Incumbents leading, voters approving taxes in early election results

Voters are opening their wallets for investment in their communities, and incumbents are also getting the nod of approval, if early election returns indicate final outcomes.

Suzan DelBene leads opponents for U.S. Representative of the 1st Congressional District with 49-ápercent of the vote. Her closest competitor is Republican Robert J. Sutherland, with 17 percent of the vote. That means those two candidates will likely be the ones to go on to the general election in the fall.

In the 39th district of Washington at the state level, since no one had more than one challenger, the vote count doesn't mean anything except sort of a straw poll of who is ahead going into the general election in the fall. That person appears to be Elizabeth Scott of Monroe, who polled with 58 percent, ahead of her opponent Charles Jensen, who emerged with 41.6 percent. She is the only 39th District candidate in a contested race this year.

Sultan Mayor Carolyn Eslick is headed for the general election along with incumbent John Lovick for the job of County Executive. Eslick has 39.76 percent of the vote, trailing Lovick's 46.52 percent.

Fire District 5 in Sultan appears to be handily passing a levy, currently with more than 69 percent of the vote.

And Monroe voters are giving the nod to a sales tax increase of two-tenths of a percent to pay for street maintenance and repair. That had 63.8-ápercent in favor as of last night.

For complete countywide results, see http://www.snoco.org/elections/results/ecurrent.htm

The Monitor will update as the numbers change through the week.