Special Election for WA-1 Coincides With General Election for WA-1

There will be two different WA-1 elections on the same primary and general election ballots in August and November, for some people at least. Voters in the current WA-1 vote for someone to finish out Jay Inslee's term (basically, December) and then the voters in the new WA-1 (because of redistricting) vote for someone who will start the new term in January.

Of course, some of the same candidates will be running for both positions, but since the primary is "top two" for both, we might not have the same people on the general for both, especially since the old WA-1 is very different from the new one. The new one is much more rural than the old one, and -- as a new resident of WA-1 myself -- I look to a change in party control when John Koster -- way ahead in a recent poll -- wins the seat for the new term. But he very well may not be able to win the remainder of Inslee's term, because those will be largely different voters.

The worst thing is that Inslee could have avoided this if he had resigned a week earlier, and he knew that at the time. Some think Inslee should be required to pay the cost. That's silly, of course, but with Governor Gregoire saying, "It is important that the people of the 1st District have representation, especially in December when key votes on matters that affect our state may need to be cast," you'd think she could have had a few words for their lack of representation from most of March through November.