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Eight same-party races for November, 12 'close' races

• Published August 21, 2008

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The Secretary of State's office has been slicing and dicing the info from Tuesday's Top 2 primary and it looks like eight out of 124 legislative races will be one-party contests.

That's not the same list as 12 close races, as called by Megan Moreno, legislative director at the office. For instance, our own Thurston County Democrat Sen. Karen Fraser is facing fellow Democrat Erik Lee in November, but Fraser had more than 70 percent of the vote.

However – and this was a surprise to me – Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City, seems to have a serious challenger in Democrat David Spring. Anderson is ahead by 1.36 points.

I just talked to Anderson about the OMNI computer project and he didn't seem concerned at all. Joked that his opponent was running on a tax-the-millionaires platform. Maybe the state’s most voter-rich district really doesn't like millionaires.

Overall, Moreno's analysis shows eight tight races for Republican-held seats, and four on the Democratic side. This puts Democrats in good shape to expand to a two-thirds majority in both chambers.

But we've got what, 75 days to go? Time for change (which is big this year).