Republican Van Luven leading Democrats in 40th race

SAM TAYLOR

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Republican Steve Van Luven was on top of the 40th Legislative District Senate seat race in early primary results, with Democrat Kevin Ranker following next.

In Whatcom County and around the 40th District, the several Democrats in the race, including a few who dropped out but still had their names on the ballot, split the vote. That left Van Luven on top, bringing in 39.5 percent of initial, unofficial vote tallies.

"That all looks good. We're very excited," Van Luven said. "I'm looking forward to pointing out to the people my 171/2 years of experience."

SOME BALLOTS LIKELY INVALID

Although the Whatcom County Auditor's Office had received 39,638 ballots by the night of Tuesday, Aug. 19, only 27,562 votes had been counted.
Elections Supervisor Pete Griffin said that was for a variety of reasons, including the fact that some ballots may be invalidated due to a voter not signing their ballot envelope, forgetting to place their ballot in the envelope and that some people even sent in their Feb. 19 primary ballot.
The next ballot results update is expected at about 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20.
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Snyder keeps Whatcom County Superior Court judge seat

Ranker, a San Juan County Council member, was coming in second with 28.8 percent of the vote.

"I'm feeling really positive, I'm excited and I think these early numbers are pretty positive," Ranker said from a party at Boundary Bay Brewery in Bellingham. "There's still a lot of votes yet to count."

The top two candidates, no matter the party, will go on to the Nov. 4 general election.

Democrat Ken Henderson, a former Whatcom County Councilman who had been endorsed by retiring Sen. Harriet Spanel, trailed his Democrat rival Ranker by about 10 points, with 18.5 percent of the vote.

The race for the 40th has been contentious, with Ranker and Henderson amassing large sums of money. Ranker had raised more than $84,000 by the Aug. 19 primary and Henderson had brought in about $69,000, according to state Public Disclosure Commission information.

Van Luven, the lone Republican in the race, had raised nearly $36,000, according to the most recent PDC information.

If one Democrat had received all the votes that were split, that candidate would be well ahead with about 60.5 percent of the vote.

But Van Luven said that won't deter him from a challenge of either Ranker or Henderson. He said he's been working the last few weeks to point out the differences between himself and either Democrat.

"I knew there was an uphill battle when I signed on. There's nothing new to me here," he said.

In Whatcom County, Ranker and Henderson were nearly evenly split, garnering 22.8 percent and 24.2 percent, respectively. The margin was just 103 votes in early tallying.

Reach Sam Taylor at sam.taylor@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2263. Read his Politics Blog at TheBellinghamHerald.com/blogs.