While the vast majority of the 2006 political races have yet to take shape, a major 2007 race is already beginning to heat up. Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart, a Republican, announced his candidacy for Snohomish County Executive last week, running against Democrat Aaron Reardon.

Bart and Reardon have been feuding for quite a while, since Reardon threatened to cut 2% from Bart’s budget. Bart garnered the support of the Republican-controlled county council, which prevented the cuts, but tensions have certainly not cooled between the two men. Saturday at the Snohomish County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner, Bart said that he decided to run against Reardon after coming home complaining about him once too often, and his wife told him to stop complaining and do something about it.

He's got a very good shot at doing it, too--possibly the best a Republican has ever had. Bart is very popular in the county, and has a great deal of support across party lines. Dave Reichert just showed everyone that popular, effective sheriffs can parlay their experience into significant electoral support, and I certainly hope Bart has a chance to get advice from Reichert soon.

The challenge for Bart will be to make sure that his candidacy is not percieved as revolving around a single issue, or as being a "grudge match" against Reardon. If he his candidacy focuses on more than just last year's attempted budget cuts, Bart has a great chance to unseat someone the Republicans would dearly love to see unseated.

Reardon has criticized Bart for declaring his candidacy so early, saying "I think Rick owes it to the citizens to focus on the job he has and not politicize public safety." Unfortunately for that line of reasoning, Reardon filed for reelection back in October, scarcely ten months after taking office, and has already taken contributions.

Bart was first elected back in 1995, the first Republican sheriff in the county since the 1940’s. He would be the first Republican county executive in the county’s history. This Seattle Times feature gives a nice overview of the man who once described Reardon to a reporter as an “arrogant son of a bitch”:

Outspoken and gregarious, Bart bad-mouths his political opponents publicly and torments his peers with practical jokes.

You're as likely to see him in his sheriff's uniform as in his other "uniform": a Hawaiian shirt and khakis, with a .45-caliber handgun tucked into his waistband. When he sees his friends, he's as likely to wave hello as to grin and flip them "the bird."

Reardon’s very ambitious and has been very successful so far—Saturday, Bart recounted hearing Reardon boast that he had “never lost an election.” Bart said he aims to change that, and knocking Reardon’s rising star off course would help Republicans immensely. If Reardon continues his political success, he'll end up running for governor or the senate, and it would be nice to put a dent in those plans early.

The two men do have something in common—their pants. While Bart's "other uniform" is khakis and a Hawaiian shirt, Reardon reportedly “wears khakis even on the weekends, in case he bumps into a constituent who wouldn't be impressed by sweatpants.” Same pants, two very different people.

Cross posted at The Flag of the World.