Week in Review: Midterm elections

Bill Radke discusses the week’s news with Seattle Channel’s Brian Callanan, political analyst and contributing columnist Joni Balter, and KUOW’s David Hyde.

The midterm elections were held on Tuesday. This morning, the Associated Press called the 8th Congressional District for incumbent Kim Schrier, defeating Republican challenger Matt Larkin. Was Larkin part of the red wave that didn’t seem to happen? King County voters, many of whom have expressed being fed up with crime, ended up electing the more progressive prosecutor Leesa Manion. How big of a surprise was this?

In the race for one of Washington’s U.S. Senate seats, incumbent Patty Murray defeated Republican challenger Tiffany Smiley. Murray won the race by a noticeably wider margin that recent polls and several news outlets suggested it would be. Do the media exaggerate some campaigns’ closeness to get ratings?

The Secretary of State race is effectively over. The independent Julie Anderson conceded last night to the Democrat incumbent Steve Hobbs. Would she have done the job any differently?

In Seattle, there was a ballot measure to change the way we vote. Instead of just voting for one candidate, we could do it differently. What did we learn from this?