Democratic King County Council Member Dow Constantine spent Sunday afternoon on the phone with reporters—many of whom had already been barraged by calls, starting in the early morning, from his campaign consultant Sandeep Kaushik—explaining his decision to run for King County Executive. The posts is being vacated by Ron Sims, who has been nominated as deputy director of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Democrat Larry Phillips, Constantine’s fellow county council member and predecessor as chair of the county council, announced he was running against Sims earlier this year.
Constantine argues that he, not Phillips, would be a true “agent of change” at the county. “I think this is an opportunity to really press the reset button on county government and start again,” he says. Constantine, a former state senator, notes that he has extensive experience dealing with legislators in Olympia. King County is seeking new taxing authority and tax flexibility from the state to help close a multibillion-dollar budget gap. Constantine also argues that as someone who has represented urban, suburban, and rural King County, he’s better equipped to represent the whole county than Phillips, whose district encompasses Ballard, Magnolia, and part of Capitol Hill.
Constantine has supported filling Sims’s position with a “caretaker” who will hold down the seat until the November election; Phillips, who understandably would like a head-start, has opposed that route, arguing that the council should just appoint him. With Constantine officially entering the race, a Phillips appointment (already unlikely) becomes even more improbable; an appointment requires five votes of the nine-member county council, and four of those members are Republicans.
Meanwhile, the question of who will replace Sims in the short run remains unanswered. Bob Ferguson, another county council Democrat who’s expressed an interest in running for the position, is now rumored to be interested in holding it temporarily and running for his county council seat again in November; other potential candidates for the placeholder job include former mayor Charley Royer, Republican county council member Kathy Lambert, and former governor Gary Locke. State Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48) is also rumored to be interested in running for the position in November.
ECB – what campaigns has Sandeep worked on?
Who wants to be a county seat-warmer for 10 months if he can’t run for the position in November?
Sims, roads and transit, some other small campaigns I’m currently spacing on… Christian Sinderman is Dow’s main consultant.
What about Peter Steinbrueck? Hasn’t he been mentioned as a possible “caretaker”?
hmmm thought Burner was in there – sure about Sims? thought he was his publicly paid spokesman.
Does this mean action might be taken on the viaduct? Is that a naive question?
Sandeep was the smarty media savant that was supposed to give Bruner victory – she bombed in her second run. Hope he was well paid.
Might be cool that he win something to furnish his resume – remember King county has some rural folks and Eastsiders who are far more conservative than Dow. I don’t think Sandeep knows how to rally them at all.
The Burner campaign took no outside media advice and she fell flat, flat at several moments.
The fiscal mess for King County is gigantic, who will make the county voters feel they have the experience and steady hand to keep the county afloat? As much as I like Dow, I think Phillips gets that nod.
I have thought for some month King Couny will go into bankrupcy on the next round.
I did not work on Ron’s releection in 2005, but I volunteered in my off hours (I was a spokesperson in the Exec’s office in 2005-6). I did the communications for the No on 920 campaign that successfully opposed the repeal of the state estate tax in the fall of 2006. In early 2007 I did media work on the Seattle viaduct advisory votes. I ran the campaign to pass the two King County parks/open space levies in 2007. I did some press and media work for Bill Sherman’s bid for King County prosecutor and for the Roads and Transit campaign. And I did the communications for Darcy Burner’s 8th District congressional bid last year.
To say I am Dow’s consultant is a bit misleading. I’m helping out on the press side.
@5: Correct on both. Add Sherril Huff, as well.
@5: yeah no doubt. sandeep worked for sims. but of course he has had no contact with sims and sims has no opinion about who he would rather see replace him.
also incumbents without a significant track record of dissent should be banned from calling themselves “agents of change.” most professional politicians are, in a sense, caretakers for life.
Trevor, haven’t you taken a vow never to support a candidate with a chance of winning? Guess this means Dow’s got a chance…
@11: I don’t have an opinion on this one. And my post isn’t anti-Dow, it’s generally skeptical about centrist politicians who claim to promote social change.
But yeah it’s true I post with my own name so people don’t think I’m on someone’s payroll. I haven’t worked in electoral politics since 2000. How about you?
Personally, I think the County Council is likely to just be dicks about the whole thing, since they have too many America-hating Republicans on the council as it stands.