Washington state used the “top-two” system for the first time in 2008. Proponents of “top-two” generally concede that their system is bad for minor parties and independent candidates, but they say sacrificing them is worthwhile because “top-two” brings about vigorous change in who gets elected.
However, those predictions were wrong. This year, all 9 U.S. House candidates from Washington state ran for re-election, and all 9 were re-elected.
Also this year, Washington elected all its partisan statewide state officers. The Governor, the Lieutenant Governor (who is elected separately from the Governor), the Secretary of State, the Auditor, the Attorney General, the Insurance Commissioner, and the Public Lands Commissioner, all ran for re-election. All of them were re-elected except for the Public Lands Commissioner. That office had been held by a Republican and is now held by a Democrat. Washington’s Treasurer did not run for re-election, but the outgoing Treasurer and the new Treasurer are both members of the same party.
Washington elected 26 State Senators and all 98 State House members this year. Only three incumbents were defeated in the general election, Senator Marilyn Rasmussen, and Representatives Don Barlow and John Ahern. Also one incumbent had been defeated in this year’s August primary, for a total of four incumbents losing this year out of 124 races. Furthermore, it is still possible that Ahern did not lose; he is only trailing by 54 votes as of November 9, with more votes still to be counted.
Before the 2008 election, the partisan lineup in the Senate had been 32 Democrats, 17 Republicans. Now it is 31 Democrats and 18 Republicans.
Also before the 2008 election, the House had been 63 Democrats and 35 Republicans; now it is 62 Democrats and 36 Republicans.
By contrast with the miniscule changes in the partisan makeup of the legislature after the 2008 election, the changes made in the 2006 election had been dramatic. The 2006 election used an open primary and did not exclude minor party and independents from the November ballot. The 2006 election had caused big gains for Democrats in the legislature, with 6 new Democratic Senate seats and 8 new Democratic House seats.
The 2008 “top-two” system resulted in 24 state legislative races with only one candidate on the ballot in the November election. It also resulted in a few November elections with two members of the same party running against each other. One State Senate election and five State House elections had that characteristic. No incumbent lost in any of those type of races.
