Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Politics The First 'Mo on the King County Council?
Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 5:20 PM
Dow Constantine is being sworn in as King County Executive about now, leaving a vacancy on the King County Council. Eleven people—including known homosexual and confirmed state senator, Joe McDermott—have thrown their hat into the ring:
Jan Drago—A member of the Seattle City Council who is leaving the Council this yearHelen Howell—Former Director of the state Department of Financial Institutions, served as Deputy Chief of Staff under Governor Locke
Zack Hudgins—State Representative from the 11th District
Jake Jacobovitch—Engineer in the Road Services Division of the King County Department of Transportation
Arun Jhaveri—Former Regional Technology Manager with the Federal Energy Management Program and former Mayor of Burien
Lucy Krakowiak—Burien City Council Member and a member of the King County Library Board of Trustees
Joe McDermott—State Senator from the 34th District
Shawn McEvoy—Mayor of Normandy Park
Sharon Nelson—State Representative from the 34th District,
Vlad Oustimovitch—A partner at VoKa Incorporated, and a former Development Program Manager for the Seattle Housing Authority
Kathleen Quong-Vermeire, Commissioner, Highline Water District, former Mayor of Normandy Park
Here's how the decision is made: A 12-person committee will begin reviewing the candidates on December 3, making their recommendations to the council based on each candidate's knowledge of King County government, familiarity with the county's 8th District (West Seattle, Burien, Vashon), and ability to work with folks. The committee must recommend at least one person who plans to run for the office in 2010 and one who doesn't plan to run for the office. The full council is slated to pick Constantine's replacement on December 14, the last day the council council meets this year.
State Senator Joe McDermott (D-34), one of the forces behind Washington's three domestic-partnership laws, is the clear favorite of homosexuals everywhere. "Joe is well liked by those he works with in the legislature," says Ed Murray (D-43), sponsor of the domestic-partnership bills and King of the Homosexuals. "He will bring a fresh understanding of Olympia to the Council. He also has been a leader on LGBT issues in the legislature and deserves to be the first openly gay member of the King County Council."
Honestly, I don't know if Joe is more qualified than everyone else in the running. He seems like a smart guy, adored by the 34th District Democrats—a shrewd bunch—and very familiar with the area (the 34th Legislative District makes up more than half of the county's 8th District). But rumor has it that Republicans on the county council aren't that enamored with him (they prefer more moderate state Rep. Zack Hudgins (D-11)). That's good enough for me. The council's four Republicans should go to work with a gay person five days a week. It would be good for them.
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Impressive - maybe in some alternate reality where Seattle is filled with Republic Party of No comrades.
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And, Fnarf, I'd be interested in your take as to why the quality of candidates is, in your opinion, higher.
I guess, first, I'd say there were plenty of qualified candidates for city office. McGinn, O'Brien, and also some losing candidates such as Jesse Israel.
I note that three of the county council candidates are sitting state representatives or senators. I'm not surprised that they are all running, since state legislature jobs are part-time jobs. The prospect of a full time job has got to be enticing. (This is, by the way, a huge problem with the state legislature. It is not designed to attract high quality candidates on a consistent basis.)
Also, I note Jan Drago is on the list. So she's a "quality" candidate for the county job, but not for the city job?
Finally, I'm guessing your description of the "quality" of the county candidates is based on . . . many of them being former elected officials? This could be an effect of the county having many municipalities within it, making a larger pool of elected positions available.
Or are you really arguing that being a current or former Mayor of Normandy Park (which covers 2 of the eleven candidates: population 6240) creates a greater capacity for governing the county that constitutes nearly a third of the states population and half of it's economy? I'm not buying it.
I think if you didn't think we had a great slate of candidates for Mayor this year, remember this in 4 or 8 years, when the sitting council members who lacked the courage and vision to run against the sitting incumbent try and sell themselves as "Mayoral."
Anyway, I sure do like that Joe. Nice guy.
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Drago is a qualified candidate. Sharon Nelson is eminently qualified. So is Zack Hudgins. So is Helen Howell. So is Arun Jhaveri. And of course the subject of this article, Joe McDermott is an outstanding candidate.
All of these people are more accomplished than McGinn, Mallahan, O'Brien, or Jesse Israel, or any of the other general city candidates this year. McDermott is better than anyone in city government, in my view.
And they're all Democrats, Will.
Btw the reason you get more candidates is....they don't have to run for this appointment.
It's a lot easier to go lobby a county council than to run in a district with about 140,000 folks. Raising money...trying to figure out why you are running (Mallaprop flunked that one)...working at it for about a year...man it sucks.
But hey if it's just make a few phone calls and interview, lot's of people are in!
Tells you how much THEY think of the job...they're not willing to really invest in it...McGinn, one of his qualifications IS his passion and vision which drives him a lot more than most of the people oin this list.
State legislators not only want a steady job, they probably want to get the hell out of Olympia because they're only going to be the fall guys when they have to raise revenue. They'll be afraid to go back to their districts. The county's out of money too but not quite so bad or on such a touches-everyone scale.
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Wouldn't mind Jan, but we should go with Joe, since it's OUR district.
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So, to pick an example, Arun. I'm not saying he's not qualified, but what makes a government management job and being mayor of a town of 30,000 a better experience than McGinn making partner at a downtown law firm and starting a successful non-profit? I'd like for you to articulate why that is better preparation. What is the criteria?
McGinn got an econ degree from a good school, a JD from a good school, performed successfully in his career, was involved in multiple civic activities, and showed entreprenurial skills in starting the non-profit. As 6 note, he also spent nearly a year running - which meant talking to people, raising money and the like.
And, as I noted before, I've known Joe a long time. He's a great guy, and he'll do a great job. The question remains, why does being a part time legislator translate into better credentials than what McGinn did?
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