As of 5pm last night, I’m one vote behind the opponent. Unless our margin is greater than 37 votes, pretty unlikely at this point, Kitsap Auditor will call for a new election. This will probably be in February.

I will have run FOUR times for this position! Primary and general in 2019; general in 2021; special election in 2022.

So I’m going out to collect the last of the yard signs, hoping against hope I don’t have to shlep them all again in the new year.

I don’t understand why the race is so close when my opponent thinks the top priority for his district report is the announcement that communism is the Number One killer, responsible for over 100 million deaths; that this is tragic; and that we can’t let it happen here. But there you are. The race is, in fact, this close. Everyone’s on their last nerve, ready to embrace a simple story, a child’s tale: Communism bad, communism coming, look out for communism.

People are afraid of hunger and homelessness; they’re afraid that what they have will be taken from them. That’s the kind of fear that easily whips up into hatred. One voter told me that schools were teaching students to hate white people. Those who hate are those who most readily see hate everywhere.

These are good times to be kind to as many people as you can, especially essential workers who are on beyond exhausted.