2002 Washington State Senate election

2002 Washington State Senate election

← 2000 5 November 2002 2004 →
24 out of 49 seats in the Washington State Senate 25 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader James E. West Sid Snyder (retired) Party Republican Democratic Leader since 10 January 2000 9 January 1995 Leader's seat 6th District-Spokane 19th District-Cowlitz Last election 24 25 Seats after 25 24 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 329,959 397,445 Percentage 43.86% 52.83%
Majority Leader before election Sid Snyder Democratic Elected Majority Leader James E. West Republican

The 2002 Washington State Senate election was held on 5 November 2002 to determine which party would control the Washington State Senate for the following two years in the 58th Washington State Legislature. Twentyfour of the 49 senate seats were up for election. Prior to the election 25 seats were held by Democrats and 24 were held by Republicans. The general election saw Republicans flipping a single seat, thereby regaining the majority in the Washington State Senate that they had lost following the 1998 election.^[1][2]

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
The Cook Political Report[3]	Tossup	4 October 2002

Retirements

1. 13th District: Harold Hochstatter (R) retired.
2. 38th District: Jeralita Jeri Costa (D) retired.
3. 44th District: Jeanine Long (R) retired.
4. 48th District: Dan McDonald (R) retired.

Defeated incumbents

1. 42nd District: Georgia Gardner (D) lost re-election to Dale Brandland (R).

Closest races

Seats where the margin of victory was under 10%:

1. District 26, 0.84%
2. District 6, 2.80%
3. District 42, 3.05% (gain)
4. District 31, 3.38%
5. District 44, 6.18%
6. District 30, 8.10%

Results

6th District

6th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	James E. West (incumbent)	24,021	51.40%
	Democratic	Laurie Dolan	22,716	48.60%
Total votes			46,737	100.0%
	Republican hold

7th District

7th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Harry Morton (incumbent)	31,595	100.0%
Total votes			31,595	100.0%
	Republican hold

8th District

8th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Pat Hale (incumbent)	24,574	100.0%
Total votes			24,574	100.0%
	Republican hold

13th District

13th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Joyce Mulliken	25,015	100.0%
Total votes			25,015	100.0%
	Republican hold

15th District

15th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Jim Honeyford (incumbent)	19,443	100.0%
Total votes			19,443	100.0%
	Republican hold

21st District

21st District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Paull Shin (incumbent)	19,273	62.07%
	Republican	Cheryl Potebnya	11,778	37.93%
Total votes			31,051	100.0%
	Democratic hold

26th District

26th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Robert Oke (incumbent)	20,823	50.42%
	Democratic	Betty Ringlee	20,480	49.58%
Total votes			41,303	100.0%
	Republican hold

29th District

29th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Rosa Franklin (incumbent)	16,141	100.0%
Total votes			16,141	100.0%
	Democratic hold

30th District

30th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Tracey Eide (incumbent)	15,474	54.05%
	Republican	William Moore	13,154	45.95%
Total votes			28,628	100.0%
	Democratic hold

31st District

31st District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Pam Roach (incumbent)	18,017	51.69%
	Democratic	Yvonne Ward	16,842	48.31%
Total votes			34,859	100.0%
	Republican hold

32nd District

32nd District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Darlene Fairley (incumbent)	25,048	61.74%
	Republican	Michael Plunkett	15,524	38.26%
Total votes			40,572	100.0%
	Democratic hold

33rd District

33rd District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Karen Keiser (incumbent)	16,722	63.37%
	Republican	James Russell	9,666	36.63%
Total votes			26,388	100.0%
	Democratic hold

34th District

34th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Erik Poulsen (incumbent)	29,719	63.37%
Total votes			29,719	100.0%
	Democratic hold

35th District

35th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Tim Sheldon (incumbent)	29,221	78.28%
	Green	Marilou Rickert	8,109	21.72%
Total votes			37,330	100.0%
	Democratic hold

36th District

36th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Jeanne Kohl-Welles (incumbent)	35,334	100.0%
Total votes			35,334	100.0%
	Democratic hold

37th District

37th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Adam Kline (incumbent)	22,508	100.0%
Total votes			22,508	100.0%
	Democratic hold

38th District

38th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Aaron Reardon	17,809	65.34%
	Republican	Glenn Coggeshell	9,445	34.66%
Total votes			27,253	100.0%
	Democratic hold

42nd District

42nd District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Dale Brandland	18,721	49.25%
	Democratic	Georgia Gardner (incumbent)	17,565	46.20%
	Green	Peter Tassoni	1,006	2.65%
	Libertarian	Donald Crawford	724	1.90%
Total votes			38,016	100.0%
	Republican gain from Democratic

43rd District

43rd District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Pat Thibaudeau (incumbent)	29,735	79.04%
	Green	Linde Knighton	7,885	20.96%
Total votes			37,620	100.0%
	Democratic hold

44th District

44th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Dave Schmidt	18,696	53.09%
	Democratic	Phil Doerflein	16,520	46.91%
Total votes			35,216	100.0%
	Republican hold

45th District

45th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Bill Finkbeiner (incumbent)	26,500	100.0%
Total votes			26,500	100.0%
	Republican hold

46th District

46th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Ken Jacobsen (incumbent)	31,919	100.0%
Total votes			31,919	100.0%
	Democratic hold

47th District

47th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Stephen L. Johnson (incumbent)	17,997	55.52%
	Democratic	Deborah Jacobson	14,419	44.48%
Total votes			32,416	100.0%
	Republican hold

48th District

48th District election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Luke Esser	24,990	77.51%
	Libertarian	Christine Lawniczak	7,252	22.49%
Total votes			32,242	100.0%
	Republican hold

References

1. "Washington_State_Senate". ballotpedia.org. Retrieved 26 November 2025.
2. "Elections Search Results". sos.wa.gov. Retrieved 26 November 2025.
3. Jacobson, Louis (4 October 2002). "2002 State Legislature Ratings". The Cook Political Report: 149–150. doi:10.7910/DVN/EH6LU0. Archived from the original on 24 August 2020 – via Harvard Dataverse.