Updated results from King County Elections today are sufficient for Sammamish Comment to project that Paul Graves will win the open seat for the State House of Representatives in the 5th Legislative District, Position 2.

He will defeat Democrat Darcy Burner. Graves is a Republican, and his win keeps this seat in GOP hands. This change from too close to call is highlighted in green in the chart below.

Incumbent Republican Jay Rodne, seeking reelection in the 5th for Position 1, is trending toward a victory but his race remains too close to call today.

The 5th LD encompasses the greater Klahanie area in Sammamish.

Click to enlarge. Then click on image a second time to enlarge.

Graves ended Tuesday night leading Burner by 258 vote and Wednesday by 1,047 votes. Tonight his lead increased to 2,177 votes.

Rodne ended Tuesday behind Democrat Jason Ritchie by 395 votes but took a 102 vote lead after Wednesday’s tally. Tonight his lead increased to 821 votes. Tomorrow’s results may be enough to project a winner in this race.

If Rodne wins, the seat remains Republican. If he loses, the seat flips for the first time to Democrat, which will add to the current House majority in Olympia.

Rodne won the beauty contest primary by 10 points over Ricthie, so the vote count this week was stunning. Rodne came under fire for intemperate remarks on Facebook about Muslims and calling on Americans to literally arm themselves. He lost the endorsement of The Seattle Times, the Issaquah Press and Sammamish Comment over these remarks. Rodne sent an email to the Press declaring he didn’t want its endorsement, the newspaper reported.

The Sammamish Review and Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter didn’t endorse any political office.

5th LD Senate Race tightens

The State Senate race between incumbent Democrat Mark Mullet and GOP challenger Chad Magendanz is tightening. Mullet ended election night with a lead of 2,974 votes and a 53.33% margin. Sammamish Comment projected he will win the seat, based on historical votes that the election night returns were within 1%-2% of the final results.

Magendanz ended Wednesday 2,681 votes behind. Tonight his deficit is 2,062 votes. The margin is 51.98% for Mullet, a decline of 1.35%. Tomorrow’s results may cause The Comment to slip this race to too close to call, which is where the primary results ended up in August.