What goes up does come down eventually.

Independent pollster Stuart Elway says Washington voters’ party preferences are returning to normal “Blue State” range after spiking in favor of the Democrats during Barack Obama’s run for the presidency last fall. 

People don’t register by party in Washington, but Elway always likes to ask folks how they describe their own preference.  In the days before the presidential election, a whopping 46 percent said they’d register as Democrats if Washington had registration. The stratospheric number remained largely unchanged in December and January.

In Elway’s just-out February poll, numbers settled out a bit:

*37 percent Democrats.
*37 percent independents.
*26 percent Republicans.

Elways says the “new normal” still is a gain for the Democrats over their historic average. Looking back at the past eight years, Dems are up 3 points and the GOP is down 3 percent.