Elections 2012: History Made in Washington State

History was set Tuesday night in Washington State, where same sex couples will now be allowed to marry and marijuana has been legalized, to be regulated like alcohol.

Also in Washington, in what national pundits called the most competitive race for governor in the nation, Democrat Jay Inslee narrowly bested Republican Rob McKenna in unofficial results, 51 percent to 49 percent.

In Oregon, the incredible roller coaster of an Election Night that swept President Barack Obama back into office saw a paltry 54.98 percent voter participation in Multnomah County;  by contrast, Oregon's statewide voter participation rate soared to over 70 percent.

Big winners in Portland included mayoral candidate Charlie Hales and City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who won their races by big -- in Hales' case landslide --  margins.

Meanwhile every proposed tax and bond measure passed in the City of Portland, including the Arts Tax, the Portland Schools bond and the Multnomah County Library levy.

Oregon's hot-potato statewide measures may be the reason for the higher state turnout, with a major battleground erupting around the Cannabis Tax Act, Measure 80. While Multnomah County voters passed the pot measure by a significant margin, at the state level it went down with a no vote of 54.83 percent.

More votes were cast in that one measure than in any other measure on the Oregon ballot -- 1,408,700 people weighed in on it.

Interestingly, the number spreads for some races showed almost no voter participation -- on Wednesday morning, Greg Macpherson stood as the unofficial winner of the campaign for mayor of Lake Oswego, with only a total of 532 votes.

In national offices Oregon saw the Pacific Green Party's presidential candidate Jill Stein place third in the state. Green candidate for Congress 3rd District, Woody Broadnax, also placed third statewide, right behind the Republican and Democratic candidates.

In the race for Portland mayor, Charlie Hales drew more than twice the votes of challenger Jefferson Smith. Wednesday morning's unofficial count shows Hales pulling slightly over 62 percent compared to Smith's 30 percent.

Fritz was reelected with slightly over 58 percent of the votes; Nolan posted just over 40 percent.

The State Supreme Court, Position 3 race was the rare example of a hot competition between judges, with Richard C Baldwin pulling ahead of Nena Cook, with 93,847 votes to Cook's 87,192.

In Clark County, voters turned down a sales tax increase for C-Tran; turned down a bid to create a metropolitan parks district by a margin of two to one; and voted to put David Madore on the City Commission.

The race for Washington State Senate District 17 showed Wednesday morning that Tim Probst and Don Benton are both at about 50 percent of the vote.

Other winners:

OREGON

Suzanne Bonamici Congress 1st District

Earl Blumenauer Congress, 3rd District

Kurt Schrader Congress, 5th District

Secretary of State Kate Brown

State Treasurer Ted Wheeler

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum

Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries Brad Avakian

State Senator, 14th District Mark Hass

State Senator, 18th District Ginny Burdick

State Senator, 21st District Diane Rosenbaum

State Senator, 22nd District Chip Shields

State Senator, 23rd District Jackie Dingfelder

State Senator, 25th District Laurie Monnes Anderson

State Representative, 41st District Carolyn Tomei

State Representative, 42nd District Jules Kopel Bailey

State Representative, 43rd District Lew Frederick

State Representative, 44th District Tina Kotek

State Representative, 45th District Michael Dembrow

State Representative, 46th District Alissa Keny-Guyer

Judge of the Court of Appeals, Position 6 Tim Volpert

Council, Pos. 1 CITY OF GRESHAM Jerry Hinton

Council, Pos. 3 CITY OF GRESHAM Karylinn Echols

Council, Pos. 5 CITY OF GRESHAM Mike McCormick

Mayor CITY OF PORTLAND Charlie Hales

Mayor CITY OF TROUTDALE Doug Daoust

Mayor CITY OF LAKE OSWEGO Greg Macpherson

OREGON BALLOT MEASURES

County Measure 26-143 The Multnomah County library levy YES 61.52 percent

26-144 PORTLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT Bond YES 65.03 percent

26-145 CITY OF PORTLAND police and fire disability reform YES 74.63 percent

26-146 CITY OF PORTLAND Arts Tax YES 59.76 percent

State Ballot Measure No. 77 disaster declaration YES 58 percent

State Ballot Measure No. 78 grammatical changes to Constitution YES 71.76 percent

State Ballot Measure No. 79 prohibits real estate transfer taxes YES 59.37 percent

State Ballot Measure No. 80 Cannabis Tax Act NO 54.99 percent

State Ballot Measure No. 81 bans gillnetting NO 66.11 percent

State Ballot Measure No. 82 NO 71.58 percent

State Ballot Measure No. 83 NO 70.71 percent

State Ballot Measure No. 84 phases out real estate transfer taxes on large estates NO 53.70 percent

State Ballot Measure No. 85 corporate kicker reform YES 58.97 percent


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