As the Seattle Times reported on Saturday, State Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz hosted a meeting at party headquarters last Tuesday to pressure certain Democrats who were gearing up to run for the non-partisan office to bow out in favor of Sherril Huff.
By various reports, attending the meeting were Pelz, County Councilman Dow Constantine, County Democrat Chairman Susan Sheary, consultants Christian Sinderman, Blair Butterworth and Cindi Laws, and candidates Huff, Ellen Hansen and Ross Baker.
Hansen had been quoted on Monday insisting that she was running and wouldn't be deterred by Huff. Baker had already filed contribution reports with the PDC. Neither filed for the office. Jason Osgood, who was not at the meeting, also pulled out of the race on Tuesday (after filing with the PDC) and endorsed Huff. Osgood's effusive endorsement was particularly odd, given the appropriately harsh criticism that Osgood and his supporters have been directing at Huff for the last few years.
The "read between the lines" understanding among people who are familiar with the discussions is that Osgood and Hansen were promised jobs to get out of the race and Baker was promised help with a bid for Seattle City Council.
Naturally, folks who were at the meeting claimed that "They weren't pressured into bowing out and weren't offered anything for doing so". What would one expect them to say even (especially) if there were pressure and inducements to bow out? But why would these folks go to a meeting to discuss this at Democratic Party HQ in the first place?
Port Commissioner Lloyd Hara, another Democrat who was preparing to run and had filed with the PDC, did not attend the Pelz-Huff meeting. Sources close to Hara tell me that he intended to file candidacy papers on Friday, but a family member suffered a serious injury that day which required Hara's attention and prevented him from going to Renton.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 15, 2008 01:03 PM | Email ThisThat's right. He was appalled. And it only took him 48 hours to realize it. ...
... You can understand why a shrewd, ambitious young state senator would be reluctant to renounce the political culture and the political establishment that spawned Rod Blagojevich. But can someone tell Obama he's been elected president?
What fun!
We'll be here to pick up the pieces.
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on December 15, 2008 01:56 PMLet this be a lesson to everyone: Always file on the first day of filing.
Posted by: Foaming Solvent on December 15, 2008 02:23 PMIn the meantime, the Republican Party needs to get rid of the Neo-cons. I came across an interesting article by Alexander Haig, who said; "We should get rid of all of the Neo-cons" (i.e. Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz and many others) - they have been shown to be the Republi-con men. They have decimated the Republican party and the perception is that the religious right and the neo-cons are melding together toward a theocracy. Kevin Phillips has written about this and it seems to have legs these days. If this stirs up the conservatives, so be it but in politics, perception is reality.
Posted by: KS on December 15, 2008 08:36 PMAny word if Fisken was there? Rumor was that he had also been pretty geared up for the race.
To get that many candidates to drop out at the last second really is striking.
Posted by: Anthony on December 15, 2008 09:05 PMFor someone who wanted republican support he never supported any republicans so he cooked his own goose. He is a capable member of a council but not capable of being the executive of this department.
Sherril Huff is very qualified... to be Supervisor of Elections but not as Elections Director. She is good at the day to day management of the operation and has fixed the culture of the department but being Director is a much different story. That is about stepping away from day to day and seeing the bigger picture and working the political scene. She doesn't have that skill set.
While she secured a local address she still doesn't live in the county, and won't.
David Irons is the best candidate for the job. He has executive as well as elected experience and has a deep understanding of the job and the skill set to execute it. He also would open the department up to outside auditing and reporting to make the process transparent and accountable.
No one else that is in the race is qualified or a viable candidate.