Former court of appeals judge Charlie Wiggins on election night. At the time, he was trailing Justice Sanders by nearly 30,000 votes but told The Stranger: I think I may win. He was right.
  • Kelly O
  • Former court of appeals judge Charlie Wiggins on election night. At the time, he was trailing Justice Sanders by nearly 30,000 votes but told The Stranger: "I think I may win." He was right.

Charlie Wiggins, the former court of appeals judge from Bainbridge Island, has taken the lead over State Supreme Court Justice Richard B. Sanders by 3,491 votes—a spread well outside the recount margin—and will be Washington State's newest supreme court justice, having knocked off a 15-year incumbent in a race that seems to have turned on Justice Sanders's controversial public statements and private conduct.

The flip in the results came this afternoon as King County added just over 49,000 ballots to its tally. The county still has about 81,000 ballots left to process, and with Wiggins now earning over 58 percent of the vote here, there's just no plausible way that Justice Sanders will be able to overcome Wiggins' final victory margin.

I'll post more on exactly why I think Justice Sanders lost tomorrow morning, but for now I'm curious: What do you think were the main ingredients in his defeat (and Wiggins' victory)?