By Sue Misao
Northwest Asian Weekly
Sen. Ed Murray, flanked by his husband, Michael Shiosaki, right, and former governor Chris Gregoire on the left, celebrated his mayoral victory at Neumos on Capitol Hill Tuesday night. In thanking everyone, Murray specifically included APA supporters city council member Bruce Harrell, chief administrative officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Martha Choe, and former city council members Dolores Sibonga and David Della. (Photo by George Liu/NWAW)
Seattle denied Mayor Mike McGinn a second term, and instead elected Sen. Ed Murray in Tuesday’s (Nov. 5) elections, with 26% of the vote counted by Wednesday afternoon.
Entering Capitol Hill’s 95 Slide to the chant of “Four more years!” Mayor McGinn thanked all of his supporters and noted his imminent loss, though some in the room urged him to wait until the election was over. “The votes are in,” he said. “I worked as hard as I can, I’m proud of that,” McGinn said, imploring his supporters in a heartfelt speech to “hold this city.”
The mood was different at Nuemos, where Sen. Murray’s supporters gathered to celebrate victory.
“Thank you, Seattle,” Murray began, and proceeded to express more gratitude to the media, unions, police and fire
departments, and past and present city council members, including Martha Choe, whom he has called his “mentor.”
Murray won because “he is effective, collaborative and competent,” Choe said of the mayor-elect.
While McGinn had more supporters in the APA community, Debadutta Dash, co-chair of the Washington State and India Trade Relations Action Committee, was satisfied with the election results. “I am sad that Mike [McGinn], Albert [Shen], Shari [Song] and Vandana [Slatter] lost in the election,” he said. “However, stepping back and looking at a larger picture, I am more happy with the results of this year’s election cycle across the board.”
The results were mixed for APA candidates in contested races, with Rod Dembowski overwhelmingly defeating Naomi Wilson, and Reagan Dunn edging out Shari Song for seats on the county council. In Bellevue, Conrad Lee held onto his city council seat by a wide margin over Lyndon Heywood, but Vandana Slatter fell to Lynne Robinson in her bid for a seat.
Kshama Sawant lost to Richard Conlin, and Albert Shen was defeated by Mike O’Brien in bids for seats on the Seattle City Council.
Shen was upbeat despite losing, “It’s an investment,” he said. “Anytime you run against an incumbent [is hard].”
In Mercer Island, Benson Wong handily won the city council seat over Rich Erwin. “It is still too early to claim any victory,” said Wong, “but I am very pleased with the initial posted election results and I want to thank all of my supporters.”
Joe Van, at last count was losing to Pam Fernald for the SeaTac City Council seat. In school district races, My-Linh Thai was last seen winning a directorship on the Bellevue School Board, defeating Ed Luera. Meanwhile, Maya Vengadasalam was in a tight race with Bruce Elliott for seat on the Kent School Board. (end)
Assunta Ng contributed to this article.
Sue Misao can be reached at editor@nwasianweekly.com.
As of 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday (Nov. 6), 306,258 ballots had been counted. The results for mayor and APA candidates:
King County Mayor’s race and APA races
Mayor
Ed Murray: 55.61%
Mike McGinn: 43.66%
Metropolitan King County Council District No. 1
Rod Dembowski: 75.04%
Naomi Wilson: 24.57%
Write-in: 0.45%
Metropolitan King County Council District No. 9
Reagan Dunn: 57.81%
Shari Song: 41.96%
Write-in: 0.26%
Seattle City Council Position No. 2
Richard Conlin: 53.03%
Kshama Sawant: 46.71%
Seattle City Council Position No. 8
Mike O’Brien 64.69%
Albert Shen 35.03%
City of Bellevue Council Position No. 2
Lyndon Heywood 21.46%
Conrad Lee 78.06%
Council Position No. 6
Lynne Robinson: 63.09%
Vandana Slatter: 36.58%
City of Mercer Island
Council Position No. 6
Rich Erwin: 34.20%
Benson Wong: 65.58%
City of SeaTac
Council Position No. 6
Pam Fernald: 54.08%
Joe Van: 45.52%
Bellevue School District No. 405
Director District No. 5
My-Linh Thai: 56.60%
Ed Luera: 43.17%
Kent School District No. 415
Director District No. 5
Bruce Elliott: 49.19%
Maya Vengadasalam: 50.52%