Democrats confident about Inslee’s chances

Democrats at an Election Night party at The Westin Seattle expressed confidence late tonight that former Congressman Jay Inslee will be elected governor.

In his speech after the networks called the presidential race for Barack Obama, state party chairman Dwight Pelz quickly turned the focus to Inslee.

“We’ve got a very important race here in Washington state,” said Pelz, before repeating a line that would get repeated many times over the next hour: “Rob McKenna has 36 percent here in King County. That’s not a good result for him.”

King County Executive Dow Constantine also cited the “hundreds of thousands” of King County ballots still to come as an indication Inslee will win.

“I frankly think that Jay’s lead is going to hold and he will be our next governor,” said Constantine, predicting that a recount won’t be necessary.

After the networks called the race for Obama, the large screen televisions in the Westin’s grand ballroom were tuned to the Washington Secretary of State’s website, which displayed results from the governor’s race. Loud cheers went up every time the results were updated.

“We’re feeling very confident,” said U.S. Rep. Adam Smith. “Jay Inslee is going to be our next governor.”

Inslee is scheduled to speak at The Westin at 10:30 p.m.

Latest news:

Comments | More in General Election, Governor, Politics Northwest, Statewide | Topics: democrats, governor's race, Jay Inslee

Connect with us

Subscribe |

Email a news tip

About this blog

Politics Northwest is the go-to blog for politics in our region. The blog explores national, state and local political news and issues. Reporters from Washington, D.C., to Seattle City Hall to the state capital in Olympia contribute. Editors are Richard Wagoner and Beth Kaiman.

How would you balance the state budget and fund education?

Cut spending? Increase taxes? Some of each? Here’s your chance to take a swing at balancing the state budget. We’ve created an interactive budget game that lets you pick from dozens of potential budget cuts and tax increases to balance the budget and find more money for education. Try it now.