The high-profile local primary elections this month for King County executive and for Seattle's mayor and City Council are grabbing most of what little news coverage exists this campaign season. But there'll be a bunch of other elected offices on the ballot. Some of them are both important and interesting.
VIABLE OPPONENTS
In 2001, Greg Nickels won the chance to become mayor-for-life mostly by loudly proclaiming he wasn't his opponent, controversial City Attorney Mark "Darth" Sidran. Meanwhile, over in the office Sidran vacated, attorney Tom Carr became city attorney mostly by positioning himself as....wait for it....not Mark Sidran.
Eight years later, it's fairly apparent that both Nickels and Carr were lying.
While Nickels isn't being called on his record very strongly by his 2009 opponents (most of whom share his pro-developer agenda), Carr is in a more confrontational race against one of his most public critics, Peter Holmes.
Holmes is a former chair of the Office for Professional Accountability (OPA), the city's pseudo-civilian review board that supposedly watchdogs the Seattle Police Department. In his OPA tenure, Holmes tried mightily for years to transform the historically toothless OPA into an effective advocate for those wronged by SPD, and Carr fought him every step of the way - going so far as to deep-six a still-secret report to City Council last year on police abuses.
Among many other things, Carr also has championed prosecutions of the homeless caught up in Mayor Nickels' sweeps of homeless encampments; backed construction of a controversial new jail; sued a community group (Seattle Out and Proud) that was struggling to pay money owed to Seattle Center; and been criticized by Holmes for the lack of transparency in his department.
In 2005, Carr - like Nickels - coasted to reelection with no viable opposition. Not so this year.
A CHANGE IN POWER
The offices most King County voters should care a lot about - but never do - are the commissioners' seats for the Port of Seattle.
The Port has an independent countywide taxing authority, relatively little public visibility and is - for my (and your) money - easily the most corrupt public agency in the region: a cozy, back-scratching, corporate welfare-enamored cabal of old boys and gals that has been eviscerated in the last two years by the state auditor's office.
Those reports only looked at a fraction of the Port's unethical and quite possibly illegal practices. Nonetheless, the Port's CEO and the commissioners overseeing the Port reacted with defensive screeching and a flurry of cosmetic changes signifying little or nothing - which is where accountability to the public and this year's elections come in.
The current grand doyen of Port commissioners, Pat "WTO" Davis, is retiring. (They'll name something after her any week now - just watch.) Four people would like her open seat: Seattle Monorail head Tom Albro, former state legislator Max Vekich, Robert Walker (who ran a minor campaign in 2005) and Juan Paraiso.
Vekich jumped in after reform-oriented former commissioner Alec Fisken decided not to run, and he's probably the best bet this year for some fresh air at the Port.
Semi-reform-oriented commissioner Lloyd Hara is also leaving to run for King County assessor, and three people want his seat: David Doud, Rob Holland and Al Yuen (also a return candidate). Here, Holland is probably the best bet to challenge the Port's culture. In the third race, incumbent John Creighton is unopposed.
NO EXPECTED UPRISING
The downtown crowd was temporarily booted out of control of the Seattle School Board in 2003 and retook control in 2007 for basically the same reasons they lost power: public disgust with the district, aimed at whomever happened to be the incumbents that year.
Surprise! The same folks (board and staff alike) who held the public in contempt prior to 2003 have also done so since 2007.
And, especially after a series of bungled school-closure plans and a staggering series of lucrative raises for Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson (while teachers were being laid off), they would probably be the victims of yet another incumbent purge this year - except that it's not happening.
Incumbent Mary Bass, the only remaining reformer, is (again) facing a well-financed challenger (this time 2001-03 PTSA president Joanna Cullen), but her deep community roots probably leave her safe.
Michael DeBell is even safer: He's unopposed.
And former board president Cheryl Chow is retiring (possibly to run for state Legislature next year), leaving five challengers for her open seat. The progressives to watch here are Bookda Gheisar, the high-powered (and very competent) former executive director of Social Justice Fund Northwest, and Charlie Mas, a longtime district critic and activist.
A SPIRITED ELECTION?
In all of these races, the top two finishers will go on to face off with one another in November.
Given the higher-profile races on the ballot, the dearth of media attention for even those races and the nature of summer in these parts, incumbents (i.e., folks who have a proven base and name recognition) or their allies should do well.
In all of these cases - Seattle City Attorney, Port of Seattle, and Seattle School Board - that's unfortunate. Here's hoping they'll draw the most competent and spirited challengers come November.
Geov Parrish is co-founder of Eat the State! He can be reached at mptimes@nwlink.com.[[In-content Ad]]
