Friday, September 9, 2005
By NEIL MODIE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Running against each other for re-election, King County Council members Carolyn Edmonds and Bob Ferguson both enjoy hefty Democratic support, but of two different kinds -- she from party bigwigs, he from the party grass roots.
Edmonds has the backing of nearly all elected Democrats in county government -- County Executive Ron Sims and most council Democrats -- as well as a host of elected officials from U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels on down.
Ferguson has swept Democratic Party endorsements, winning solo backing of the state and county party organizations and those of the 32nd and 46th legislative districts, which cover most of Council District 1 in North King County. He also has backing of U.S. Rep. Adam Smith and County Councilwoman Julia Patterson.
After unseating 20-year Councilwoman Cynthia Sullivan in 2003, Ferguson is again the outsider, running a second uphill primary campaign against a better-financed female incumbent backed by most of the Democratic courthouse establishment.
After voters last year passed an initiative to downsize the council from 13 members to nine, Ferguson became the victim of a reapportionment plan that essentially left him without a district. The new, enlarged District 1 now includes all of Edmonds' current district but less than half of Ferguson's.
The two share liberal, almost indistinguishable political views. But while she votes reliably with the Democratic majority, he has bucked Sims and the Democrats on several issues.
Ferguson has strongly criticized county election blunders, derailed Sims' plan to buy a $23 million building to house election operations and co-sponsored legislation for an outside audit of the elections office. He said Edmonds has been reluctant to criticize the elections office for fear it would reflect on Sims.
"I'm unapologetic about positions I've taken in disagreement with Ron because I wasn't elected to be a rubber stamp for the executive, even if he is a member of my own party," Ferguson said. He said his efforts have made the council "a stronger legislative body," more independent from the executive.
Edmonds said Ferguson "is not good at building partnerships. Otherwise he would have been more successful in his first year (on the council)."
She said Ferguson has had little constructive legislation while she has passed numerous initiatives in her four years on the council and at the helm of the King County Health Board. She helped restructure the county parks system and crafted a measure regulating tent city homeless camps.
The odds would seem to favor Edmonds in what has become an antagonistic campaign.
Not only does her new district have more of her current constituents than Ferguson's, but North King County voters historically have sent women -- including Murray -- to the Legislature and the County Council.
Ferguson, though, became a giant-killer with his shoe-leather 2003 campaign, ringing 22,000 voters' doorbells. This year he is ringing 15,000.
He also walks his district as a council member to hear constituents' concerns -- a gesture Edmonds said is pointless unless "you do something about what you learn."
But Edmonds may be running scared. She has mailed voters two campaign brochures attacking her opponent. One prompted Ferguson's supporters to accuse her of hypocrisy and below-the-belt tactics.
In it, Edmonds alluded to the King County Democratic Convention endorsement. She campaigned for it vigorously but unsuccessfully. Despite that, she wrote, "Bob Ferguson has supported allowing a convention of party activists to decide who is your next council member."
The mailing also said "the lobbyist for some of King County's largest developers just hosted a fund-raiser for Bob Ferguson during the last month."
The lobbyist, Martin Durkan Jr., said Edmonds, too, asked him for money -- repeatedly. She wrote Durkan on Aug. 11, saying, "Thank you for your generous financial pledge of $750 to my campaign."
Even after mailing the brochure criticizing Durkan's fund raising for Ferguson, Edmonds left the lobbyist a phone message Aug. 25, asking again for money. Durkan, who has donated to Edmonds in the past, and Congressman Smith were two of five co-hosts of the fund-raiser.
Edmonds has criticized Ferguson for a proposed November ballot measure that has deeply divided the council. Co-sponsored by two Republicans and two Democrats, including Ferguson, it calls for a $10.7 million property tax levy to help veterans get housing, jobs and treatment.
Edmonds and most other council Democrats strongly oppose the measure for singling out one needy group for help. They want to place a broader, $21.4 million human services levy on the 2006 ballot for the homeless, the elderly, the disabled, veterans and others.
From what she has heard from voters, Edmonds told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial board, "there's no one out there clamoring for services for veterans."
Ferguson said the county should act now to address the immediate needs of veterans, who make up one-third of the county's homeless.
Ferguson, 40, who was married a year ago, is a lawyer, former University of Washington student body president, international chess master and former two-time state chess champion. He lives in the Maple Leaf neighborhood.
Edmonds, 51, is a former business consultant and former state representative who ran the 1995 campaign to incorporate Shoreline. She lives there with her teenage son and daughter.
The Municipal League of King County rated Edmonds "very good" and Ferguson "good."
Whichever council member wins the Democratic primary will face little-known Republican Steven Pyeatt in November. The strongly Democratic district stretches from Shoreline to Woodinville and includes much of Northeast Seattle.
VOTERS GUIDE
To view the P-I's online voter's guide, go to: www.seattlepi.com/votersguide/
P-I reporter Neil Modie can be reached at 206-448-8321 or neilmodie@seattlepi.com