Election Results (or Lack Thereof)

We learned a few things last night. Washington voters do not like taxes, but they don't mind waiting three hours to vote at Union Station . They probably like Patty Murray and they may like buying liquor at the grocery store, but then again maybe not.

Confused? Here's our cheat sheet to what went down last night (aside from the major Republican takeover of the U.S. House) and what's still too close to call.

U.S. Senate: As we mentioned before, Washington still has no declared winner and that's no surprise given our close race and mail-in ballot system. But we do know that Democrats' control of the Senate no longer rests with Rossi v. Murray. Our current Senator holds a minuscule lead but Rossi isn't conceding any time soon.

I-1098 Income Tax Initiative: Bill Gates Sr.'s effort to install a 5 percent state income tax on the state's high earners lost and lost big. The measure's defeat was one of the first official projections yesterday and the seventh time Washington has defeated a state income tax. While the measure was positioned as a tax on the wealthy, it was the middle class that handed out this defeat, concerned that the 5 percent tax would trickle downward to lower income brackets.

I-1100 & 1105 Liquor Privatization: One of the two efforts to privatize liquor crashed and burned, the other (the one backed by Costco and some big-name local chefs) is still very much at play.

I-1107 Repealing Candy and Soda Tax: Voters swiftly repealed this modest tax on certain grocery items, like candy, soda and bottled water. We can presume that the soda lobby, which poured money into defeating this, toasted the win with something other than a Diet Pepsi.

I-1053 Requiring a Super-Majority to Raise Taxes: Tim Eyman's measure making it tougher for the state to raise taxes won pretty much everywhere, including liberal King County. However supporters say this knee-jerk response is short-sighted when the state faces a major budget gap. As one Twitter poster put it, "I'm going to write an initiative to stop Tim Eyman from writing irresponsible initiatives every goddamn year. Who's with me?"

As for Eyman, he said he's more excited that his controversial initiative to install red light cameras in his hometown of Mukilteo passed as well.

Referendum 52 Green Retrofits for Schools: On paper, the green schools measure sounded like a no-brainer, much like the "Flags for Orphans Bill" in that old episode of The Simpsons. Voters felt differently, wary of incurring any more debt and skeptical that the measure would create many more jobs.