattle Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn reacts to being accused of politicizing public safetyh (KCTS 9)

One of the rare heated moments during Thursday night’s Seattle mayoral debate on KCTS 9 involved charges Joe Mallahan levied against Mike McGinn that McGinn was politicizing public safety.

“You keep accusing me of politicizing issues of public safety or that it’s a stunt,” McGinn said, visibly angry.

“I think you’re politicizing the issue. That’s what I think when you say they’re stunts. Picking the next police chief is a critical priority for the city. Waiting two months so you can have control over who’s on the selection committee rather than letting that selection committee of 24 fine citizens go forwards so we can get to a permanent police chief quicker, that’s politicizing the police chief search. That’s’ politicizing it..” McGinn said.

Then later, asked about dealing with gang violence, McGinn couldn’t help but go back to the question of politicizing public safety.

“Joe if you’re going to be honest about it,...

(KCTS 9)

This story has been updated with a reaction from Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin:

Lost amid Wednesday’s heated KING5 Seattle Mayoral debate was a comment by T-Mobile Executive Joe Mallahan that seemed to suggest that he would ask Seattle residents to pay a greater share of the cost of replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct in order to save suburbanites money when they park on city streets.

Under current plans, Seattle would raise both car tabs for Seattle residents and increase parking taxes paid by both city residents and others visiting the city to help pay for the city’s $930 million share of the project.

 “I think that’s a bad idea,” he said during the debate, of raising parking taxes. “We have to find was to raise revenue besides parking taxes and other businesses taxes.” (Watch)

He said later, “I think we should have incentives for people to get out of vehicles and use public transit. But increasing the parking tax has all kinds of unintended consequences, particularly competitive...