Friday, June 08, 2007

Gleanings from the Candidate Filings page

Today was Washington’s deadline for candidates to file for office in the 2007 election cycle.  Here in Seattle and King County, the filing cycle was thrown for a loop by the sudden death of longtime County Prosecutor Norm Maleng, who had just been re-elected—without an opponent, even though he was a Republican in a solidly Democratic county—last November.  Added to the anticipated races for County Council, County Assessor, Port Commission, City Council, and Seattle School Board, things suddenly got interesting.

Here are some early thoughts about some of the candidate filings:

County Prosecutor

The anointed Republican successor to Maleng is Chief Deputy Prosecutor Dan Satterberg.  He’s already filling the office on a temporary basis, though County Council still needs to select an official replacement to serve until the next election.  By law, Council is required to choose one of three candidates to be named by the King County GOP; Satterberg will be one of those three.  Wouldn’t be interesting, though, if the 5-4 Democratic Council picked one of the other two Republicans on the KC GOP’s list?  Assuming no such mischief, Satterberg’s problem is that he is no kind of politician at all; he’s never run for office, never participated in any sort of political contest whatsoever.

Two Democrats filed for the Prosecutor position—Keith Scully, Legal Director of the responsible-growth organization Futurewise, and Assistant Prosecutor Bill Sherman.  Sherman ran a strong third-place in last year’s Democratic primary for a then-open 43rd District State House position.  I know Bill well and greatly respect him, and I fully intend to endorse and strongly support him for Prosecutor.  So much so, in fact, that I’ve already voted for him for the position twice ... I wrote in his name last year in both the primary and the general.

County Council

Larry Phillips and Larry Gossett, the incumbents in positions 2 and 4, have no major party opposition at all.  The two Seattle Democrats will cruise to victory.  I’m in Larry Phillips’s district, and will attend a fundraiser for him tomorrow night.  Both Larrys are fine public servants. 

Position 8 incumbent Dow Constantine has token opposition from one of those lunatic-fringe candidates (last seen down in the margin of error in the 2006 Democratic US Senate primary) in the Democratic primary, and a sacrificial Republican has filed as well.  Dow will be back on Council for another term.

Speaking of the lunatic fringe, Richard Pope is at it again.  You can see most of his previous exploits since 1996 (excluding last year’s failed run for District Judge) in this list.  This time, he’s running for County Council position 6 (the urban Eastside) ... as a Democrat.  What’s utterly unfathomable about this race is that no real Democrat filed for the position.  In a Council district where both Gore and Kerry beat Bush, where nearly all state legislative seats are now held by Democrats, where Darcy Burner outpolled Sheriff Hairspray, GOP incumbent Jane Hague got a free pass.  She’s unopposed in the primary, and will trounce Pope (the only “Democrat” to file) in November.  This is the district where the KC Dem should have been pouring tons of resources—it was their chance to give Council the 6-3 Democratic margin that King County should have.  Leaving this Council district essentially uncontested is, in my opinion, a serious failure of the King County (and, by strong implication, the Washington State) Democrats.

Port Commission

Two seats up for election, with both incumbents running to hold their seats in large fields.  Aside from that, there could hardly be more difference between the races.

In position 2, Bob Edwards is emblematic of the big corporate chokehold on the Port of Seattle.  Along with the odious Pat Davis and recently-retired Executive Director Mic Dinsmore, he’s done his best to line the pockets of his patrons without really caring what it did to labor, the environment, the fishing fleet, transportation, or the overall economic health of the region.  Five people, only two of whom I’ve ever heard of, are trying to unseat him.  Jack Block Jr. is an old-line union guy, running in no small measure on his father’s name (Block Sr. was a Port Commissioner years ago).  Defense analyst/security expert/global strategist/environmentalist Gael Tarleton represents a generally progressive 21st-century viewpoint on Port leadership.

Alec Fisken, incumbent on Port Commission position 5, demonstrates what a Commissioner can, and should, be.  He’s honest and forthright, with a background in banking, publishing, labor relations, and strategic policy.  When the Dinsmore/Edwards/Davis crew tried to conduct business in executive session—away from the legally-required public scrutiny—he walked out of the room and let us all know about what they were doing.  He’s all about accountability and responsiveness to the citizens who support the Port.  For such conscientious actions, the insiders really want to knock Alec out of office.  So they’ve recruited international trade broker Bill Bryant to do their bidding for them.  Bryant does have decent environmental bona fides, but that’s about it.  And he made the mistake of introducing himself to Democratic PCOs in an email message that used a quote from Barack Obama.  A bit of research demonstrated that he was a bigtime, longtime contributor to Republicans.  Still, Bryant’s deep pockets and connections—to say nothing of the inexplicable assistance he’s receiving from some Democratic political consultants and finance people—make him a formidable opponent for Fisken.  Oh, I should mention that there are two other filers for the position.  They’ll disappear after the primary.

City Council

Five positions, four incumbents. 

Tom Rasmussen is unopposed in position 5.  Jean Godden’s opponents for position 1 are a Green Party stalwart, a restaurant owner, and (I think) an employee of a downtown transportation-access agency.  In position 9, Sally Clark faces another of those lunatic fringers and two others who are completely unknown to me.

David Della faces a one-on-one battle with businessman and ex-cop Tim Burgess for position 7 of City Council.  This one promises to be the hardest-fought, and maybe the dirtiest (if anything in Seattle can be called “dirty"), battle for a spot on City Council.

And then there’s the open seat.  With Peter Steinbrueck’s decision to move on to advocate for a surface/transit replacement for the Viaduct, five hats are in the ring for position 3.  The two frontrunners (by far IMHO) are attorney Bruce Harrell and social services leader Venus Velazquez.  2005 mayoral candidate Al Runte and damaged-good former Councilmember John Manning also filed for the position, as did unknown Scott Feldman.

Seattle School Board

Four positions are up for election, with incumbents running in only two of them.  School Board elections operate very strangely—residents of a particular district choose among the district’s candidates in the primary, then the two survivors in each district are voted on citywide in the general election.  I’ve never heard of such a system used anywhere else.

In district 1 (north), incumbent Sally Soriano goes up against just one opponent ... Peter Maier.  District 2 (north central) incumbent Darlene Flynn, who had delayed (and delayed, and delayed) announcing a decision on whether to run again, chose to file her candidacy for reelection on the last day.  She has four competitors, including former 43rd District chair Lisa Stuebing and PTSA activist Sherry Carr.

The other two districts will definitely have new School Board members next time around, as the incumbents chose to step aside.  I know nothing whatsoever about either the two candidates in district 3 (east central) or the five running in district 6 (southwest).

As the campaign develops, I’ll surely have something to report about some, if not all, of these races.  As you can probably tell from the above discussion, I think the County Prosecutor, the two Port Commissioners, and City Council positions 3 and 7 will be the most interesting of this election cycle.  But County Council position 6 might turn out to be the most entertaining, especially if Richard Pope decides to ask for endorsements from the King County Democrats and/or the Legislative District Democratic organizations.  His King County Dems Candidate Questionnaire should be a real treat.