In the Hall

The ink is barely dry on King County Executive Ron Sims’s nomination
as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), and already speculation is running wild about
who will fill his shoes.

Currently, there are two likely outcomes, both with their own
powerful proponents. The first, favored by Sims, county council chair
Dow Constantine, and council Republicans, is for the county council to
appoint a “caretaker”—someone acceptable to both Republicans
and Democrats who would agree to keep the seat warm until the
election in November. The list of people who’d consider such a role
breaks down into two groups: “elder statesmen”—retired
politicians such as former mayor Charles Royer, former governor Gary
Locke, and former King County Council member Louise Miller—and
professional government managers. And then there’s former Seattle City
Council member Peter Steinbrueck, who said Tuesday that he’s “intrigued
with the idea.” Steinbrueck says he would carry on Sims’s legacy as a
progressive, pro-transit, pro-density county executive.

The Republicans on the county council like the caretaker option
because they don’t want to give a head start to any Democrat who wants
to run for county exec in November. Likewise, Constantine doesn’t want
to cede the advantage to a potential competitor.

“Right now, I have one job to do as chair of the council, and that
is to guide us through this appointment process,” Constantine
says—adding, sardonically: “You’d have to have a particularly
strong commitment to public service to take an impossible job that
you’d have to give up in six months.”

Favoring the appointment of someone who can run and win in November
are King County Council member Larry Phillips (to whom an appointment
would give an obvious advantage) and state Democratic Party chair
Dwight Pelz, who is believed privately to favor Phillips.

Although Phillips says he’s “in full campaign mode” and that “the
interim [appointment] issue is secondary,” observers say he wants the
job now, not later. County council member Bob Ferguson, meanwhile,
remains a wild card; he says that “if the council decides they want to
appoint someone who could win in November, I’ll definitely be
interested,” but adds, “I think everyone [on the council] has an
equally bad chance of getting five votes.”

Privately, Phillips has raised questions about whether the Democrats
can afford to appoint someone who can’t win reelection; given that all
county positions are now officially “nonpartisan,” a
Republican-in-all-but-name could conceivably win in November. Among the
names in (still very speculative) circulation: former KIRO anchor Susan
Hutchison and billionaire entrepreneur John Stanton. “We’ve had a
series of progressive Democrats in the seat for a long time, but
nevertheless, you do run the risk” of giving the advantage to a
Republican by not appointing a strong Democrat, Phillips says.

Whatever happens with the appointment process—at this point,
a caretaker seems like the path of least resistance, though
anything’s possible—Sims’s departure leaves the race wide open.
Constantine, who has expressed interest in the job in the past but said
he wouldn’t run against Sims, seems almost certain to jump into the
race, and Ferguson says he’ll decide in the next few weeks whether he
will as well.

Although Phillips has $26,000 on hand, giving him a bit of a head
start on his potential opponents, he also has one major disadvantage:
His campaign thus far has been all about Sims. Without that
foil, it’s unclear what his focus will be. On Monday, he gave a hint of
what a campaign against his fellow Democrats would look like. Unlike
his potential opponents, he said, “I have no desire to go on and do
anything else. One of my potential competitors [Constantine] wants to
go on to be the mayor of Seattle, and one [Ferguson] wants to be
attorney general. I’m happy right here in King County.”