David T. Sumner IV, candidate of the Neopopulist Party for lieutenant governor. Won't that uniform look cool at the rostrum?

OLYMPIA, May 21.—Washington’s election season has finally begun, and it appears this state is going to face one of the hottest cycles in years. It isn’t just the governor’s race, and it isn’t just the down-ballot statewide offices that have come open for the first time in eons.

Washington’s candidate filings, which closed Friday, also set up hotly contested legislative races in the “suburban crescent” around the greater Puget Sound metropolitan area. They established a delightfully nasty spat in the 1^st Congressional District, where Democratic Party leaders thought they had a deal to put a “caretaker” in office for a largely meaningless one-month term, but apparently didn’t check with Democrat Darcy Burner – she filed, and now so has just about everybody else in that crowded race, and there goes any thought of a no-muss, no-fuss transition. There’s also the shocker in the 18^th Legislative District, where longtime Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, decided not to run for re-election but kept the opposition in the dark until after filings had ended, thus attracting only a token opponent and making it likely that with state Rep. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, the seat will remain in Republican hands.

Republicans face strong Democratic challenges in a few districts, but it appears that aggressive recruitment efforts by House and Senate campaign committees give the minority party at the statehouse a chance at making gains this year, and perhaps even a shot at the majority, particularly in the Senate.

As far as the top-of-the-ticket races go, there really aren’t any surprises. Most of the major candidates announced months ago, begging for endorsements and campaign contributions. But the end of filing week settled other important questions. Those of you who had been worrying, you can breathe easy – Goodspaceguy has filed for office once again.

Burner Singes Pelz

When Darcy Burner filed for the one-month term in Congress, everyone had to follow suit.

The biggest drama on the Democratic side came Friday in the 1^st Congressional District north of Seattle, where a crowded field of Democrats is vying to fill the void created when Congressman Jay Inslee abruptly resigned to run for governor in March. Because the district boundaries have changed this year because of redistricting, the state is forced to run a special election on the same ballot, covering the final month of Inslee’s unexpired term. Party chairman Dwight Pelz had called on Dems to restrain themselves and train their attention on the real prize –the two-year term that starts in January. The party found a candidate to run for the December position, Brian Sullivan, a Snohomish County councilman.

But all it took was one candidate to blow the plan to pieces. Ultraliberal Darcy Burner had been outfoxed in the scramble for party support, and the conclusion to her candidacy seemed to come when the state Labor Council decided to back the better-financed Suzan DelBene. But instead of dropping out altogether, Burner decided Friday morning to thumb her nose at Pelz and file for the one-month unexpired term as well as the two-year full term.

And once she entered the race, most all the other candidates for the two-year term had to follow – Democrats DelBene, former state Rep. Laura Ruderman and Nepalese immigrant Darshan Rauniyar, and Republican John Koster. So much for caretakers.

The only major candidate who didn’t file for both positions was state Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens.

A furious chairman Pelz declared: “I am very disappointed that Darcy Burner chose to put her own perceived self interest ahead of that of the public by breaking ranks and filing in both races. Our goal was to minimize voter confusion and maximize the opportunity to elect a Democrat in November in the new 1st District.”

There are a couple of important implications of the Friday free-for-all. One is that all candidates save Hobbs will be able to raise double the money – congressional candidates are limited to $5,000 per donor, but that’s per race, and now they can go back to supporters and ask them to double down. Hobbs issued an angry statement: “This is exactly the kind of financial trickery and shifty politics that voters hate.”

So Hobbs gets a press release. Everyone else gets cash.

The other implication is that if the candidate who wins for the short term also wins for the long one, he or she will have seniority over all the other congressional freshmen who are elected in November. That’s an important thing when it comes to assigning committee positions, office locations, and the all-important congressional parking space.

Republicans Aim to Gain

Sen. Joe Zarelli's decision not to file for re-election was the biggest surprise of filing week.

Zarelli, one of the most powerful players at the statehouse, stunned Olympia when he decided not to file his name for an expected re-election campaign – and somehow he managed to keep it a secret until after filings had closed. Zarelli has been the Senate Republican budget lead since 2004, and was one of the architects of the revolt in the Senate this year that dumped Democrats from the driver’s seat. Zarelli’s retirement was the biggest news that emerged from this year’s legislative filings.

But a more general trend is evident. Republicans have been working the candidate-recruitment process heavily this year, and have placed strong contenders in the suburban-crescent districts of the urban Puget Sound area where they have the best chance of making gains. Most attention goes to the Senate, where the margin is narrowest and Republicans need only pick up three seats to win the majority. “I think we did a better job recruiting candidates,” says state Sen. Mark Schoesler, chairman of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee.

For three open Senate seats now in Democratic hands, Republicans have strong candidates. State Rep. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup, faces only token Democratic opposition in the 25^th District, and in Vancouver’s 49^th, Republican Eileen Qutub, a former Oregon lawmaker, faces Democrat Annette Cleveland. In Spokane’s 3^rd District, Republicans are running city councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin against Democratic state Rep. Andy Billig – and while that district leans heavily to the D side, Schoesler notes that McLaughlin is a rare Republican who has managed to win in Spokane’s inner-city core.

Democrats appear to be targeting only two incumbent Republican senators – Don Benton of Vancouver and Steve Litzow of Mercer Island. Another measure of the recruitment effort: There are four incumbent Republican senators without opposition and only two Democrats.

The Main Events

Republican Rob McKenna and Democrat Jay Inslee, candidates for governor -- without question the year's hottest race.

Everything seemed to play out as expected in the year’s biggest races. Most attention in this state will go to the governor’s race, where Republican Rob McKenna will face Democrat Jay Inslee – a gubernatorial race that is on the national radar screen as one of the country’s most competitive, if not the most. Fund-raising already has climbed over the $10 million mark, and lucky Washingtonians can expect to see hours of top-drawer television advertising come October.

Eight other state offices are on the ballot and three of them are wide-open. For the attorney general’s office, being vacated by McKenna in his bid for governor, major candidates are Republican Reagan Dunn and Democrat Bob Ferguson. Also running is Republican Stephen Pidgeon, best known as sponsor of this year’s anti-gay-marriage initiative.

Auditor candidates, clockwise: Sen. Craig Pridemore, Rep. Mark Miloscia, Rep. Troy Kelley, and James Watkins. At least two and maybe three will lose their parking spots at the Capitol.

A vacancy in the state auditor’s office has attracted Democrats Craig Pridemore, Mark Miloscia and Troy Kelley. All are members of the state Legislature and are giving up their seats to run. James Watkins is running as a Republican.

For secretary of state, major candidates are Democrats Jim Kastama, Kathleen Drew and Greg Nickels, as well as Republican Kim Wyman.

There also are a few challenges to incumbents worth noting. Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark, a Democrat, will face Republican Clint Didier, the former Redskins footballer who garnered major tea party support in his race for U.S. Senate two years ago. Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, a 16-year Democratic incumbent, faces, among major candidates, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Finkbeiner and state Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City.

And then there’s the state’s other big race, for U.S. Senate. Maria Cantwell, a 12-year Democratic incumbent, is being challenged by freshman Sen. Michael Baumgartner. Baumgartner is a bit of an underdog. Cantwell has a $3.4 million advantage in fund-raising. On the other hand, Baumgartner notes that he has more Facebook followers.

And Don’t Forget Goodspaceguy

Seattle's Goodspaceguy, who has legally changed his name so that everyone knows he's the space-colonization candidate.

And then there are all the preennials who help flesh out the ballot and demonstrate that in this country any child can grow up to be president. Or lieutenant governor. Washington State Wire staked out the secretary of state’s office during the final hour before filings closed Friday, and it seemed that the room was filled with familiar faces.

Among the candidates who showed up were Goodspaceguy, making his 13^th try for office – he legally changed his name to ensure everyone knows he’s the candidate who stands for space colonization. This year he’s taking on Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott, as the candidate of the “Employmentwealth Party.”

“With the money we’ve spend, we should have the beginning of space colonies, but we don’t because the people who have been elected have not been knowledgeable about space colonization,” Goodspaceguy explained.

Then there was David T. Sumner IV, another return candidate, who filed for lieutenant governor mainly because the filing fee for governor was too high, and those people at the elections desk – they just weren’t willing to bargain. Sumner showed up wearing the uniform of a Napoleonic cavalryman. “It’s part of the Neopopulist Party thing,” he explained. “We’re calling for big reforms – and I’m personally into 1700s French fashion.”

Last-to-file honors go to Mark Davies, with wife Eva, who will be the Republican-Party standard-bearer in the race for 1st Legislative District against state Rep. Luis Moscoso, D-Bothell. He says you would not believe what that traffic was like, going through Ft. Lewis.

The last guy to make it through the door was Mark T. Davies, who dashed in ten minutes before 5 p.m. He’ll be the Republican Party’s standard-bearer against state Rep. Luis Moscoso, D-Bothell, in the 1^st Legislative District. Davies had been collecting signatures on a petition to file for office, an alternative to paying the filing fee, and he reached the magic number, including safety margin around 500, just before 2 p.m. Then traffic was a killer. “We finally got free once we got past Ft. Lewis,” he said. “If we had grabbed a sandwich before we dashed to the car, we wouldn’t have made it.”

Records at the secretary of state’s office show 631 people filed for statewide, legislative, congressional and judicial positions this year – though that figure appears to leave off a few late filers from county elections offices. And it may drop. Candidates have until the end of the day Monday to withdraw.

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