1. Mayor Greg Nickels is holding a press conference at 10:00 this morning, presumably to make official what we wrote yesterday : Barring a miracle in the 30,000 votes that have yet to be counted, his second term will be his last.

2. Meanwhile, the latest numbers show more good news for King County Executive candidate Dow Constantine: as with Wednesday's count , Thursday's numbers narrowed frontrunner Susan Hutchison's lead even further—from 36-23 to 35-25, a gap of about 25,000 votes. With perhaps 90,000 votes still uncounted, that trend isn't enough to put Constantine in the lead, but it does show late voters swinging Constantine's way—a good sign for the Democrat in the general election.

3. Yesterday, City Council Position 6 challenger Jessie Israel sent out an optimistic email to supporters calling her opponent, longtime incumbent Nick Licata, "beatable." The evidence? Licata has "just" 55 percent of the vote so far. "About half the people support him and about half do not. For an incumbent, this is a most vulnerable position - especially since Nick received a whopping 78% of the vote in his last election."

The problem with that analysis is that no incumbent city council member has ever lost after getting more than 50 percent in the primary. And that 78 percent was in a two-way race—this year, Licata had not one but two real challengers. Bottom line: Israel's best-case scenario at this point is to get as many votes as possible in the general as a prelude to a future run. Israel hasn't yet returned a call (made yesterday afternoon) for comment about the numbers.

4. The repeal of the so-called "head tax" or employee hours tax (EHT)—a $25-per-employee tax, paid by employers, that exempts workers who don't drive to work alone—may not be a foregone conclusion. On Wednesday, the Bridging the Gap Oversight Committee wrote a letter to city council members expressing concerns about the proposed repeal. The tax pays for transportation projects, including projects in the voter-approved Bridging the Gap transportation levy.

The letter reads, in part:

There was strong consensus among committee members that bcommitments made to the voters as part of Bridging the Gap campaign must be honored. ... We believe stakeholders supported the measure in part because it was understood EHT was part of the bigger picture in helping fund projects in the maintenance backlog. While we fully support your role in making policy decisions around this and other difficult issues, we want to ensure BTG remains fully funded and promises made to voters are kept intact.

Numerous unsuccessful candidates for city council and mayor (Jan Drago, Martin Kaplan, etc.) expressed support for repealing the "head tax."  However, if Mike McGinn becomes mayor and Mike O'Brien is elected to City Council Position 8, the issue could be up for debate again. The council will take up discussions of the tax during budget discussions in November; however, those discussions will now be dominated by the need to fill a $72 million revenue shortfall.

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