Two days after primary, a few races remain in doubt

Although voters have had a chance to breath with Tuesday's "top two" primary fully out of the way and early August's hot weather long gone, such is not the case for all of the candidates seeking legislative positions here in Washington. With votes continuing to come into county auditors by mail, the outcome of a handfulof races across the state are still up in the air.

In the 8th Legislative District, a normally Republican House seat long held by the retiring Rep. Shirley Hankins (R-Richland), the sole Democrat in the race, Carol Moser, is the only candidate so far to ensure her spot in the general election. That is because the Republican side of the primary was crowded with four candidates who split the vote almost equally.

Leading the way is Brad Klippert, who works for the Benton County Sheriff's Department and bills himself on his website as "a God-fearing, Bible-believing, Ten-Commandment-honoring, evangelical Christian...dedicated to doing what is right and best for  Washington, even in the face of adversity!" Tuesday night's tally ended with Klippert narrowly leading Skip Novakovich, who had the endorsement of the Hankins and 8th LD state Sen. Jerome Delvin, and as more ballots came in Wednesday, Klippert narrowly extended his lead.

Moser now has 7996 votes to Klippert's 3722 and Novakovich's 3377. It is a tough gap to narrow at this stage for Novakovich, but not impossible, which Klippert readily admits. He told the Tri-City Herald "I'm proceeding with caution," despite being the extreme favorite to move on to the general. The secretary of state's website suggests there are at least 15,000 votes left to count in Benton County, but with the nature of vote-by-mail, that number can't be certain.

In the 35th Legislative District much was made of the crowded race to fill the position 2 seat being vacated by Rep. Bill Eickmeyer, but the 1st position seat is the one going down to the wire. Incumbent Rep. Kathy Haigh moved on safely to the general election, so far with over 57 percent of the vote, but the two Republicans vying to take her on in the general remain in a dead heat.

Marco Brown is sitting on 4819 after Wednesday night's count, just barely above "Blue Collar" Brad Gehring, who has 4688 votes. That district still has votes coming in from four different counties and, as the Kitsap Sun projects, may wind up close enough to trigger a recount.

Finally, in Seattle's 36th LD, there is no question about who will move on to the general, where Democrats John Burbank and Reuven Carlyle will continue their spirited contest all alone. But on the topic of bragging rights, the latest vote update just complicated matters. After narrowly trailing Burbank at the end of Tuesday, Carlyle now leads by nine votes out of over 15,000 tallied. In other words, stay tuned.