Post navigation

Prev: (08/30/16) | Next: (08/30/16)

Mapping Capitol Hill’s political battleground in the August primary

Capitol Hill’s political divide was, once again, in effect in the August primary as candidates in two races split votes between the neighborhood’s apartment-dense south and single family home-dominated north.

In the 43rd District state House race, longtime homeless housing advocate Nicole Macri won 52.3% of the vote, making her the clear frontrunner heading into the November election. The densest parts of Capitol Hill and First Hill made up the core of Macri’s support, where she took at least 50% of the votes in dozens of precincts. Macri also had a strong showing around the U District.

(Images: nwmapt.com with permission to CHS)

Facing Macri in November will be trial lawyer Dan Shih, who took 24.6% of the district’s vote. Shih’s largest chunk of votes came from Capitol Hill precincts north of Aloha, as well as Montlake, Eastlake, and Madison Park.

It was a similar story in the 7th Congressional District race where State Sen. Pramila Jayapal held a strong base of support in precincts surrounding Cal Anderson Park. State Rep. Brady Walkinsaw, the Capitol Hill resident who will face Jayapal in November, did well in some of the district’s more affluent precincts, like those surrounding Volunteer Park and in Madison Valley.

With a third place finish, King County Council member Joe McDermott will not move on to the general election. His base of support was almost entirely concentrated in his home neighborhood of West Seattle.

Recent elections have favored candidates who can garner more support on Capitol Hill’s southern, more progressive half. Last year, City Council member Kshama Sawant won a decisive victory over challenger Pamela Banks by taking the apartment-dense precincts of District 3. However, Mike McGinn won many of those precincts in 2013 and still lost to Mayor Ed Murray. Capitol Hill’s wealthier northern half is also where the city’s major campaign donors are largely concentrated.

An initiative to better organize the political strength of Capitol Hill’s tenant population will get a boost in September with the first ever Capitol Hill Renter Summit.

Renter Summit seeks to build tenant power on Capitol Hill

In the 43rd District race, Shih has maintained his fundraising dominance, but spent a far larger portion of his war chest during the primary. Macri only spent about 45% of her funds while Shih spent 71%.

Dan Shih
Raised: $164,108.26
Spent: $117,985.18

Nicole Macri
Raised: $102,466.15
Spent: $46,848.85

The latest Federal Election Commission filings for the 7th Congressional District race only cover up to July 13th, omitting last minute fundraising pushes heading into the August 2nd primary. At that time, Jayapal was the first to break the $1 million mark. JAYAPAL

Despite his base of support around Capitol Hill’s wealthier areas, Walkinshaw has trailed considerably in fundraising, but had roughly the same amount of cash on-hand as Jayapal as of last month.

WALKINSHAW

Publicola reports that a large portion of the money raised in these races has gone to “opposition research” — the practice of collecting information on a political opponent “that can be used to discredit or otherwise weaken them.”

Meanwhile, just for the fun, here is where every single vote was cast in the 7th Congressional District primary. Thanks to nwmapt.com for the maps.

seventh

Subscribe and support CHS Contributors -- $1/$5/$10 per month

Comments are closed.