Seems there’s no polite way to say it — in his recent bid for a seat on the Port of Seattle board of commissioners, Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis got thumped.

As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, incumbent John Creighton had garnered 69.65 percent of the vote, (259,275 votes) to Lewis’ 30.07 percent (111,929 votes).

Without a wince, Lewis last week conceded the obvious: it was a pasting.

“There’s not really another way to put it,” Lewis said. “But I’m fine.”

Lewis said he realized from the start, given his late entrance into the race and Creighton’s already healthy campaign war chest, how hard it would be to win. He takes it as a point of pride, however, that by the end of things he had closed the financing gap between his campaign and Creighton’s to $10,000.

What he could not overcome, Lewis conceded, was the name recognition advantage Creighton enjoyed in Seattle after eight years on the board.

“That is a heavy, heavy load to lift, but I did everything I could,” Lewis said. “I tried to run a really good, positive campaign. It was an uphill battle all the way. I don’t think I could have done it in a different way. I am not at all distressed by my efforts.

“…I knew the mountain I was facing when I decided to run late, when I’d already asked all the people I had ever worked with on every campaign to go work someplace else. And I knew that the probability was not great. But I am not one to go halfway in.”

His message — the need to do something to keep vital port business in the Puget Sound Region in coming years by fixing the aging transportation system so it could accommodate the rapid movement of goods and services.

“I hope that the port commissioners themselves will work toward some of the goals that I have set forth,” Lewis said.

Though the current Auburn mayoral contest remains close and officially undecided, it’s certain that either Nancy Backus or John Partridge is going to take over in January. That will free up time for long postponed travel plans with wife, Kathy — “we like land cruises —” and to devote himself more fully to his appointed role as a Green River Community College Trustee — “never had so much fun.”

But politics?

“Everybody makes the assumption that I am going to do something else, but I have to tell you right now that I don’t have any plans. You have to remember something, however — I’m a trustee at Green River Community College. I love that role. I have never had so much fun on a board or commission as I’m having at that. And there’s this magnificent library up there that I really love.

“It’s a totally different scenario from what I’m used to, and now I actually get to go to the meetings and be fully engaged without anything else in the way, go to all the other meetings they go to, which I have not been able to do much of. So I’ve got two years left in my current appointment. I don’t know if I’ll be reappointed. I would certainly like to be. But I would love to be a good trustee at Green River.”