A handful of contenders who are vying to fill a vacant seat on the King County Council are emerging after a committee recommended four potential candidates for the seat last night. As per the council’s decree, the advisory committee had to choose at least one person who planned to run for the seat, which was vacated by Dow Constantine, who was recently sworn in as the King County exec, and one person who would not run. The two who want to be appointed and would run a campaign to keep the seat next year: State Rep. Zack Hudgins (D-11) and State Sen. Joe McDermott (D-34). In my opinion, that’s where we’ll see the showdown; McDermott has the backing of the politically aggressive 34th District Democrats. Hudgins is viewed by Republicans on the council as more moderate and, with the council split in a four-to-four vote of Republicans and Democrats, the Dems on the council don’t have the majority they’re used to.
Meanwhile, former city council member Jan Drago and State Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-34) are vying for the seat, but they wouldn’t run again in 2010. It doesn’t make sense to have a “caretaker” in this seat, if you ask me; we want a council member who’s committed to patching up some of the chaos in county government over the long haul. The council should want the same thing.
Anyone other than Joe is going to face a hard-fought primary battle.
Them’s the facts.
Seattle is BACK and no amount of interference from suburbanite Republic Party of No comrades is going to change that.
Nelson seems way too ambitious to be willing to step down from her House seat only to have a Council seat for a year.
Sharon Nelson would then run for the Senate in fall to replace Joe McDermott who will almost certainly win in November. Let’s hope they just pick Joe now. He represents the district far more than Drago or Hudgins. If they don’t, they are playing political games with the 200,000 people of the 8th district.
@3 – wouldn’t be the first time, sadly.