John Kane is on the phone. On the other end of the line, Seattle Port Commissioner Alec Fisken is congratulating Kane on his run at Port Commission Seat No. 3. The results of the primary election are only one day old but there is a clear sense of who has enough votes to move on to the general election.

"I think I did ok," Kane tells Fisken, but evaluating his primary results strictly on numbers, Kane did not do ok. He had fewer votes than any of the other candidates in his race.

But politics, like arguments, are often won by changing the definition of what's at stake. Kane, a 49-year-old Fremont business owner and family man, sees a silver lining in the gray post-election day.

"A few thousand people trusted me," he says, referring to votes. The election results are still coming in as the Ballard News Tribune goes to press, but more than 20,000 voters trusted Kane at the polls, and believed his message, that industry in Ballard needs to be preserved.

It is a message that might normally go unheard in a port race that tends to center around Harbor Island, SeaTac Airport, labor endorsements and tax levy discussions. But that all changed when the port planned to develop real estate at Interbay.

"The decision to run [for port commission] was mainly my disappointment in being chair of BINMIC and watching the port doing a 180 ... on the maritime industry, Kane says.

The BINMIC is the Ballard Interbay industrial area defined by the city of Seattle in its comprehensive plan. The BINMIC Action Committee, which Kane chairs, acts as defender for the area, principally, by protecting the land from residential and commercial rezoning. As property values around Seattle have increased, industrial land has felt the pressure, especially when it abuts the waterfront.

During an economic slump in 2003, the port announced that wanted to redevelop sections of Terminal 90 and 91, between Magnolia and Queen Anne. Port officials envisioned a biotechnology campus similar to a vision Paul Allen has for South Lake Union, possibly including residential space.

"They wanted residential at Interbay, and were spending a lot of money on it. They shouldn't be in real estate, that's not what they do," Kane said.

So Kane ran for a seat on the Port Commission, the five-member council that ultimately decides the agency's strategic objectives.

But Kane wasn't the only one running. His opponents were well funded, one with a background in the shipping business, two others, well established local political brands. Kane managed to raise about $10,000 dollars, but the top two finishers in that race raised at least seven times as much money. But the message wasn't lost with the election.

"It meant his opponents couldn't get away with vague jargon about BINMIC. They had to come up with positions of their own," Fisken said of Kane's election influence.

"His results were remarkable. He didn't run for office before and he wasn't jumping on some easy bandwagon. He had four opponents, one named Cain," Fisken, said referring to Christopher Cain, a late arrival to the race who pulled a little more light away from an already dark horse.

Kane took the Ballard Industry torch to the Port's headquarters at Pier 69, but ultimately, even with thousands of votes and supports, he ran alone. Would he ever run again?

"Oh boy. I really don't know. Never say never but right now things would have to be different," he said.

"It's like having two jobs. You're dealing with it during the day, at night, and on weekends. It's completely time consuming, you think about it all the time."

Apparently the effort made a difference, even in defeat. On the morning after the primary, the two top finishers for position no. 3, Lloyd Hara and Richard Berkowitz, each called seeking Kane's endorsement.

"I called yesterday but I haven't heard back yet." Hara said the next day. "That reminds me, I've got to call him again."

But it didn't help. Kane endorsed Berkowitz for the Port of Seattle Commission.