Democrats storm county and state

Published 3:00 pm Saturday, November 11, 2006

Local voters follow the national ‘blue wave,’ while expanding the island fire board.

Nov. 7 may go down in history as “Blue Tuesday.”

Democrats swept local and state elections, following a national political housecleaning that scrubbed a good deal of Repub­li­can “red” from the electoral map.

Bainbridge Democrat Christine Rolfes unseated incumbent Rep. Beverly Woods in one 23rd Legislative District House race, while Poulsbo incumbent Rep. Sherry Appleton easily fended off a challenge by Bainbridge Republican Earl Johnson in the other.

In a closely watched Kitsap County Commission contest between two political unknowns, Democrat Josh Brown humbled Republican Jack Hamilton with 57 percent of the vote.

Unofficial final returns on Friday reported a 49 percent voter turnout countywide, with almost 65,000 ballots cast.

Rolfes earned 55 percent of the vote against Woods, a Kingston resident and two-term incumbent. (See related story this page).

Appleton, who was first elected to the House in 2004, drew 64 percent against Johnson with about 35,000 votes counted in each race.

“I feel like I’m on top of the world,” said Appleton, who was also buoyed by Rolfes’ win.

“We have such a great team now, with Phil (Rockefeller) in the Senate and Christine and I in the House,” she said. “We’ll work closely together and get things done.”

At least eight Republican incumbents were bumped from the state Legislature, giving Democrats their strongest majority in over 20 years.

Democrats expect a 63 to 34 majority in the House and 31 to 18 hold in the Senate.

Mirroring statewide results, Kitsap voters overwhelmingly opposed initiatives to repeal the Washington estate tax and force local government to compensate property owners for new land use regulations.

Initiative 920, which would have repealed the estate tax and eliminated a state fund for public education, was opposed by 64 percent of Kitsap voters. I-933, the so-called “property fairness” initiative, was opposed by a nearly equal margin.

In federal races, 57 percent of Kitsap voters stuck with first-term incumbent Sen. Maria Cantwell.

The Democrat defeated Republican challenger Mike McGavick, who earned 39 percent, and three third-party candidates, who each drew about 1 percent.

Bainbridge Island Democrat Jay Inslee earned a fourth term in the U.S. House, besting challenger Larry Ishmael with nearly 70 percent support district-wide (See related story this page).

In the only local ballot measure, Bainbridge voters overwhelmingly backed expanding the local fire board from three members to five, giving the proposition 74 percent approval.