Snohomish County Council Chair Brian Sullivan announced over the weekend that he will run in the special election to fill out the remaining month or so of Rep. Jay Inslee's term in the old 1st Congressional District, suggesting that there might be a deal in the works to avoid a weird battle between the Dems in the crowded field for the new post-redistricting WA-01.

"The people in the old 1st District need to be represented when Congress takes up key issues after the election and I am stepping up to serve them," Sullivan said in statement released by the Washington State Democratic Party.

Sullivan's candidacy comes with the blessing of state Dem chair Dwight Pelz, who has been working to avoid a potentially confusing situation in which the Democratic candidates appear twice on ballots in precincts where the old and the new 1st CD overlap. It's very possible under those circumstances that a different Dem makes it through the top-two primary in each race. What voters would make of this in November is hard to say, but you can't blame party officials for feeling uncomfortable about the uncertainty.

None of the Democratic candidates are running to serve for a mere month, but the special election—which became necessary after Inslee resigned to focus on his gubernatorial campaign—does bring with it a bonus: the ability to double up on contribution limits within the same campaign cycle. Money raised in the old 1st CD race should theoretically be spent only in that race, but since much of the district both overlaps and shares the same media market, those restrictions are pretty much meaningless.

Republican John Koster, essentially running unopposed, is free to run in both and seize this windfall. Whether all of his Democratic opponents are prepared to cede this fundraising advantage to Koster for the sake of avoiding the potential voter confusion that comes with it we'll soon know: the filing deadline is the end of this week.