It's not been a good week for Bellevue's crazy uncle, Kemper Freeman. First Initiative 1125, his $1.1 million effort to block light rail from crossing the I-90 bridge, went down to defeat by a comfortable margin. Then Monday night the Bellevue City Council he's been so meticulously packing with anti-rail cronies gave up the fight and approved an agreement with Sound Transit to build light rail through downtown Bellevue. And now it looks likely that he's going to lose a presumed gimme in a close city council race.

Heading into election day land-use litigation attorney and devout Kemperite Aaron Laing was widely expected to cruise to victory over progressive activist John Stokes for the seat being vacated by retiring council member Grant Degginger. Laing had outspent Stokes by a two-to-one margin, while Freeman and his allies spent another $45,000 in "independent" expenditures on his behalf. Laing had the kind of financial advantage nobody expected Stokes could overcome.

But it didn't turn out that way. Stokes eked out a 127-vote lead on election night, a narrow margin that expanded slightly over the next few ballot drops before shrinking to 79 votes Monday and Tuesday. There's still about 2,500 ballots left to count, so it's far from impossible to reverse this margin, but Laing's percentage advantage in the past two drops suggests he'll likely fall just short of taking the lead.

And that would be a big loss for Freeman, who was counting on Laing's election to give him a 5-2 supermajority on the council. Perhaps there are some things that money just can't buy?