UPDATE: Greenway, Nixon Still Virtually Deadlocked in City Council Race

UPDATE at 5:40 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10: The latest update in counts from Thursday’s general election show virtually no change in the percentage of votes for the three Kirkland City Council races contested.

However, Patch now declares Position 6 incumbent Dave Asher the winner of his race against Jim Hart, who withdrew early due to family health issues. In the counts released Thursday afternoon by King County Elections, Asher led Hart with 65.2 percent of the votes counted to 34.3 percent.

In the two other city council races, Position 4 incumbent Jessica Greenway and challenger Toby Nixon remain in a virtual deadlock, and Position 2 incumbent Bob Sternoff maintains a solid lead over newcomer Jason Gardiner.

The latest totals show Nixon leading Greenway by just 198 votes, with 50.4 percent of the votes counted to 49.2 percent.

Sternoff maintains a commanding 52 percent vs. 47.7 percent lead over Gardiner and is likely to retain his seat, with 37.39 percent of registered Kirkland voters counted, and an election day turnout of apparently less than 50 percent.

With Friday being the Veterans Day holiday, the next vote totals are expected from King County Elections on Monday, so the outcome of the position 2 and 4 races will remain uncertain for at least several more days.

----

UPDATE at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9:

Kirkland City Council incumbent Jessica Greenway now trails former state legislator Toby Nixon by just 210 votes in the latest returns from Tuesday’s general election, narrowing Nixon’s lead to just 50.7 percent of the votes counted to 49 percent.

With an expected turnout of about 52 percent and 32.7 percent of registered Kirkland voters counted, Nixon was ahead 6,378 votes to 6,168 for Greenway. In the first returns Tuesday night, Nixon was ahead with 51.4 percent of the votes counted to Greenway’s 48.39 percent.

"We were very excited to see these returns," Greenway said. "For some reason, in this election it appears that a lot people voted late. So we expect this trend to continue. We were, well, not discouraged last night, but we had hoped it would not be another nailbiter."

Patch has a call in to Nixon and will update this story as soon as he responds.

In the other close council race, incumbent Bob Sternoff was maintaining a solid lead over newcomer Jason Gardiner, 52.4 percent to 47.3 percent -- virtually the same as in the first returns.

Also, incumbent Dave Asher is virtually certain now to return to his council seat, leading 65.2 percent to 34.3 percent for James Hart, who withdrew from the race in September due to family health issues.

The next returns are scheduled to be released Thursday evening.

Original story:

Former state legislator Toby Nixon of Kingsgate has jumped to a lead over Kirkland City Council incumbent Jessica Greenway of the Norkirk neighborhood in early returns from Tuesday's general election.

With a voter turnout of 52 percent expected in Tuesday's eledtion and 25.8 percent of registered Kirkland voters counted, King County Elections reported Nixon ahead with 51.4 percent of votes counted (5,516) to Greenway's 48.39 percent (5,193).

The vote was expected to be close, with Greenway and Nixon raising the most money of the three Kirkland City Council races contested in this election, Greenway at $51,800 and Nixon at $28,700.

"It's not a slam dunk at this point," Nixon said Tuesday night. "We're cautiously optmistic the 3 percent (lead) will hold up. Of course we're grateful to the voters of Kirkland for their support and all our volunteers."

Nixon said voters might well be concerned about goverment spending with the tight economic times, and that he believes he had made a good case that he would make spending decisions wisely.

"We knew it would be an uphill race. She's the incumbent and Kirkland historically has gone for more liberal, progressive candidates than me," he said.

Greenway said she did not expect this race to be so close, but noted that her two previous races for the City Council were both very close, both coming down to 1 percent differences.

"Of course, I'm on pins and needles," she said Tuesday night. "But we've been through this before. We're used to this. I'm still very confident we'll be victorious."

In her first campaign for the council, she trailed after the first returns were reported, but pulled out a narrow victory. Her second campaign was not decided until two weeks after the election.

"If there is a throw-the-bums-out mentality, I didn't hear that," she said. "If anything, it's that he's got name recognition and we have a bigger city now" with annexation.

In the other tight race for the council, incumbent Bob Sternoff of the Moss Bay neighborhood took a solid lead over newcomer Jason Gardiner, like Nixon from the annexation neighborhood of Kingsgate. Sternoff had 52.52 percent of the votes counted (5,547) to Gardiner's 47.21 percent (4,986).

Gardiner surprisingly won more votes during the August primary than Sternoff, 48.2 percent to 45.8 percent, and Sternoff also battled a local political action committee that in 2009.

It appeared Tuesday night that Sternoff had overcome those challenges.

"It looks like we're up tonight, and we'll wait for the rest of the returns tomorrow and Thursday, but so far, so good," Sternoff said.

Gardiner sounded disappointed, but said he was happy with his showing.

"The results aren't all in, so we'll have to wait and see," Gardiner said. "But the results (so far) don't look promising. For a first campaign, I'm very happy."

What he was not happy about, however, was that many of his campaign signs had mysterously disappeared.

"In downtown Kirkland my loss rate was more than 90 percent," he said. "In the annexation area it was 5 percent."

Gardiner would not say who he thought might have been responsible.

"I have my suspicions, but they are just that, suspicions. I don't have any proof," Gardiner said.

In the other race, incumbent Dave Asher of Rose Hill appears to be headed to another term on the council, getting 65.2 percent of the votes counted (6,731) against the Lakeview neigborhood's Jim Hart, who withdrew from the race in September because of family health issues.

Reached Tuesday night out gathering his campaign signs, Asher said he was extremely happy to be able to serve on the council again.

"I couldn't think of anything better to do than to serve Kirkland and try to get a better future for the city," he said. "It's work that is never done and always fun."

King County Elections is scheduled to release the next vote totals Wednesday afternoon.