Sequim-area Democrats Kevin Van De Wege and Steve Tharinger on Wednesday maintained their election night leads over Republican opponents for two 24th Legislative District state House seats.
Clallam was the only county of the three in the district to count ballots Wednesday.
Van De Wege, 36, the two-term Position 1 incumbent from Sequim, had a 4,578-vote lead over Republican Dan Gase, 57, a Port Angeles real estate managing broker, after Wednesday’s count.
Van De Wege, a Clallam County Fire District 3 firefighter and paramedic, had 23,975 votes, or 54.2 percent, to Gase’s 19,397 votes, or 45.8 percent.
Tharinger, 61, a Clallam County commissioner from Dungeness, held a 1,321-vote lead for the Position 2 seat over Republican Jim McEntire, 60, a Port of Port Angeles commissioner and retired Coast Guard captain, after more ballots were counted Wednesday.
Tharinger had 22,181 votes, or 51.5 percent, to McEntire’s 20,860 votes, or 48.5 percent, in a race to fill Position 2, which is now held by longtime state Rep. Lynn Kessler, a Hoquiam Democrat who is retiring.
The 24th District includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and the northern half of Grays Harbor County, not including Aberdeen.
More than half of the district’s approximately 84,306 registered voters are from Clallam County.
Next counts
The Clallam County Auditor’s Office counted 3,814 ballots Wednesday and has about 9,000 more to count.
The next count will be by 4:30 p.m. Friday.
Jefferson and Grays Harbor counties have not reported ballot counts since Tuesday night.
The next ballot tabulations for Jefferson County will be conducted at noon Friday — and for Grays Harbor County at 5 p.m. Friday.
Van De Wege and Tharinger said voting trends would have to dramatically change for a turnaround in the results.
“There would have to be about a 10 [percent] to 15 percent change in those trends for me to lose,” Tharinger said.
“That’s possible, of course, but we’re still optimistic.”
Not conceding
Asked whether he was ready to concede, McEntire said, “Heck, no.”
“We are in the second or third inning,” he said.
“These numbers are just going to wiggle around, and we will just have to kind of ride it out and see the tale that Friday’s tape tells.”
Van De Wege stuck by his victory declaration of Tuesday night.
“When you have over 55 percent of the vote, that’s not [being] overconfident,” he said.
“Those trends would just have to be completely out of wonk, and that just doesn’t happen.”
Van De Wege said Gase would need to get 67 percent of the remaining vote in the three counties and that McEntire would need 59 percent of the remaining vote to defeat Tharinger.
“The trending is not going to be there,” Van De Wege predicted.
Gase did not return calls for comment late Wednesday.
The state representative position pays $42,106 annually.
Auditor Patty Rosand is predicting a 72 percent total turnout. Jefferson County had 80.67 percent of ballots returned as of Wednesday.
Voter turnout for Grays Harbor County was 47 percent as of Tuesday.
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Senior Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
