The King County Democrats had a great turnout for their Elections Director Candidate Forum last night, at least amongst the members of the King County Democrats. But the candidates however, well, not so much.
Of the six official candidates only Sherril Huff, Bill Anderson and Chris Clifford bothered to show up, and Clifford only stayed for the first fifteen minutes or so. Pam Roach, David Irons and Julie Kempf were all no-shows, which if you ask me, was a mistake. Five of the six candidates showed up for a Rotary Club forum earlier in the day, and apparently nearly outnumbered the audience, and yet Roach, Irons and Kempf chose to dis a packed room of some of the most engaged voters in the county. Huh.
Ah well, the result was probably a better format, with Huff and Anderson having plenty of time to trade answers to the many thoughtful questions the audience had prepared. And while Anderson and Clifford can be commended for their passion, I think those in attendance came away pretty damn clear that Huff was the only candidate at the table with the expertise to run elections in one of the largest jurisdictions in the nation.
As I’ve often said, I think the idea of electing an elections director is pretty damn stupid (Huff agrees, Anderson does not), as I’d rather have an elections director who knows how to run elections, than one who knows how to run for them. And from what I saw of Anderson and Clifford last night, I’m not confident that they can do either.
Huff, on the other hand, while far from a polished politician, has done an admirable job running King County Elections over the past couple years; if you consider her the incumbent, I don’t see anybody making a cogent argument to kick the bum out. On the contrary, Anderson seemed to trip over himself throughout the forum, commending Huff on her job performance. I appreciate his honesty, but its an odd way to run a campaign.
I’ve refrained from writing about this race up until now, out of deference to my role as moderator, for which I wanted to maintain a degree of impartiality and civility, but apparently my restraint was wasted. Obviously, this low-turnout/low-information race will come down to a battle between Huff, Irons and Roach—Huff on her qualifications, Irons and Roach on their name ID. And now that I’m freed of my self-imposed shackles, I’m guessing I’ll have little bit of fun at Irons’ and Roach’s expense.
90% of politics is showing up.
“Fists of Fury” Irons – the testosterone driven BIAW worshiper’s choice. For those who want their voter suppression neat.
Pistol-packin’ Pam – ooooooohhhh.. my… Where do you go with her???? Voter suppression still, but with a bit of anarchic, Annie Oakley style.
As we’re now electing the elections director, why not elect the typists and security guards, too? That way, you won’t have to know how to type or turn on a flashlight to get a county job.
I think every job should be elected! And not just in the public sector. Let’s elect corporate CEOs and store managers, too! No, I’m not talking about shareholder elections, I believe ordinary citizens should get to elect the employees of private companies the same way we elect governors and election directors! After all, these people, too, are there to serve us. If we don’t like the way a bank treats you when you ask them to restructure your car loan, you can vote the bums out! If you don’t like the service at a vegetable emporium, you can replace the manager! Direct democracy in action! It’ll keep ’em on their toes.
Goldy–
What about Huff’s non-disclosure of her IRS Tax Lien???
What’s the scoop?
Those sorts of things are often Red Flags about irresponsibility….or if she has serious financial problems, an indicator that she could be…you know BOUGHT!
Remember, you KLOWNS made a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge deal about Joe the Plumber’s Tax Liens….which were much smaller than Huff’s and Joe wasn’t running for any office,,,,much less korrupt King Kounty Election Director.
If you were Pam Roach or Julie Ann Kempf, would you show up in public?
Chris Clifford is a babbling idiot. But he also has no shame at all. He’s a veteran nutcase.
I can’t wait to see the Muni League ratings for this circus of clowns….
Mr. Cynical – Huff could probably get elected from jail, given her opponents / your mental equivalents….
Which is why you are a confirmed idiot, utter fool and absolute dolt to boot.
Congrats on achieving the trifecta, roadkill.
Maybe Darcy Burner should run…I here she’s free..
Instead of padding her resume with “executive” experience, or “Economics” degrees, she could actually hold a public office other than HOA Pres.
What is also unfortunate is the lack of media coverage of this race. No one from the regular media was present last night, and only a few bloggers were scattered in the audience. The election is an all mail in election and ballots are going out the middle of the month.
While Huff was the most knowledgeable and experienced of the candidates last night, if the public doesn’t know her or see her, Irons and Roach win out in name familiarity.
Unfortunately the way the Republicans who pushed for this election wrote the law, there is no Primary for this election. The highest vote getter wins it all. This is a terrible way to run an election – no Primary. Thank the Republicans for this poorly designed election process.
Steve@11: How did the “evil” Republicans slip this one past the Donkey controlled King County? Were your buds asleep at da wheel of politics?
I heard the Rotary meeting was packed
Whenever mentioning Pam Roach it should be internet law to link to her “Who moved my flowers?!?” rant.
Also, her blog is must read:
http://pamroachreport.blogspot.com/
Goldy, thanks for moderating the forum last night. Your modest attempt to hide your bias was really appreciated. I was especially impressed when you deflected the question to Ms Huff about the “secret uncertified scanners squirreled away in the basement”. Your crack that the only thing in the basement was Roach and Irons all tied up was really a hoot and it gave Huff plenty of time to spin an answer. I’m pretty damn sure that the person asking the question knew the true answer. Oh well, I’m new to politics and I guess it shows. So, I’d ask one last indulgence for this rooky, if I may. Please take your eyes off the rearview mirror for just a sec and take a look at the road ahead. You can start by visiting this page on my site http://www.thebillandersonsite.....ocess.html
It contains plenty of links so set aside some time. Oh, and you might want to turn off the Siren Song coming from your iPhone, you know the one written by the King County leadership. I know it’s a very pleasant and Pollyannaish version of “Happy Days Are Here Again”, but man up and do the due (diligence that is)
Thanks for everything Bill
Yes Goldy you were able to revel in your bit of glory as forum moderator. However, your bias was clear and if you were attempting to hide it you were a miserable failure. Chris Clifford left after thirty minutes to attend his Muny League interview for this office, of which you were aware and failed to mention. You failed to mention the members of Huff’s staff who were passing out literature at the meeting. I believe they were employees of King County Elections Division. You give horses’ asses a bad name.
@10 You take me way too seriously, and you take yourself too seriously, too. You could use a visit to a whorehouse.
I think you probably meant to direct that one @9 and not @10, although both could use the same advice.
…well, I have at times been told I have a ‘hare’ trigger.
Naw, they had to close the Bunny Ranch down years ago. Apparently the government couldn’t even run a whorehouse in Reno,Nevada without losing money in the process.
Goldy, do you know for a fact that all six candidates had fair notice of the new date and time of the KC Dems Forum? As you know, I very much wanted to attend and watch, and was really bummed when the first one was cancelled, but didn’t see the posting about the rescheduled event on HA until AFTER the event was over! It wasn’t very well publicized, except, I guess, among Democrats.
Most notable is that Sherril Huff has the endorsement of 35 of the 38 county auditors in the state of Washington. In every county except for King, the county auditor is the chief elections officer (and also takes care of vehicle licenses, real estate recording, marriage licenses, and some other stuff).
I believe that close to half of the state’s county auditors happen to be Republicans. Almost all of the county auditors in eastern Washington are Republicans, and Republicans even happen to hold the county auditor position in such Democratic strongholds as Thurston, Jefferson and San Juan counties.
So it is especially notable that practically every Republican county auditor in the state has endorsed Sherril Huff for this position. She would not have such overwhelming support from Republicans if she was doing a bad job or if either of her Republican opponents could do a good job.
And I do think it was an error in judgment for Huff not to have disclosed (and explained) her Kitsap County tax lien on her King County Democrats questionnaire. Especially given that she was county auditor over there a number of years ago, and should be pretty familiar with the fact that those documents are recorded and easy public knowledge.
Even considering this, Huff is far more qualified for the position than any other candidate. Her principal opponents — Irons, Roach and Kempf — also have serious negatives of their own.
And I will venture to say that either Clifford or Anderson would make a better Elections Director than Irons, Roach or Kempf. Thankfully, we have Huff in the race.
To Toby Nixon #21
This event was not well attended except by Democrat partisans, liberal bloggers, and King County employees. The great turnout cited by ass in chief, Goldy, barely filled a third of the room. There was probably not a single potential voter in the room who did not enter with their mind made up about this race and Goldy was simply preaching to the choir. To Goldy: Well done dirt bag. It was nice to see your idea of democracy in action.
18-19 NO DOUBT THEY WOULD FIND FIND BOTH YOUR WIFES WORKING THE NIGHT SHIFT
Steve @11:
Citizens for Accountable Elections was a multi-partisan organization: Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, and Greens were on the steering committee. Although I was the visible chair and public spokesman, the sponsors of I-25 were not controlled by WSRP, KCGOP, or any Republican organization.
The fact that 56.99% of King County voters supported I-25, and then 56.32% supported Charter Amendment 1 while at the same time voting 69.98% for Barack Obama, is pretty strong testimony of the strong bipartisan support for the elections director being an elected office. It wasn’t Republicans who did this — it was the people of King County of all political stripes who wanted their elections conducted by someone accountable directly to the people rather than to the county power structure. The Elections Task Force appointed by Ron Sims, and the Citizens Elections Oversight Committee appointed by the county council, both broad non-partisan groups, recommended this reform, and the people agreed.
I-25 called for a February election with the February 2008 election in mind — the intent was that the new director would be in place for the 2008 presidential and gubernatorial election. If the county council had accepted I-25 and put the charter amendment directly on the November 2007 ballot instead of requiring the initiative to go on the November 2007 ballot first (which they could have done, under the county initiative process), there would have been no additional cost for the county-wide special election, because the vote would have been held in conjunction with the presidential preference primary — a high-profile, high-turnout election with plenty of media coverage. After the passage of I-25, the council still could have amended the ordinance to have the election on the normal August/November cycle in 2009; there’s no provision requiring a supermajority vote of the council to amend county initiatives during their first two years, like there is with state initiatives. Personally, and not speaking on behalf of CFAE, I would not have objected to the council making such an amendment, once the charter amendment vote was moved to 2008 and the initial director vote moved to 2009. I suppose we should be happy that the council fears the wrath of the public so much that they wouldn’t make such an amendment, but they certainly had ample opportunity to do so.
There will be another candidates forum at Newcastle Golf Club, sponsored by the Newcastle Chamber, on January 17th, 9:00 AM
You can submit questions here:
CandidateForum@NewcastleCC.com
David Irons is the heavy iron that’ll turn around King County sElections.
Pam Roach… is just a drain on the war effort and an egomaniac. DON’T waste your vote.
Sherill Huff is already… shark’d!
@28: David Irons – hahahaha
You mean the guy who lost big time for KC executive because he beats his mother and even his own relatives bad mouth him?
Here is Goldy on Irons over 3 years ago:
What a sad, small person Irons is….even his mother calls him out as a liar.
@26: Yup Toby, you fooled people with that non-partisan BS. So what?
Now we have to pay for an extra election that few people will even respond to…what a stupid mess and a stupid idea. The post should be appointed. Look at the idiots running for the post – Irons is a serial liar, Pam roach is certifiable and could not run a flower shop.
If Huff loses – then there is no one else who knows a darn thing about running elections.
Great idea – put more unqualified people in to run elections. Take your bipartisan committee and stuff it, moron.
correctnotright @30:
What, you don’t support democracy? Some Democrat you are!
Say, Toby, weren’t you the one who mentioned on your site during the election that you were in favor of a more personalized bus service of sorts? Van pickup at the door, was it? I can’t remember exactly how you described it. Anyway, if so, I liked that idea. Perhaps it had its flaws, but you were thinking outside of the usual transit box and I like that too.
Yes, I do think that it was you, Toby.
“We should provide on-demand transit solutions (using the Internet or telephone to request service) rather than running nearly-empty large buses through neighborhoods on a fixed schedule.”
Not quite as I remembered it, but all the same, I liked the idea. Alas, Goldy and I don’t quite see eye to eye on light rail. Between the SLUT and the rail through Rainier Valley to the airport, I’ve lost all confidence that any future rail would get it right.
I hope you run again.