State Rep. Marcie Maxwell is potentially facing a close race to retain her seat in the state Legislature, based on early returns from Tuesday’s all-mail primary election.
Seats in all five of the legislative districts that cover a portion of Renton are up for grabs in this year’s election.
The latest election results will be posted weekdays at 4:30 p.m. through Aug. 31 on the King County website, kingcounty.gov, with the election certified on Sept. 3.
Maxwell, a Renton Realtor and former member of the Renton School Board, was leading challenger Peter Dunbar, a Mercer Island physician, by 750 votes, a 3 percent difference, in their 41st District House Position 1 race.
In numbers, the difference is 12,621 for Maxwell to 11,871 for Dunbar, based on the Wednesday count. Maxwell widened her lead by 1 percentage point from Tuesday night.
Dunbar couldn’t be reached for comment by the Renton Reporter’s production deadline Wednesday.
King County is estimating a total election return of about 495,000 ballots, or 45 percent of voters.
Despite the close initial results, Maxwell is positive about the outcome in the November general election.
“I think we are doing just fine,” she said.
She points to the low-turnout primary, saying there weren’t “a lot of exciting issues” on the ballot.
“I expect to see many more voters out in November,” she said, including swing voters and more Democrats.
As of Tuesday night, 31 percent of the 85,368 ballots in the 41st District had been returned. Wednesday’s tally represents about 30 percent of the district’s 85,260 voters.
The district includes parts of Renton, Mercer Island, Newcastle and Bellevue.
As the only two candidates in the 41st District primary race, Maxwell and Dunbar were assured of moving on to the Nov. 2 general election. However, the primary is one test of the voting strength of each candidate.
A close race is also shaping up between state Sen. Randy Gordon and challenger Steve Litzow for Gordon’s Senate seat, although Wednesday’s count showed Litzow was losing ground in his lead over Gordon.
However, both also will advance to the general election, regardless of the outcome.
There were three races in the primary in which three candidates ran, meaning one of them won’t appear in the general election.
Based on early returns, 41st District state Rep. Judy Clibborn, a Democrat, is holding a comfortable lead over her nearest challenger, Stephen Strader, a Republican. Not advancing to the general election is Orion S. Webster, who indicated he’s a member of the Independent Party, who received 1,068 votes after Tuesday night’s tally.
Also based on early returns, it’s pretty clear that in the 5th Legislative District, incumbent state Rep. Glenn Anderson will face David Spring in the general election. Dean Willard finished third.
And in the race for 47th District House Position 1, incumbent state Rep. Geoff Simpson, a Democrat, and Mark Hargrove, a Republican, will advance to the general election. Nancy Wyatt, a Republican, came in third. After Tuesday night’s tally, Simpson was holding a 204-vote lead over Hargrove.
Maxwell, who is running for her second term, faced a close race in 2008. After early returns, she led Steve Litzow 53 percent to 47 percent, her same margin of victory over Litzow in last August’s primary election.
Her lead shrank, but she won by 748 votes.
