Posted on 01/31/2005 7:47:07 AM PST by vox_freedom
But Republicans admit they still need a viable candidate
Ron Sims twice has strolled easily to election as King County executive, but Republicans think the energetic Democrat is so laden with political baggage this year that it shouldn't happen a third time.
Maybe not, but first they have to find a credible candidate.
Nine months before the November election, Washington's most powerful local government official is already running hard for a third term, raising campaign money, scooping up endorsements and trying to scare off potential opponents. And so far there's nobody to slow him down.
Republicans say they're adamant about not letting Sims have three walks in a row and that they're looking at a number of potential, but unidentified, GOP candidates.
But although contenders for other Seattle and county offices have started announcing their candidacies, nobody yet is known even to be planning a campaign to take over the running of the United States' 13th-largest county. Some Republicans are skeptical about any Republican getting elected executive of King County, which tilts more Democratic than it once did.
That's not for lack of political problems accumulated by the 56- year-old incumbent, who was appointed to the vacated executive's office in January 1997, won election that fall by a 31-percentage- point margin and coasted to re-election four years later by a 26- point margin. Both times, Sims' Republican opponents were money-starved and late-starting.
Now, though, his baggage includes county election mistakes in the litigation-mired 2004 governor's election; rural rage over new county land-use rules; suburban anger about tent cities for the homeless; and a stalled, years-long effort to upgrade the county payroll and accounting systems that so far has cost $38 million with not much to show for it.
There also was Sims' lopsided loss to Christine Gregoire in September's Democratic gubernatorial primary. His bold advocacy of a state income tax could come back to bite him in his re-election campaign.
"All things equal, this might be a good cycle for a Republican to run (for executive), but they just don't have anyone to run," said Scott Hildebrand, a prominent lobbyist for the home-builder industry, which typically favors Republicans but has had good relations with Sims.
Hildebrand said Republicans are energized by the county's controversial critical-areas ordinance and Gregoire's narrow, hotly disputed election victory, "so there's some critical mass out there. There's just nobody to take advantage of it."
"We will field a strong candidate," King County Republican Chairman Michael Young insisted. "And I think our candidate, whoever it is, will have a very interesting set of issues to articulate.
"No one would dispute that Ron Sims is a personable, respected person. I think he is. Unfortunately, he is just a very poor manager of King County."
Young said "there have been discussions held with several individuals" about opposing Sims, but he declined to disclose names. Other Republicans said they have heard little beyond mere speculation.
County Councilman David Irons Jr., a Republican, said the race is one of several options for him. But some think it may be simply a default option, because he was effectively redistricted out of his Sammamish-to-Black Diamond jurisdiction in the downsizing of the council from 13 members to nine. Irons said he also might run in another council district.
Diane Tebelius, who ran a strong but losing 2004 campaign for the GOP nomination for Congress in the 8th District, is well-liked in her party but said she isn't interested in being county executive. Bellevue Mayor Connie Marshall and state Rep. Fred Jarrett, R-Mercer Island, have been mentioned, but neither is said to be high on lists of top prospects.
Sims said he isn't surprised that there's no long line of opponents.
"I think there's a sense that I'm going to be very difficult to beat, and I'm going to make it very difficult to beat me," he said.
That includes already having raised $159,000 in campaign contributions and lining up a raft of endorsements from labor unions and prominent politicians.
The King County Democratic Party gave Sims an early endorsement last week, possibly in part to discourage former state Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge, a Democrat, from opposing Sims in the primary. Talmadge began a campaign for governor last year but subsequently dropped out for health reasons that he said are now behind him.
Talmadge last week sounded disinclined to run for executive, noting that he and Sims are friends, adding: "It's a situation that I'm not dying to do, put it that way. It's something that I'm giving some thought to, but it's not at the top of my to-do list."
In an interview, Sims recited his administration's accomplishments and what he wants to achieve in a third term, including making the county's troubled elections department "the best elections system in the entire United States."
He said he has increased conservation lands tenfold, protected agriculture and forestry, stimulated home building, built more than 100 ball fields, cut the growth in county health care costs, reduced criminal-detention costs with no increase in crime, and is moving forward to fix the county's financial systems.
And he promised that if he wins another four-year term, he "absolutely" won't seek any other job before it's over, as he did last year.
The GOP's Young said the executive is vulnerable and that the race "is becoming pretty attractive in our book." Its focus, he said, will be "the issues that have been raised under Ron Sims and his style of leadership."
Randy Pepple, a Seattle public-relations executive and GOP political adviser, agreed that the race "is going to be far less about who the Republican nominee is and far more about Ron Sims. If the Republican nominee can put together the financial resources and stick to a couple of key messages, then I think they can be successful."
Others are more pessimistic. "I think it is numerically almost impossible to win," said a prominent Republican who requested anonymity.
These are some of the reasons for the pessimism:
The county executive runs the same year as the mayor of heavily Democratic Seattle, ensuring a big turnout of Seattle voters even though Mayor Greg Nickels so far has no strong opponent in sight. There also are four City Council races, at least one of them hotly contested. Suburban voters typically have less to motivate them.
The once solidly Republican Eastside is electing a growing number of Democrats to the Legislature.
"The inner ring of suburban King County is changing, and that makes it more difficult for the Republican Party to be competitive," said David Olson, a University of Washington political science professor.
No statewide Republican candidate carried King County in the 2004 election. Gregoire defeated Republican Dino Rossi by a scant 129 votes in the governor's race but beat him by 154,888 votes in King County. Republican Rob McKenna was elected attorney general by a 261,404-vote margin but lost King County by 38,446 votes.
Olson thinks "it's still very early in the game" in the race for county executive, and he is certain the Republicans will field a candidate. But a winning candidate?
"If Ron Sims has shown us anything, it is that he doesn't fare very well in statewide elections and he fares very well in King County elections," Olson said. "He's a very popular guy, and he has tended to most of his constituencies very well."
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P-I reporter Neil Modie can be reached at 206-448-8321 or neilmodie@seattlepi.com
You can consider me a "broken glass Republican" when it comes to routing this loser from office!
Who are the potential GOP candidates for King County Executive? Would Jennifer Dunn be interested?
Anyone out there willing to approach John Carlson for this?
What you said.
That's a great graphic, but King Sim's County also has domestic partners, and homosexual marriage on its agenda. :-)
Between the CAO and Tent City etc... alone, he is toast.
You can consider me a "broken glass Republican" when it comes to routing this loser from office!
What you said.
I hope you guys in King County can get rid of this arrogant jerk.
What you said.
You can consider me a "broken glass Republican" when it comes to routing this loser from office!
What you said that I said that you said that he said.
No.
He should be toast, but we'll have to see what opponent arises to challenge him.
Our sentiments, exactly.
Doing so would certainly be a benefit to the county, and the entire state, perhaps the republic.
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