Politics The King County Prosecutor’s Race
posted by on August 2 at 13:24 PM
King County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Bill Sherman (one of the two Democratic candidates vying to take on well-known Republican Dan Satterberg in this Fall’s race to fill Norm Maleng’s position as King County Prosecutor) has released polling data showing he’s neck and neck with Satterberg.
This is encouraging news for Sherman’s campaign given that Satterberg, Maleng’s longtime chief of staff and now acting KC Prosecutor, is playing the role of heir apparent to the well-liked Maleng, who died suddenly on May 24.
From Sherman’s press release:
According to the poll of 603 King County residents conducted by local pollster Alison Peters, Satterberg leads Sherman by a nose, 36 to 34 percent – a result well within the poll’s four percent margin of error. In an indication that the race remains fluid and unformed, 31 percent of the electorate still remains undecided.
Hard to say how those other 31 percent will break. I fear (for Sherman and the Dems) that when people start paying attention, they may simply gravitate toward the better known Satterberg.
Similarly, Sherman has to spend most of his money now to get his name out and win the primary, which means he’ll have to start all over when it comes to taking on the well-financed Satterberg. Satterberg’s July finance reports had him around $87,000. Sherman was at around $28,000.
Adding up the money since those reports, Sherman has climbed to about $45,000 while Satterberg has climbed to about $105,000.
In the Democratic primary, Sherman has been endorsed by both the PI and the Seattle Times.
We liked both Democrats quite a bit, but felt that Sherman’s opponent, enviro group FutureWise attorney Keith Scully, was outstanding, and we gave him the nod in the primary. Scully actually had more money than Sherman as of the July reports—at $32,000. (Updated to about $33,000 now.)
The Sherman poll has Sherman well-ahead of Scully—23 percent to 5 percent (with the rest undecided.)
Anyone ask these guys about the death penaly? Satterberg says he'll continue with Maleng's approach, yes but rare. Do these dems have any guts?
Wait, Satterberg's well known? Are you sure about that? I have a feeling that half the electorate is going to be surprised Maleng isn't on the ballot.
Josh, I don't see those numbers on the PDC website. Looks to me like Sherman has raised $11,000 or $12,000 more than Scully ($33k against $21k). Unless you're counting fake money - scully's "in kind donations" and his substantial donations and loan to his own campaign.
Nothing to do with Sherman vs. Satterberg, but this struck me as odd. Are the Republicans really running a guy named "Jim Nobles" against Dem Scott Noble for assessor? That's fucked up.
This race is very important. Sherman seems to be the best qualified of the dems, he's an environmentalist, a proponent of drug sentencing reform etc.
Most people probably won't pay attention to this race, but it is really the most important race on the ballot. King County under Maleng was judically fare, but Republican priorities were still reflected in policy, especially environmental policy. King County is decades behind other major counties in having an environmental protection unit to go after polluters.
Scatterburg and Maleng have also been leading the Prosecutor's Office during the time when the SPD and King County Sherriff's office have time after time let obvious Police misconduct slide by, while pushing to prosecute African American males like DV One. We need to get the Republicans out of office. If you care about social justice, the environment, youth criminal justice reform, etc, this is the race you should get involved in.
Both are better than that Satterberg, but I seriously think you messed up on your endorsement in this race (not to mention SCC #1).
I'll second Will's comment - you guys picked the wrong Democrat when you picked Scully over Sherman - but what I really want to point out is that, to my knowledge, no Republican (other than Maleng himself) has won a countywide election in King County since former King County Executive Tim Hill in 1985. So, Satterberg had better hope his association with Maleng can carry him a long way if he's going to overcome that 22-year dry gulch for Republicans in countywide races.
Oops, one clarification - Tim Hill was re-elected to his office in 1989, so make that an 18-year dry gulch instead of 22. But if you narrow it down to "Republicans elected countywide in King County who had not been previously elected to the same office" that still puts Satterberg in the same position as Hill, and all those who have failed since Hill in 1985.
The primary fight should help Sherman will the name recognition stuff.
Sherman is spending his money on POLLS? No wonder The Stranger endorsed Scully. You're supposed to be contacting voters when you've got $30,000 in the bank, not running polls. And Sherman's got name recognition - he just ran for State legislature. Why is Scully doing so well despite no one yet having heard of him? Because he's not a politician. That's how the Republicans have held that office for so long - by pretending they weren't politically connected. Sherman's the penultimate politician - and therefore can't win against Satterberg. Scully can, and will.
Great campaign advice for Sherman from the peanut gallery.
Another goofy endorsement from the Stranger...put it up there with Pure for the 43rd leg. With two great candidates, why not pick the one with a better chance of winning, and winning against Satterberg in the General (hence the poll), and make your endorsement meaningful?
Having run many a campaign myself, I'm embarrased for The Stranger that you'd print that poll result with a straight face. Campaigns are notorious for using half-cooked polls. Haven't we noticed yet that campaigns only "release" polls that reflect favorably on them?
At a minimum, any campaign's survey methodology requires scrutiny, from who was polled to what was asked, exactly, to what the response rate was. The response rate, in particular, was likely dreadful, as Sherman doesn't have enough cash-on-hand to pay for a decent poll. If he did pay real money, then he's a bloody fool--as he just threw away $20K that should have been spent on direct mail. Now *there's* some good campaign advice.
And there's one more reason your endorsement of Scully made sense. Apparently, Scully runs a tighter operation and isn't pissing away hard-earned contributions on a vanity poll. My heavens...
@10: Scully got 6 percent in the poll and he's "doing well?" Whatever.
@12: You say you've "run many a campaign" and you haven't ever done a poll. You haven't seen Sherman's poll, yet you're busy pointing out imaginary flaws in it? Thanks for sharing.
Scully's camapign staff needs to get off the Slog and hit the streets--not that a candidate trailing as badly as he is 20 days before the primary election has a prayer.
Oh, sorry, Scully actually got 5 percent in the poll. My bad.
Why are polls so important when ISSUES are what we should use to decide who represents us? (Does it matter that the numbers used for Sherman, Satterberg and undecided equals 101% 36,34,31?)
Keith Scully's experience serving as a war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations in The Hague make him uniquely able to have very new perspective on how a prosecutor should serve the people of King County.
I talked to Keith personally about my concerns regarding the Federal Government's willingness to overstep their authority regarding illegal wiretapping, forcing local police and sheriff department to act as immigration agents, prosecuting growers of medicinal marijuana (legal in this state) and he is spot on. He will be the one that can draw a line to protect all of our civil rights.
Sherman is a Demaocrat too but has had way too much connection with the DLC controlled Clinton Administration. Don't we want a guy that comes from the bottom up instead of what is being force fed to us from the top down? It's your government you decide!
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