1. Although a recount still seems inevitable, incumbent Republican Sen. Don Benton (R-17, Vancouver) declared victory today in the race that could change the balance of the state senate: Benton is being challenged by Democratic Rep. Tim Probst (D-17, Vancouver).
TheColumbian reports that Benton now leads Probst by just 82 votes.
If Benton prevails, the Democrats will lose their working majority in the senate. Although the Democrats would still have a 26-23 majority, those 26 include two conservative Democrats, Tim Sheldon (D-35) and Rodney Tom (D-48), who tend to vote with Republicans. That would give the Republicans an effectvive 25-24 advantage.
The failure of Proposition 1 means the county will have to eliminate all bus service after 7:00 at night and all bus service on weekends.
2. Another election with a razor-thin margin has been decided: By a gap of 704 votes, Pierce County has rejected a sales tax increase that would enable Pierce Transit to preserve service at night and on weekends, KOMO reports.
The failure of Proposition 1 means the county will have to eliminate all bus service after 7:00 at night and all bus service on weekends.
3. As expected—and as reported this afternoon in the PI.com, PubliCola, the Seattle Times, and theStranger, City Council member Tim Burgess is running for mayor.
Burgess did the media rounds this afternoon, giving interviews to all four publications.
4. In yet another clueless Port of Seattle gaffe, the Seattle Times reports that Seattle Port Commissioner Rob Holland planned to propose a last-minute budget amendment to hire as many as five full-time interns, making as much as $55,000 a year, to the five part-time port commissioners. The interns would do intern tasks like setting up meetings and cataloguing emails.
After an immediate and predictable backlash Holland quickly withdrew the proposal, but defended the concept, saying in a statement (also reported by the Times), "I don’t think there’s anything wrong with … this body of people asking for individuals to come in and learn and train and be of assistance.”
5. Business Insider is in love with King County Metro's frequent-service map, which represents the frequency of service on various transit lines by line width: The more frequent the service, the wider the line.
It's a good solution to the problem of showing service frequency on a citywide map, but Metro's version lacks specificity—the new RapidRide service, for example, is the only route that shows up as obviously wider (and thus more frequent) than other routes; most other lines look about the same.
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