30 of 70 precincts reporting; Coeur d'Alene incumbents holding up so far

It's Election Night, and leadership on city councils, school boards and fire districts will be determined.

The Press newsroom is packed with the publisher, editors, reporters and Domino's Pizza. In other words, the game is afoot - and the team is well-fed!

We'll provide updates as the night crawls on. Blame any blips and burps on the root beer. Early results usually don't arrive until after 9 p.m., but check back frequently anyway.

Now, where'd that slice of cheese/jalapeno/mushroom/onion and black olive go?

-Mike Patrick, editor

8:55 p.m.

Very, very early results were just posted and David Reilly, a candidate dogged by anti-Semitic and white supremacist remarks and activities in his background, is ahead in his race for Post Falls School Board.

For perspective, though, only 75 votes had been cast, and Reilly led Jake Dawson by 7.

We'll provide more updates throughout the night unless the pizza and pop runs out.

9:48 p.m.

It's the tale of three camps.

At Season's restaurant in downtown Coeur d'Alene, many of the incumbent candidates for Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene seats are all smiles, and yes, there's an alcoholic beverage or two in sight.

At the Baptist Church in downtown CDA, Press Reporter Madison Hardy was welcomed by Coeur d'Alene City Council candidates Roger Garlock and Elaine Price.

And at a third, undisclosed location - The Press was basically told it would not be welcome there - other candidates reportedly gathered.

At this fairly late hour, it appears only the early voting results have been posted. Those are the folks who cast their ballots live at the county's elections office. Rumor has it that thousands of absentee votes could be posted any time now.

9:55 p.m.

Sure enough, just two minutes after the above post, absentee ballots - roughly 8,000 of them - poured in. Of note:

*Incumbents who had been trailing after the early vote tally have mostly soared ahead of their challengers across almost all city council and school board seats.

*The Lakeland effort to recall School Board Chair Michelle Thompson was failing.

*The permanent levy override for Northern Lakes Fire was passing easily.

*Jim Hammond was cruising in his quest for the CDA mayor's job, and Ron Jacobson was turning his contest for the top seat in Post Falls into a laugher.

But here's the thing. In the last two elections, previous local voting trends have virtually reversed. Since COVID and Donald Trump's presidential loss, which many Republicans claim was rigged, the following trends have appeared:

*Early voting leans extremely conservative.

*Absentee voting leans centrist - counter to elections prior to November 2020 and earlier this year.

*Live Election Day voting at the polls leans heavily conservative.

Which trend will hold true tonight? That's what we're all waiting to find out.

Between sips of root beer, of course.

10:07

One exception to incumbents leading before any actual precincts are counted: Hayden City Council.

Both contested seats see challengers leading incumbents. Running on platforms of slowing growth, Ed DePriest leads Dick Panabaker and Sandy White has a 15 percentage point-lead on Jeri DeLange.

On the Northern Lakes fire levy, keep in mind that a big cushion isn't necessarily big enough. The $2 million annual levy override must garnet 66 2/3 percent for passage. It's now just over 60 percent.

10:41 p.m.

OK, because there are no listed odds, it's a stretch to call any of these race results an upset. But long-time incumbents Dick Panabaker and Jeri DeLange in Hayden are trailing their challengers - DeLange by 20 percentage points - and Post Falls City Council incumbent Steve Anthony is 10 votes behind Nathan Ziegler. Anthony won last time by 6 votes.

This election has drawn unprecedented interest in Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene school board races. So far, candidates backed by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee are almost all losing by double-digit percentages. But as we noted a little bit ago, the night is young and if this election is anything like the last one, the tables turned in KCRCC's favor down the home stretch and could again this time.

10:57 p.m.

The Press has gotten several emails and texts asking variations of the following question: Will the hideous tabloid called The People's Pen help or hurt the anonymous publishers of the radical rag?

And here's one answer: No, the Press had nothing to do with its printing or distribution. Hey, we'll do a lot of things to keep the bottom line in the black, but we'd never stoop that far.

Here's what Bob in CDA emailed to the editor just a little while ago. It's a personal message, not a letter to the editor, but it reflects the sentiments of many conservative residents we've been hearing from:

Hi Mike

Happy Tuesday and Election Day.

I wanted to reach out and tell you that I was absolutely appalled, embarrassed and mortified to open my mail box and find copy of a published newsprint flyer entitled the The People's Pen.

I encourage you to read this horrific publication of pure white racist rhetoric.

We moved to CDA many many years ago from Las Vegas and in my short life of 55 years I don’t think I have ever read anything quite so 1955 white racist BS.

The Press is a great, honest and open newspaper supporting our great Coeur d'Alene community, that we look forward to reading every day.

Your editorials on being fair, non violent etc , etc in recent weeks have been inspiring.

It's sad to see that the white nationalist, proud boy, GOP are spreading such incredible rhetoric.

I say GOP, as they paste it all over this paper.

Many of us older GOPS stand for values that seem long lost and this type of propaganda will hurt our community.

Just thoughts for a better CDA future.

11:08 p.m.

Ten more precincts were just added to the pile, and here are some CDA highlights.

Longtime public servant Jim Hammond has a 21-point lead on Joe Alfieri. Alfieri's campaign slogan, "Because it's time to take the trash out," doesn't seem to be resonating with voters so far. But yes, there are still 50 precincts to go and a lot can happen.

Incumbents Kiki Miller (15 points), Woody McEvers (22 points) and Amy Evans (17 points) are all well ahead of their opponents.

The big shifts are in Post Falls and Hayden. All three incumbents in Post Falls, Linda Wilhelm, Alan Wolfe and Steve Anthony, have fallen behind challengers. Same deal in Hayden, where the venerable 80-year-old Dick Panabaker has slipped into third place in a three-person race. Jeri DeLange is also losing.

Post Falls and Hayden are hot spots for growth; Coeur d'Alene is largely land-locked and sprawl is virtually impossible. All of the candidates winning in Post Falls and Hayden stumped on campaigns emphasizing slowing growth.

11:11

School board update: Guy McAninch leads Detective Neil Uhrig by 21 points for Post Falls School Board. McAninch is backed by the KCRCC. Bridget Malek is leading by 7 percentage points, and Jake Dawson is well ahead of David Reilly - 59-41 percent.

But this is far from over...

12:09 a.m.

With just 30 of 70 precincts reporting so far, it's looking like final results will not be available in time for Wednesday's print editions of The Press.

Some races are too close to call, and as we've noted a couple times tonight, recent trends appear to be holding true this time around, pulling what looked like comfortable leads into more tenuous territory as the night wears on and live, at-the-polls voters have the final say.

I'm signing off until the print edition is put to bed, then will see where we stand.