Kevin Parker

Representative-elect John Driscoll (D-Spokane) has finally won the race for the 6th Legislative District, position 2, exactly one month after election day.

Spokane County elections officials have announced that, after a mandatory hand recount required from an initial margin of victory of less than 0.25 percent, Driscoll remains ahead of Rep. John Ahern (R-Spokane), though the vote counted changed slightly from the original tally.

When election results were certified in late November, Driscoll led Ahern by 74 votes, and after the recount the official margin dropped slightly to 72, with Driscoll totaling 35,106 votes to Ahern's 35,034.

Almost $22 million was spent by independent parties on behalf of candidates in this year’s election, about ten percent of which was done at the legislative district level.

Leading the charge were three of the Republicans top challengers. Outside interests spent $172,548 on Kevin Parker’s (R-Spokane) behalf in the 6th District and $147,143 on Jan Angel (R-Port Orchard) in the 26th. Both won their races to become the first Republicans in years to take back a Democratic seat.

Third parties also spent more than $130,000 Toby Nixon (R-Kirkland) in the 45th LD. Many Republicans, and privately some Democrats, felt that Nixon would win his race, but he was turned back by incumbent Rep. Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland).

Spokane's 6th Legislative District has proven to be the state's most evenly divided swing district in 2008. In addition to both the the district's races finishing with margins of just a few percentage points, there is a good chance that both incumbents will be unseated. The catch is, the 6th has a split delegation.

Republican Challenger Kevin Parker (R-Spokane) has narrowly defeated outgoing Rep. Don Barlow (D-Spokane) in position 1, and in the 2nd seat race Democrat John Driscoll leads Rep. John Ahern (R-Spokane) by fewer than 100 votes as of today, with a mandatory recount on the way after all of the votes are counted.

LD 6 is shaped like a crescent, and skirts around the Western edge of Spokane.

Check out this map chart of vote distribution in the Driscoll-Ahern race that Jim Camden at the Spokesman-Review created to see where that split is forming. An interesting pattern emerges.

The same trend that saw Dino Rossi close the gubernatorial primary's 4 point election night gamp down to less than two is guiding state Republicans toward gains in Olympia.

Despite being down by narrow margins in most competitive races on November 4, late vote tallies have either closed the gap or erased it completely in a handful of state races that could results in a net gain of a handful of state House seats for the GOP.

Rep. John Ahern (R-Spokane) has seen has his gap shrink from over one thousand to just 54 votes against John Driscoll (D-Spokane) in a 6th Legislative District race that will likely be headed for a recount.  No matter who wins, their seatmate will be Representative-elect Kevin Parker (R-Spokane), who has extended his lead over Rep. Don Barlow (D-Spokane) with the late returns.

6th Legislative District candidate Kevin Parker has won the Republicans their first switchover seat of 2008 in the state House.

Parker’s race against Rep. Don Barlow was called by the Spokesman-Review today with Parker ahead by almost 3,000 votes.

"We’re excited," Parker told PolitickerWA.com about his victory. "We also have a deep awareness that the real work is just beginning."

Parker attributed the victory to his volunteers and the work of his campaign manager, Spencer Hutchins.

Everyone is a pundit these days, telling anyone who will listen who they think will win the governor’s races, the 8th Congressional District race, the presidency and their own local elections. So PolitickerWA.com decided to help fan the flames of the state of punditry by giving some prominent political people a venue in which to share their prediction skills.

PolitickerWA.com received predictions on a handful of important races across the state from a number of elected officials, staffers, bloggers and academics. See what they had to say below.

Washington State Republican Party Chair Luke Esser predicted a two point win for his side in the governor’s race, with Dino Rossi (R-Sammamish) defeating Gov. Chris Gregoire (D-Olympia) 51 to 49, a six-point win in the 8th Congressional District for Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Auburn) over Darcy Burner (D-Carnation), 53-47, adding, “I think the Harvard Hoax has really hurt Burner.”

Opponents of Rep. Don Barlow (D-Spokane), who represents the 6th Legislative District, have created a website linking him to a state income tax because of comments he recently made at a League of Women Voters candidate forum, the Spokesman-Review's Rich Roesler reports.

At the forum Barlow said, "I think an income tax is an option right now. We need to take a close look at our system of budgeting. We're not coming up with enough dollars in order to provide quality programs for the, for the people.

"And I do think down the line an income tax is going to have to be looked at."

Roesler said that Barlow responded with a robocall to voters in the 6th clarifying his position, that he does not support instituting an income tax at this time.

Two weeks ago in Denver, Washington state Speaker of the House Frank Chopp (D-Seattle) remained hopeful of the Democrats' long term strategy for maintaining a large House majority, but after August's "top two" primary, House Republicans are as hopeful as ever.

Kevin Carns, the Director of the House Republican Organizational Committee, told PolitickerWA.com that, after analyzing an extensive series of numbers, House Republicans should be able to reduce the Democratic majority by at least two seats in 2008.

"From a macro perspective we are in very, very good shape," Carns said. "We are in a strong position to pick up a couple seats minimum."

DENVER - The Democratic Speaker of the state House of Representatives, Seattle's Frank Chopp, is well known in political circles for his planning and dedication to building a long-term Democratic majority in Olympia. Just like with the Republicans, every other year provides a chance to gradually build up or chip away at the current lead, depending on what side you are on.

But despite all the projections and planning, did last week's "top two" primary results change the leadership's picture of which races to focus on going into November? Chopp says no.

In Spokane's 6th Legislative District, where Republicans are intent on recapturing Rep. Don Barlow's position 1 seat, which he won by a mere 260 votes in 2006 after narrowly losing to former Rep. John Serben in 2004, the heat is rising as the August 19 "top two" primary rapidly approaches. The Spokesman-Review's Richard Roesler reports on the race today, notably the online bickering between the two Republican opponents, Mel Lindauer and Kevin Parker, and their supporters.

Some of the key issues the two are battling are local ties, with Lindauer hitting Parker over time spent in the district, and money sources, with Parker highlighting Lindauer's heavily out of district fundraising. Right now both candidates have about $20,000 in the bank, and three weeks to differentiate themselves among Spokane Republicans as the best opponent for Rep. Barlow.