Murray, McGinn appear headed for showdown in Nov.; King Co. parks levy passes



SEATTLE -- State Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, and Mayor Mike McGinn appear to be headed for a showdown for the mayor's office in the November general election as they finished 1-2 in the initial primary voting Tuesday night.

The King County parks levy was easily passing, 69-31%.



With about 50 percent of the vote counted in the mail-in primary election, Murray had 30 percent , incumbent McGinn got 27%, former City Councilman Peter Steinbrueck got 16 percent and City Councilman Bruce Harrell received 15 percent.

The numbers will be updated at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The top two finishers will face off in the November general election.

Results are not final, but it appears that Murray and McGinn's substantial lead over the others would likely hold.

You can monitor the King County results here, the Snohomish County results here and the Pierce County results here.

Surely it was on McGinn’s mind that the last two Seattle mayors have lost in the primary. “We’re confident that the later returns are going to look good for us,” McGinn said before the initial results came in. “We’re starting to see a lot of undecideds move our way in the phone banks. We keep close track of the data.”

About half the ballots to be tabulated tonight, because many more came in today and will continue to arrive in the next few days.

Voter turnout was expected to be 33 percent statewide.