The biggest problem with this widely reported and hilarious claim, implying that a bank would be happy with an error rate of $1 out of every $500 (that's about how good King County is at tallying votes), is that Sims thinks his constituents are gullible enough to believe him.
Indeed, Sims' arrogance toward voters is a common thread running through the scandals and missteps that have originated in his office during his eight-year tenure.
The dissatisfaction with Sims in eastern King County reached the boiling point last year when Sims forced tent cities on unprepared suburban communities. Next came the Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) that imposes draconian land-use restrictions on rural property owners, requiring landowners to leave up to 65 percent of their property in a natural state, even forbidding the clearing of black-berries or other weeds. The new regulations prevent owners from building a home or selling their property for its former value. Sims dismisses the east county's concerns as "confusion" and derides their dispute of the scientific merit of the CAO as "flat earth."
The divisions sown by the election mess, the tent cities, and the CAO recall Sims' sponsorship of other controversial projects, such as over-budget, underperforming Sound Transit and the heavy-handed Kingdome ploy.
The growing alienation has even culminated in a movement to split King County. Legislation has already passed out of committee in the state house.
Sims now faces a reelection challenge from County Council Member David Irons Jr. (R-Sammamish), who declared his candidacy on Saturday, March 12th. Irons says splitting the county would be unfortunate, but inevitable if Sims' divisive leadership continues.
Irons' first priority, he says, are elections. He points to botched elections three years in a row--in 2002 and 2003 when thousands of absentee ballots went out late, and the 2004 fiasco--and says: "Three strikes and Ron Sims is out."
He also pledges a more effective approach to homelessness, calling the tent cities a "poor Band-Aid approach." He plans to follow Portland's example and coordinate the services of government agencies and nonprofit providers who he now says are only serving the homeless in a piecemeal fashion.
Irons' biggest challenge, obviously, will be to persuade Seattleites (other than me) that a Republican cares about Seattle issues. Seattle liberals should take note of Irons' work on the budget committee last year where he saved social-service funding in the face of Sims' cuts by finding inefficiencies elsewhere. He emphasizes that his approach is not to grow the size of government, but to deliver more bang for the buck. After years of failed management and now a heightened concern about the integrity of elections, this should be the year that Seattle considers alternatives to one-party rule.
