Snohomish County Sheriff and presumed Republican nominee for County Executive this year has bowed out of the race. The move leaves incumbent Democrat Aaron Reardon in stronger position to win reelection this fall.
Bart cited money as a key factor in ending his campaign:
His decision essentially boils down to money - or lack of it, Bart told The Herald on Tuesday.There just isn't enough support among Snohomish County Republicans, he said.
More specifically, the problem is Reardon's strong support - at least financially - from the business and development community that traditionally support Republicans in such Snohomish County races. Reading through PDC reports one sees a lot of the same donors filling Reardon's coffers that also supported Republicans John Koster and Jeff Sax in their 2005 County Council campaigns. That was always a challenge for Bart.
Republicans will now scramble for a candidate as the Herald's coverage indicates, though any taker at this point is going to face a very difficult task against a well-funded Reardon. Bart recognized that, and made what is probably a wise choice given the circumstances.
Posted by Eric Earling at March 21, 2007 07:38 AM | Email ThisReardon is being groomed for higher office- either Senate or the Governorship. My hope is that he becomes a US Senator in place of the two we have. The Rs can't seem to get their act together in the Senator races.
I am shocked at the support Reardon gets in Snohomish County. The phenomena is something like the adolation Obama gets except on a smaller scale.
There is also rumor that Reardon may run as an R in some future race.
Posted by: swatter on March 21, 2007 08:44 AMReadon is no R. )-:
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on March 21, 2007 09:13 AMThe last executive race had a Sound Transit disciple running against Reardon. It was hard to do but I voted for Reardon because I couldn't vote for the other guy.
Posted by: swatter on March 21, 2007 09:28 AMEverybody knew he wasn't raising enough money right from the very beginning, and he did nothing to correct it. Saying he couldn't raise money says a lot more about him then about Sno Co republicans. Eric's Dad had no problem raising money 4 years ago.
This is typical Bart, everything half-a$$ed. Kind of like when he endorsed John McCoy (D-Tulalip) and then endorsed his opponent, Erv Hoglund (R) but never withdrew his endorsement of McCoy.
Posted by: Cliff on March 21, 2007 11:23 AM
Sorry Swatter.
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on March 21, 2007 01:10 PMGood comment Cliff. I didn't know that.
I'm surprised that few SP posters on this thread. Koster was listed as a potential candidate and he is interested, except he can't raise that type of money so quickly.
My surprise is that many SP posters thought Koster should have been the new R party chairman.
Posted by: swatter on March 22, 2007 07:30 AMfunny he always had time for deadbeat dad round ups but never enough police to fight real crime.
buh bye. it's not that there isn't enough republicans- rather not enough republicans that support him.
Posted by: Andy on March 22, 2007 09:33 PM
I'm surprised that few SP posters on this thread. Koster was listed as a potential candidate and he is interested, except he can't raise that type of money so quickly.
My surprise is that many SP posters thought Koster should have been the new R party chairman.
Thanks. Most people don't. He argued that he endorsed McCoy before Hoglund got in the race, and that when he learned Hoglund got in the race, he endorsed him. I worked for Hoglund's campaign at the time, and we asked him to withdraw his endorsement for McCoy, which he never did. He was basically too chicken to do it. Either that or he wanted to play it both ways.
Anyhow, there's a lot more stuff like this that some of my friends know more about then me. Bart has a long history of telling each side what they want to hear.
Koster is a very good man and I hope he has a future in elected office beyond his Council seat, and me very well might be running if it were possible to beat Reardon this time around, but he's not, and Koster knows it. It 'might' have been possible if Bart hadn't half-assed it and been the presumptive nominee before dropping out 8 months before the election.
Truth be told, Reardon was most likely going to trash Bart anyway. But now, he won't even have a credible opponent, which will not only obviously end our chance at credibly beating Reardon, but will allow him to stockpile cash for his next election, or for a statewide run which he obviously wants. It will also make it much more difficult for Renee Sinclair to hold on to Gary Nelson's seat and for the Republican-leaning candidate to replace Bart as Sheriff. (John Lovick is reported to be running as the D candidate, although it is technically non-partisan). I thought Bart would be a poor candidate, but I didn't think he'd do this. This move is incredibly selfish and incompetently handled.
John must know this.
Reardon has this uncanny ability to cross the lines. He gets money from the enviros and gets money from the developers who are the scourge according to the enviros. It doesn't make sense.
Posted by: swatter on March 23, 2007 09:53 AMIt's not really all that uncanny. Reardon is an empty suit with ambition. It's pretty simple really. He seems to have no core beliefs beyond some sort of vague notions of 'good government' and his own ambition.
Truth be told, I'd rather have an empty suit like Reardon then a died-in-the-wool liberal like, say, Ron Sims, but still, just calling a spade a spade.
Posted by: Cliff on March 23, 2007 12:54 PM