Tea Party stalwart Clint Didier and former (veteran) Republican legislator Dan Newhouse survived the Fourth Congressional District Hunger Games Tuesday. Meanwhile, supposed also-ran Republican Robert Sutherland squeaked ahead of GOP-annointed Pedro Celis to become the frontrunner in the contest to see who gets to tangle with Democrat Suzan DelBene in this fall's First Congressional District contest.
Tuesday's primaries answered two major questions in Washington's Congressional races: Which two of the 12 candidates seeking to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, a Republican, will move on to the November election? And could Republican Celis capture enough votes to look like a legit challenger to first-term incumbent DelBene? It turns out that Celis will need a surge in the late-mailed votes to beat even Sutherland, who was originally expected to eat Celis' dust.
Everybody wanted Doc Hastings' seat. Credit: www.house.gov
In the First Congressional District contest, DelBene tallied 44,244 votes to Sutherland's 13,626. Celis had 12,906 votes by 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. That represents a 52 to 16 to 15 percent split. The rest of the field captured roughly 17 percent of the votes.
Five of the 12 Fourth Congressional candidates were given legitimate chances of surviving the primary. But one of those five (Republican Janea Holmquist Newbry) actually finished sixth. The 9:30 p.m. tally end this way: Didier (22,304, or 30 percent); Newhouse (19,517, or 26 percent); and Democrat Estakio Beltran (8,298, or 11 percent).
The next three finishers were Republican George Cicotte with 7 percent of the vote; Democrat Tony Sandoval at 7 percent; and Republican Janea Holmquist Newbry with 6 percent. Six other candidates picked up the remaining votes.
