WA-Gov: The 2 contestants who’ll emerge from the Top 2 in Washington’s gubernatorial race have always been clear (incumbent Dem Jay Inslee and his main GOP rival, ex-Port of Seattle Commissioner Bill Bryant), so this is really more of a poll with a huge sample size than anything else, and it shows Inslee winning pretty easily, beating Bryant 49-38, with a giant array of nobodies (including everybody’s favorite perpetual candidate Goodspaceguy) taking up the rest. It’s 54-43 when you add up all Dems vs. all GOPers.
Perhaps more interesting is the Lt. Gov. race, which is open for the first time since 1996 with Brad Owen’s retirement (and which may be a significant springboard for whoever is looking to succeed Inslee in 2020). For now, the top 2 vote-getters are Republican talk-radio host Marty McClendon and Democratic state Sen. Cyrus Habib, at 20 apiece. Two other Dem state Sens., Karen Fraser and Steve Hobbs, follow at 16 apiece.
More alarming is the state Treasurer race, where the Top 2’s stupid mechanisms could bite us once again. There are 2 Republicans running and 3 Dems running, and the votes are splitting evenly enough (25-23-19-19-14) that we could wind up seeing both Republicans advance.