Three days ago Joel Connelly reported it as imminent. Now King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson has announced his candidacy for Washington State Attorney General:
Bob may have some Democratic competition from former Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg. On the Republican side, it’s hard to tell. But…
[t]he King County GOP last week registered the Internet domain name “DunnForAG.com.”
That would be Reagan Dunn, son of the late Rep. Jennifer Dunn, who represented Washington’s 8th CD from 1993 to 2005. Reagan Dunn, like Bob Ferguson, currently serves on the King County Council.
No word from Richard Pope yet on whether or not he will also run….
Who wouldn’t vote for the Pope?
Pffft. I’d lean towards Ladenburg. I don’t think Ferguson practiced law all that long before doorbelling for the KC Council.
I remember John Ladenburg from the podcast. I remember liking him. I certainly didn’t vote for Bobby Mac. Let’s see…
http://www.podcastingliberally.....ition.html
See what you think…
I will take Ferguson over Ladenburg. In 2008, Ladenburg took on McKenna, and lost by 19 points — in the same year Obama carried the state by 17 points. Ladenburg won only two counties — Jefferson (by less than 1 point) and San Juan (by 7 points). Ladenburg lost Pierce County by over 16 points — even though he was coming off 8 years as County Executive there, preceded by several terms as County Prosecutor.
Ferguson has got to be more formidable politically, given his upsets of Cynthia Sullivan in 2003 and Carolyn Edmonds in 2005. Granted, these were against fellow Democrats basically in Seattle, and don’t predict how strong he might be statewide against a Republican. But Ladenburg is very seriously underwhelming in his political abilities running for this position!
Ferguson’s legal experience is less than Ladenrburg’s, obviously. But it is a bit more than Dunn’s. Ferguson put in 7 years before being elected to the King County Council, while Dunn had 6 years before being appointed to that same body.
McKenna also had 7 years as a practicing attorney before being elected to the King County Council. While both Ferguson and Dunn have extensive litigation experience, McKenna was purely a business lawyer, with no court appearances other than a handful of minor volunteer pro bono appearances.
We need to win this office back and prevent another Rob McKenna (in the form of Dunn) from getting in.
Ladenburg has run for the job TWICE and been beaten badly both times — he lost to Gregoire in 1992 with something like 13 percent of the vote in the primary.
Glad Ferguson has jumped in. His bio shows 2 federal court clerkships, litigation experience at a top private firm, and significant policy-making experience on law and justice issues. Plus, he wins elections. Sounds good to me.
Winning isn’t everything, as our unhappy experiences with Gregoire and Obama have shown, but Dunn is so inadequate (what has he done on KCC besides grandstand?) anyone would be better than him. If the WSRP leadership had any brains they’d pressure McKenna to stay where he is, in order to hang onto the one significant public office they control, but instead McK’s personal ambition and GOP greed will lead them into a race for an office they cannot win and give us an easy recapture of an office we shouldn’t have lost.
Pol @ 4
In the September 1992 primary, Gregoire had 35.37% and Ladenburg had 16.59%. I don’t consider that a disaster — he basically lost the Democratic nomination to a stronger candidate. But getting soundly thumped by McKenna in 2008 — in a very strong Democratic year — that is quite another story.
As a Pierce Co. resident I can tell you Landenburg will not carry this country. End of story!
Ladenburg’s a crooked good old boy.
Ferguson might want to ditch that photo of him and Mike Lowery. I like Lowery, but waving his photo around where righties can see it is like waving a red cape in front of a bull.
Dunn 56%
Ferguson 44%
@9 And Hutchison beat Constantine by 12 points, too!
I’m not taking sides yet, but I have to wonder how much litigation experience really counts in the AG job. The person holding the job is basically a manager of a government office, where the work is performed by civil servants. I would think that “vision” for the role of the office with respect to serving the state, and managerial ability, would be the primary qualifications.
Remember that there were lots of objections when Bobby Kennedy was named Attorney General, due to his lack of experience. At the time JFK joked that being attorney general was about the only thing Bobby was qualified to do.
But JFK had a point – the real issue was “vision”, and how vigerously the Justice Dept. was going to pursue a civil rights agenda in the South, in terms of enforcing federal court orders and the new legislation. A more experienced person in that role might have shrugged and claimed that there was nothing much that could be done, things had always been that way in the South and were always going to be that way, federal legislation or not. Bobby Kennedy forced the Justice Dept. into a more active role, making it clear that things had changed and they weren’t going back to the old ways.
Ladenburg is Pierce Co mafia with his sleazy dealings
I love seeing all the leftists whistling past the graveyard. It is highly likely that blue state WA is evolving into a purple one. In 2012 we have the likely prospect of Cantwell losing too- to an as yet un-named Republican.
Some years ago, Ferguson was photographed cmapaigning with David Irons, a Republican. Ferguson also supported sex offenders’ housing which an Eastside “christian” group was trying to set up in a residential neighborhood, sans proper qualifications.
Ferguson may be a GOPer in Dem’s clothing.
@13 Dream on, troll.
I really like Ladenburg and really, really like Ferguson. I’d be ecstatic with either as our AG.
I don’t have the insight or experience to criticize Ladenburg’s 2008 campaign. (Compared to my own, every other campaign was awesome.) Whenever I saw Ladenburg stump, I was very impressed by his experience and knowledge.
Note that McKenna outspent him 3:1 (~$1,890,000 to ~$590,000). Very sobering numbers.
With both the primary and general, this race will easily cost $4.5m. So we’ll see which Dem candidates can raise the money. Because you know Dunn can.