1. The most interesting thing that happened at last night’s annual 36^th District Election Analysis party at Hale’s Ales—hosted by state Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D-36) because the usual host, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-36), was ill—was when Gov. Christine Gregoire (looking at a $2.6 billion deficit ) said she would not support an “all-cuts budget” in 2010—a sharp turnaround from last year, when Gregoire (opposed for reelection by anti-tax Republican Dino Rossi) vowed that she wouldn’t pass any new taxes.

Other than Gregoire’s announcement, the panel—Senate majority leader Lisa Brown (D-3), Carlyle, State Rep. Lynn Kessler (D-24), King County Executive-Elect Dow Constantine, and Seattle Mayor-Elect Mike McGinn—hewed closely to their talking points.

Constantine looked forward to renewing the fight in Olympia for new taxing authority for the county. McGinn planned to propose a new taxing district to pay for transit in Seattle. And Brown, no surprise now, supported new state tax revenues, specifically an income tax.


2. Also last night, state Sen. Fred Jarrett (D-41), an unsuccessful candidate for KC Executive and deputy-county-executive-elect, told PubliCola that Constantine planned to announce his staff lineup this morning at 10:30 am. Constantine takes office November 24.

3. Erica will be on KUOW (94.9 am) this morning from 10 to 11 am (along with Crosscut’s Skip Berger, the Seattle Times’ Joni Balter, and freelance reporter Todd Zwillich from Washington, D.C.) to discuss the week’s events, including the health care debate, the process for replacing Constantine (something we wrote about in detail here), and McGinn’s unconventional transition team, among other topics.

4. Also today, Erica will be on the Seattle Channel (channel 21) at 7 pm, along with Balter, Berger, and KOMO Radio’s John Carlson, talking about this year’s elections.

5. With almost every ballot counted, City Council member Richard Conlin has received 135,936 votes, more than any candidate for any city office has ever gotten, including mayors and incumbents running unopposed.

The former record-holder? Not, as you might guess, Peter Steinbrueck, but ex-council member Sue Donaldson, who received 131,872 votes in her contested race in 1991.