Thank you Barack Obama. Thank you with all my heart. Love, Kelly O

Lots more 2:00 a.m. photos after the jump!

... Want to do with your tax dollars?

Find out on Slog, where we'll be posting exclusive video of the Stranger Election Control Board's interview on I-985, Tim Eyman's latest initiative.

Think that's cool? Dino Rossi did some blow with us when he came in for his interview.

The Satterberg party was still rocking out HARD when we left. Nothing much interesting happened in the second half of the night, except that Susannah Frame wouldn't tell me who she voted for, and a bunch of young Republicans wouldn't tell me anything at all (in all sarcasm, they admitted that they "love immigrants" and "love abortion" HA HA!). We made fun of their sweater vests and they asked us if we went to community college. Check and mate, young Republicans!

On our way to the door, we ran into Satterberg and his shiny shirt in the crowd. (Kismet!) This was an excellent opportunity to address his earlier claim that he didn't remember the 2000 election, which, whether or not it was relevant, was definitely annoying.

SECB: "So did the GOP money help your campaign?"
DS: "We got a lot of support from a lot of different people."
SECB: "But specifically the money from the GOP?"
DS: "Yes, I think it helped, but [blah blah blah every little bit counts]"
SECB: "So, now that this election's winding down, do you remember who you voted for in 2000?"
DS: "Honestly, it's hazy."
SECB: "Well, it was a pretty memorable election."
DS: "I remember that I voted for Anderson in 1980."
SECB: "Any chance you remember who you voted for in 2000?"
DS: "I wasn't really involved in politics until my name was on the ballot. I wasn't affiliated with any party until I ran."
SECB: "So until 2007 you had no interest in politics?"
DS: "I don't understand the point of these questions."
SECB: "I just think it's weird that a politician doesn't remember voting in what was maybe the most memorable election in recent history. I mean, when the Supreme Court handed the election to Bush were you like, 'Yeah!' or were you like, 'Aww'?"
DS: "I just wanted it to be fair because people lost trust in the system."
SECB: "Was it fair?"
DS: "I don't understand why you're asking me about this."

In conclusion, I would just like to say:

As I approached the stairs leading to the bathroom, a woman nearly fell into my arms. She was very drunk, and she was staggering down the stairs. "Easy," I said to her, not very helpfully. "Tee-hee!" she said, and then, she added, also not very helpfully, "Whoa."
In the bathroom again, I consulted Jay-Z. "Say hello to the bad guy/They say I'm a bad guy/I come from the bottom/But I'm mad fly/They say I'm a menace/That's the picture they paint/They say a lot about me/Let me tell you what I ain't," Jay-Z said.
I went back out into the bar and chatted with a very nice employee of Friends of the Library who was about to leave the bar and attend Bruce Harrell's party, which was no doubt a little more lively. Velazquez gave a not-concession speech that sounded very suspiciously like a concession speech.

"It's been good," she said. She added that the political process "has been remarkable to my soul." The Friends of the Library lady left in the middle of the speech. An employee of the bar tapped me on the shoulder.
"Is it true," she asked me, "That this is the one who got the DUI?"
I nodded.

She broke down in giggles. "That's great!"

Venus, too, acknowledged the DUI at the end of her speech when she said, "So, eat, drink and be merry, and there are cabs for everybody who needs one!"

That seemed like as good a time to leave as any.

• Holy crap, roads and transit! You got creamed. I was expecting a much closer race, but--barring a miracle--it wasn't even close. We won't know for a few weeks what exactly to make of the numbers--whether it went down hardest in anti-rail suburbs, for example, or pro-transit, anti-roads areas like Seattle's 43rd and 46th legislative districts--but it's pretty clear that this wasn't the package voters wanted. It was too big and too divisive, and hopefully the people who craft a replacement will have learned their lesson by the next time. (I would prefer, of course, that that lesson be: No more roads expansion; money for neighborhood streets, safety and maintenance; and more money for rail NOW, rather than in 20 years--but that's just me.) In any case, I think one lesson is definitely that an $18 billion, 50-year package is simply too big to pass--especially when, as with this package, it doesn't fully fund all the projects it includes, meaning that voters will have to pay tolls or additional taxes to finish major projects like SR-520.

• Speaking of voters being against big tax increases, the apparent victory of Tim Eyman's I-960 (which would require a two-thirds majority in the legislature to pass any tax increase) and the apparent defeat of HR 4204 (allowing school levies to pass by a simple majority, rather than a supermajority) seemed to speak to voters' antitax mood. Interestingly, however, those same seemingly conservative voters were siding with trial lawyers over insurance companies in passing R-67 decisively, 56 to 44.

• Darlene Flynn got swept out of the school board in yet ANOTHER anti-incumbent tide. I don't cover school board politics regularly, but doesn't it seem like we have one of these every single election? Yeah, I know the school system has its problems, but Flynn seemed like she was trying to be part of the solution. Yet I know lots of people who voted for her victorious opponent, Sherry Carr, because they were just "in an anti-incumbent mood."

• It's interesting that Venus Velazquez and incumbent David Della were losing by almost identical margins. That could be a coincidence, but I wonder how much overlap there is between supporters of Tim Burgess (who appears to be winning against Della) and of Bruce Harrell (Velazquez's opponent for Peter Steinbrueck's seat)?

The first party that I hit up this evening was the Tim Burgess affair, at a lovely wine bar at the top of Queen Anne. Immediately upon my arrival, I walked up to Tim Burgess's daughter, Kim Burgess, and started talking. After blabbing for a minute or so, she corrects me. In fact, I'm not talking to Tim Burgess's daughter, Kim Burgess. I'm talking to Tim Burgess's other daughter, Katie Burgess. She gestures over to the other side of the bar, where her older sister, Kim Burgess, daughter of Tim Burgess, older sister of Katie Burgess, is holding court. "It's okay," Katie said, "It happens all the time."
That ended the conversation cold.
I took the opportunity to go to the bathroom and hit up American Gangster. Jay-Z had this to say: "Let's go/Get out the car/goin' in circles/it's a vicious cycle/this is a crash course/this ain't high school/wake up muttley/you're dreamin' again/you're reality show/the season begins." This, obviously, meant that Jay-Z was feeling cautiously optimistic about the whole thing.
I returned to the wine bar, where waiters were unloading huge amounts of delicious food--trays of bread with pesto, cold cut platters, and delightful little mini burgers.

I start talking to a local top-of Queen Anne-ite. The conversation quickly devolved into a complaint about how Metropolitan Market closed and a QFC was going to open into the same space. The gentleman I was talking to said that "QFC doesn't offer the same choices that Metropolitan Market does, and so we decided to do something."
I asked him if his battle against QFC--"You know, I have nothing against QFC, but there's already one at the bottom of the hill," he said--was the reason why he was for Tim Burgess. "Absolutely," he replied.
This kind of explained Burgess's pastoral election posters that I'd been seeing around:

Look at that shit. Trees, houses, a sunset. If there was ever a more bucolic scene on an election poster, I've yet to see it. I was hardly surprised when the results came in and the people were entirely on Burgess's side, at nearly 65%. People were discussing whether or not Burgess should come out with a acceptance speech--at 8:30 in the evening!--and so it was time to leave. The food kept coming and the wine bar got so crowded that waiters could hardly make their way through the place.

Prop 1 (Sound Transit/RTID): No (about 56% to 44% in both the RTID and RTA districts).

King County Prosecutor: Satterberg over Sherman, 53% to 46%

City Council Position 1: Godden over Szwaja, 71% to 27%.

City Council Position 3: Harrell over Velazquez, 60% to 38%.

City Council Position 7: Burgess over Della, 61% to 38%.

City Council Position 9: Clark over Fenton, 74% to 25%.

School Board District 1: Maier over Soriano, 59% to 40%.

School Board District 2: Carr over Flynn, 58% to 40%.

School Board District 3: Martin-Morris over Blomstrom, 72% to 27%.

School Board District 6: Sundquist over Ramirez, 59% to 39%.

Port of Seattle Commissioner Position 2: Tarleton over Edwards, 51% to 48%.

Port of Seattle Commissioner Position 5: Fisken over Bryant, 50% to 49%.

Rainy Day Fund (8206) is being approved, 68% to 31%.

School levy simple majority (4204) is being rejected, 54% to 46%.

Tim Eyman's antitax initiative I-960 is being approved, 54% to 46%.

R-67 on insurance triple damages is being approved, 56% to 44%.

I don't know exactly what that means, but Sandeep Kaushik, a Sherman staffer—and, of course, Stranger writer emeritus—explained it: "Early absentees [which tilted against Sherman 46-54] are different from late absentees [which tilted towards him 2-1]. Late absentees tend to mirror the poll votes."

And poll votes are the shit you want in your Christmas stocking.

Which is why the wee 3,000 late-absentee votes that have just dropped are exciting to the Sherman people.

As if in answer to the new hope, some nice-looking toast with cubed tomatoes and shreds of basil have appeared. Everyone's too busy being excited to eat any. So I, cad that I am, take two.

Then I hear a woman talking into her cell phone just behind me: "The numbers are headed in the right direction." Then she sucks in her breath sharply. "But it's going to be a long, tense night."

The party at Sherman's was so dour and depressing, I decided to ride over to Jean Godden's for a bracing shot of victory. The Two Bells Tavern was brightly lit, full of brightly clothed people (crimson jackets were all the rage) talking happily but not excitedly. I asked Godden, whose opponent Joe Szwaja is renowned for his anger, what her frightening moment was with Joe during the campaign. "He had a habit of standing up and turning his backside toward me, almost as if he were mooning me!"

Szwaja's party is at Ravenna Third Place Books, in the bar downstairs. The room is packed with old people with long gray hair. Very casually dressed in a tie and dirty white New Balance sneakers, Joe Szwaja sat down with The Stranger: "The numbers aren't what we want, but they'll go up." Then he started talking about rivers. It was very zen, but confusing.

Even if Godden beats him in the election, does Szwaja still think he could take her in a game of basketball? Yes: "I'd try to lure her into the post-up game. Very few people can beat me in the post-up game."

Szwaja took a couple of shots at Godden. "Unlike Godden, I would never use NOVA staff to help my campaign." He chastised local media for its "lack of substance." If he doesn't win, he wants to concentrate on neighborhood climate councils and improving sustainability in neighborhoods. He says he wants over 50 percent, of course, but he estimates he'll get between 30-40 percent of the vote. (He's at 27% now.)

He's against Prop 1 and said, "The earth doesn't care about compromises." He also supports Maria Ramirez.

Commenting on the chill atmosphere in the bookstore, a tall twentysomething—one of the younger people in the audience—said, "Since Joe's a Green Party candidate, a lot of his supporters are used to losing." A man with the awesome name of Claude Ginsberg was upset with The Stranger's coverage of Szwaja: "What's hippie-style about speaking truth to power?" Indeed.

At city council incumbent David Della's party, there were about 25 people sitting around tables in a brightly lit Chinese restaurant. Della wasn't there, and hadn't arrived by the time The Stranger left around 9:30 pm. I went up to Della's legislative aide, Dave Namura, who very slowly informed me that the numbers were 61 to 39 in Burgess's favor. I asked him how they thought they were going to do, and he said crankily, "I'm not going to comment on anything else."

I went outside and talked to a well-dressed man who didn't wish to be named. He said he was disappointed in the party and the fact that Della wasn't there. He described the party as "a bit moribund. But it's still early. I'm hopeful we'll get a rally here. I don't think Della did much to distinguish himself in this race."

Michael Goodspaceguy Nelson predicted Della would win "by a landslide." A young African-American woman started walking around telling everyone not to yell out stats. "I just got the numbers," a man responded. "And I don't want to announce them."

Brian, The Stranger's news intern, got up to do some karaoke. He chose REM's "The End of the World as We Know It." People looked angry and confused. (Video is forthcoming.)

A man sitting at the bar commented that it'll be "the attack of the yuppies" if Burgess wins.

Our reporters finally got an interview with Satterberg, and first thing, they asked him to go on the record about the accusation that the GOP was earmarking donations for his campaign. "Parties are allowed to raise money from whomever they want." He reiterated his nonpartisanship. Why did he chose to run as a Republican rather than a Democrat? "[Blah blah blah]... Norm Maleng... [blah blah blah]".

So, is Satterberg a Republican or not, goddamnit! We decide to judge him like they judge red and blue states: the last two presidential elections. Did he vote for George W. Bush? "Which time?" Both times. "Well, wait, who did he run against the first time?" Al Gore. "I really don't remember. I wouldn't vote for him again. Does that count?" Um.

Changing topics, our reporters ask Satterberg about his musical influences. (His band, the Approximations, is about to go on stage.) "First and foremost, the Beatles." Any local bands? "I really love the Posies." Are you going to go on tour after the election? "This whole election has been a ruse to get publicity for my band." Dan Satterberg took pains to distance himself from Tim Eyman. "Doesn't The Stranger have a party crasher column? You should take a picture of Tim Eyman."

The Approximations have started playing. Their first jam? "Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)"--Clinton's campaign song. Coincidence? The Stranger Election Control Board thinks not.