What do Attorney General Rob McKenna, U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, and King County Councilmembers Reagan Dunn and Bob Ferguson all have in common? They're all running for higher office in 2012. And what makes Ferguson stand apart? He's the only one of the four willing to officially admit it.

Inslee is no doubt waiting for Gov. Chris Gregoire to announce her retirement before officially launching his campaign to succeed her, and Dunn is waiting on McKenna to announce his run for the governorship before announcing his bid for the AG's office. (What McKenna is waiting for, God knows—he's pretty much been running for governor since the day he was elected AG.) But none of this is a secret, which makes all this unofficial campaigning kinda silly.

It's like they're all embarrassed to admit they're politicians. So good on Ferguson for manning up and making it official.