Kohl-Welles, Carlyle, Tarleton lead big in early returns

By Joe Veyera

A trio of incumbents in the 36th Legislative District jumped out to commanding leads in the first round of election returns on Tuesday night.

Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles leads Republican challenger Sarina Forbes with 81 percent of the vote to Forbes’ 18 percent, while Democrats Reuven Carlyle and Gael Tarleton lead Republican Leslie Klein and Libertarian Paul Addis in a pair of legislative races, each with 85 percent of the votes counted thus far. With each race only boasting two candidates, all six will advance to the November general election.

In the 7th Congressional District race, longtime incumbent Jim McDermott leads with 76 percent of the vote, well ahead of Republicans Craig Keller (9 percent) and Scott Sutherland (7 percent), independent candidate Doug McQuaid (6 percent), and perennial entry GoodSpaceGuy (1 percent).

In the contentious Proposition 1 race, which if approved would create a Metropolitan Parks District in Seattle, 52 percent of voters have said they are for the formation of the district, with 48 percent voting down the measure.

The next round of returns is scheduled to be released on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. To look at the full results, click here.

We’ll update this post as candidates and campaigns release statements, and/or concede their races.

Update (10:30 p.m., August 5): Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has released a statement in response to the early returns on Proposition 1:

“These results are incredibly encouraging. We know there are more ballots to be counted, but if current trends hold, it appears that Seattle voters have made an important decision for future generations of Seattleites.

“I am very hopeful that tonight, with this vote, Seattle has approved a measure to provide our well-loved and well-used parks system with a sustainable source of funding. If so, this vote will not only allow us to address our existing maintenance backlog, but will also allow us to plan for and manage the growing needs of our nearly 500 parks, playfields and community centers as Seattle continues to grow as a city.”