With all precincts reporting, incumbent Moscow Mayor Nancy Chaney has won an extremely narrow victory (40 votes) over John Weber. Could they be headed to a recount?  If Chaney's win holds, it is not great news for Whitman County.  Relations between Moscow and Whitman County have been stormy during Chaney's administration.

On the Moscow City Council, Susan Scott, Walter Steed, and Tim Brown are the winners.  All in all, it's a bit of a mixed bag for the pro-business Greater Moscow Alliance, which endorsed Weber, Steed, and Brown.  Neither the pro-growth nor the anti-growth factions in Moscow won a clear mandate tonight.  Perhaps voters prefer that kind of balance.

I had a chance to talk with Susan Fagan, the likely winner of tonight's election for state representative in the Washington 9th Legislative District, after the first round of votes had been tallied:

RC:  Obviously, the numbers look really good for you right now.  You can't really declare victory yet, but what are you feeling?

Susan Fagan:  I'm really grateful for where the numbers are now.  It is a clear indication of the amount of effort and time that was put into this campaign; literally hundreds of volunteers, thousands of doorbelling efforts, and 10,000 phone calls. I always said that if hard work pays off, we will be very competitive.

RC:  Terry Nealey is beating the incumbent Democrat in the Washington 16th LD to our south and Republicans have retaken the governor's office in Virginia and New Jersey.  Do you think voters are sending a message to Democrats on health care and other issues? 

Susan Fagan: Voters want to be listened to.  I have talked to thousands of people and many voters do not beleive they are being listened to by elected offiicials on many issues, health care being one of them.

RC:  Democrats did not have a candidate in the 9th LD race.  Obviously, some of them voted for you.  Some didn't.  Do you have a message for them tonight?

Susan Fagan:  t's the same message I have had for them all along.  Democrats know me.  They know me to be a reasonable and trustworthy individual. A legislative race like this is maybe not so much political as it is community related.  I have worked with people on a variety of issues in Pullman.  We never checked each other's political credentials on the school board, hospital or raising monety for Pullman Regional Hospital.   I will be representative of all the people who live in this district.

RC: What will be your first order of business if, as seems likely, go to Olympia in January?

Susan Fagan:  First, I will need to prepare to go.  We will be facing a billion and half dollar shortfall by next session.  I will start by looking at the current budget and the past couple of budgets to see where did we cut.  I will be sent to Olympia to address economic climate, which affects every other issue in the state, such as agriculutre, education, etc.

RC: Speaking of business climate, what would you have done to keep Boeing's 787 assembly line in Washington?

Susan Fagan:  Obviously tax incentives to keep Boeing were wrong, because they didn't work.  We should be looking at the reasons overall why businesses want to leave the state.  First, we have a broken worker's compensation system.  It's more like a pension plan.  The average time off under workers comp is 266 days.  Wee need to fix that.  Why do we care?  Because businesses provide jobs and careers for people.  Look at the B&O tax on gross receipts.  It's a message to businesses that the state doesn't care if you are profitable or not.  We havethe  highest unemployment insurance costs in the nation.  The state death tax hurts family businesses and farms.  I know of many people who have moved their business out of Washington to avoid it.

Susan Fagan just addressed her supporters at her election headquarters here in Pullman,  While not declaring victory yet, Fagan was understandably confident with a nearly 11 point lead after early returns came in tonight.

Pullman Ward 3 City Council Jeff Hawbaker candidate told the crowd that the results were closer than he expected (5 votes,) but that he believes things will go his way.

Pullman City Council Ward 1 candidate Bill Paul was obviously happy and confident as he leads challenger Jeff Williams by over 200 votes.  He expressed his appreciation for those in Ward 1 who supported him, as well as throughout Pullman.

Susan Fagan, Terry Nealey ahead comfortably for state representative. 

Jeff Hawbaker and Dave Gibney in a dead heat in Pullman City Council Ward 3.  Bill Paul out way ahead of Jeff Williams in Ward 1.

I-1033 losing and R-71 winning. Dow Constantine up big over Susan Hutchison for King County Executive.

I'm at Susan Fagan campaign headquarters in Pullman as a seemingly interminable election to replace Don Cox in the Washington House of Representatives finally reaches its end.

Here are the races I'm watching tonight:

Virginia Governor - A clean sweep for the GOP in the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General races.  Expected, but nevertheless a sweet turn of events in my home state.

New Jersey Governor - AP and NBC have already called this for Chris Christie.  Huge Republican pickup in a decidedly Blue State.

New York 23rd Congressional District - The most watched race in the country.  Hoffman is currently trailing.

In Washington, Initiative 1033, King County Executive, Pierce County Charter Amendment 3, and State Representative, 9th and 16th Legislative Districts.

In Pullman, Ward 1 and Ward 3 City Council.

In Moscow, Mayor and City Council.

We won't see any results locally for about another 30 minutes.

Earlier this year, the marble halls of the state capitol echoed with dire predictions of death and doom as lawmakers cut several billion dollars from the state budget.  "People will die," Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-Seattle) famously quipped in defending a proposed tax hike.

By the time they passed a budget lawmakers claimed they had dug deep into state spending and trimmed all the fat before cutting into vital state programs.  Apparently they didn't dig very deep.

While making cuts to health care subsidies, education, and corrections, lawmakers decided to continue spending money to promote tourism.  Perhaps Rep. Pettigrew was afraid people would die if the state didn't create a special map showing tourists where to find Twilight hot spots in the town of Forks:

That's right, because Washington is "home of the exciting Twilight saga," the state is spending our money to promote Forks as THE place to be for the show's aficionados.

Promoting tourism is a good thing (though I would argue it is not a function of government--let the businesses that will profit spend their money to promote tourism), but can lawmakers seriously expect their constituents to believe they're prioritizing spending when they continue to fund stuff like this?  When I go to a townhall meeting and my legislators look me in the eye and say "there's nothing else to cut" in the state budget, this comes to mind as a perfect example of why they should spend less time meeting with lobbyists and more time actually reading the state budget and evaluating agency functions.

By the way, if you're inclined to snipe back in the comment box with the shopworn line that funds used for stuff like this could be "dedicated funds" or "special grants" or whatever, think again.  This comes right from the state General Fund (see page 19 of this document from the state's Office of Financial Management, and spend some time digging through http://fiscal.wa.gov/).  This is a line-item appropriation that could have been cut to use the funds elsewhere.