Gun Background Checks OK’d, Class Size Too Close

In other races Tuesday night, Republicans were poised to take outright control of the state Senate and a first-of-its kind Republican versus Republican U.S. House race was tight.

Initiative 594 was one of two rival gun measures on the ballot. It requires background checks on all sales and transfers, including private transactions and many loans and gifts. It passed with especially strong support in King County.

“It’s the first time in the country that by a vote of the people we’ve closed the background check loophole,” said Zach Silk, campaign manager for the measure. “When elected officials couldn’t stand up to the gun lobby, the people did.”

Supporters of expansion raised more than $10.3 million, with large donations from several prominent proponents like Bill and Melinda Gates and Paul Allen, a Microsoft co-founder. Everytown for Gun Safety, a group funded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, donated more than $1 million to the campaign and spent nearly $1 million more through its political action committee. Bloomberg separately donated an additional $285,000.

The rival measure, Initiative 591, would prevent the state from expanding checks beyond what’s called for in federal law. It was trailing in several counties in western Washington with the highest voter concentration. Gun-rights activist Alan Gottlieb wouldn’t go as far as conceding on Wednesday, but he didn’t seem hopeful that the margin would change in the coming days as votes continue to trickle in.

“Some of the world’s wealthiest elitist billionaires bought a ballot measure just like they buy a sports team,” Gottlieb said in an emailed statement.

He noted that they were leading in 28 of the state’s 39 counties, but that they could not overcome the TV and radio ads run by opponents in the voter-rich market in Seattle in King County. The measure was losing in King County, the state’s largest, on a 68-32 percent margin.

SEE ALSO: CBS Seattle’s Election Guide 2014

“If you take out the King county vote margin we would have won,” he wrote.

Like federal law, Washington law requires checks for sales or transfers by licensed dealers but not for purchases from private sellers, like those who sell at gun shows or to friends. The expansion measure was designed to include most private sales and transfers. It has exceptions for emergency gun transfers concerning personal safety, gifts between family members, antiques, and loans for hunting.

The National Rifle Association raised nearly half a million dollars to fight the expansion measure, but did not endorse I-591, which spent just over a million dollars on its campaign.

In Washington’s 4th Congressional District, Dan Newhouse was narrowly leading fellow GOP candidate Clint Didier in a race which marked the first time in state history that two members of the same party appeared on the fall ballot for a U.S. House seat.

Didier, a former NFL player and tea party favorite, was not conceding in the battle to replace retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings for the central Washington seat.

“A lot of votes out there still,” Didier campaign manager Larry Stickney said Wednesday.

Newhouse, a mainstream conservative, stopped just short of declaring victory on Tuesday night.

“For those of you who may have supported the other candidate in this race, I plan to work hard to represent you to the best of my abilities,” Newhouse said in a statement. “My door will always be open to you.”

Since 2008, Washington has had a top-two primary system, meaning the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election.

In the fight for control of the state Senate, Republicans led key races. After two Democrats defected to form a coalition that gave Republicans control of the Senate, Democrats were hoping to mount enough challenges to gain control of the chamber outright. But so far, Democrats trailed in the handful of competitive races they needed to win. Democrats in the House, who currently have a 55-43 majority, could lose a few seats as well, but maintain the majority, if results in some races hold.

And there was no outcome yet on an initiative that would limit class sizes. Votes counted in communities scattered across the state show opinions on Initiative 1351 were virtually tied.

The initiative would set lower class sizes at every grade level. Critics say it would put severe pressure on the state’s strapped budget. Voters overwhelmingly approved a class size reduction initiative in 2000.

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AP writer Nicholas K. Geranios contributed from Spokane, Washington.