After another ballot drop Friday, incumbent Councilmember Bruce Harrell looks to be the likely victor for Seattle City Council in Seattle’s District 2, fending off an unexpectedly close challenger in Tammy Morales.
In the race for District 1 in West Seattle, the tables turned, if only slightly. Lisa Herbold, longtime aide to Councilmember Nick Licata, has taken a 27-vote lead over Shannon Braddock, the Chief of Staff to King County Councilmember Joe McDermott.
As close as the race between Braddock and Herbold was in the primaries, few could have expected it to come down to double digit – sometimes single digit – vote margins. After taking the lead on Election Night, Braddock has seen her buffer shrink as the left leaning late ballots were tallied. The race became a virtual tie last Tuesday with only six votes separating the two.
Herbold’s 27-vote lead is hardly enough, however, to declare victory: The 0.1 percent total it represents easily qualifies the race for an automatic recount. “I’m pretty much firmly in the cautiously optimistic column,” Herbold said over the phone Friday.”
With essentially all the ballots counted and now 2 percentage points separating Harrell and Morales, the race for District 2 is all but over and, at least for now, does not look like it will qualify for an automatic recount.
As Crosscut has previously reported, Harrell’s razor thin survival means he is likely to replace Councilmember Tim Burgess as the next Council President. He will be the first minority elected official to hold the post since Sam Smith in the late 80s.
