King County Council, Reagan Dunn on the left. Photo by John Ryan.

Big Bucks, Few Contenders in King County Council Races

10/29/2009

Election season brings lots of attack ads and bitter debates between candidates. But some of the races in the Seattle area aren't exactly nail–biters this year. Most of the candidates for King County Council are running unopposed. Even so, they've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to get re–elected.

The King County Council makes laws and controls the purse strings of the 13th most populous county in the United States. But at this week's meeting of the full council, just a handful of citizens sat in the audience.

Constantine: "This is a public hearing on proposed ordinance 2009–0509. Does anyone wish to testify? Seeing no one come forward, the hearing is closed. Councilmember Hague..."

The council's work isn't always exciting to watch. But the council's nine members hold powerful positions.

Council clerk: "Councilmember Dunn? Councilmember Ferguson? Councilmember Gossett?..."

So why is there so little interest in their jobs? Four out of the five council races on this year's ballot have only one candidate: the incumbent.

Councilmember Reagan Dunn represents the southeastern part of King County.

Dunn: "Unfortunately, I think more and more it is typical of what's happening with the county council races. Personally I believe it's very, very important that incumbent members of any elected body are challenged."

Dunn does have a challenger for his seat. But the Public Disclosure Commission reports that only Dunn has raised any money. He's up to almost $400,000 now. And he's spent a $250,000 of that.

Dunn has been actively fundraising for this race since he was elected four years ago. He says money talks, but early money shouts.

Dunn: "It just means if you raise the money early, it helps you more than if you raise it late. It tends to fend off serious opponents."

Dunn says his four–year term allows enough time to fundraise without interfering with his work on the council. He says he's proud of his accomplishments, like preserving open space and improving public safety.

Dunn: "I can't do that work if I don't have the job, and if I get unelected or if I get beat by somebody who's more aggressive, more savvy, raises more money, then what good does it do the public if I can't be there?"

Tonda: "To even think of spending over $100,000 on a county council seat is just wrong."

Beverly Harison Tonda is Dunn's challenger.

Tonda: "It eliminates so many great people that maybe would do a better job than me and a better job than Reagan Dunn, but they're intimidated by the fact that they don't have the money in order to run a campaign."

Tonda is a financial trainer from Maple Valley. She says she's spent less than $4,000 of her own money and $500 from her dad. She says she's determined to run her campaign on a tight budget, and she's turned down offers of campaign contributions.

Tonda: "I'm not about sending junk mail to people's homes, and maybe that's why I'll lose because I didn't send junk mail to people's homes. I just knock on people's doors, and I talk to as many people as I can."

County Council races are nonpartisan this year, for the first time. Reagan Dunn was elected as a Republican. Beverly Tonda says she wants to lower taxes and improve rural property rights. Tonda got 20 percent of the vote in the primary. Dunn got 73.

With her incumbent opponent outspending her about 100 to 1, Tonda realizes she doesn't have a strong chance of winning. But she says it's the people's responsibility to question their government.

Tonda: "I said to myself, I cannot wake up on Nov. 4 not having at least tried."

Political scientist Mark Smith at the University of Washington says it's never easy to knock off an incumbent. And in the county's newly nonpartisan races, political parties no longer recruit new candidates. But Smith is still surprised by the dearth of contenders for the county council.

Smith: "I would have expected more people to run for the county council just because in tough budget times it's not too hard to gin up some distrust of the county government as a whole and start pointing fingers and say, well, if you had done this, this and this, we wouldn't be in this situation."

The county's largest cities are Seattle, Bellevue and Federal Way. Every city council incumbent up for re–election in those cities has an opponent.

The four county councilmembers who have no opponents have raised more than $100,000 on average. Councilmember Bob Ferguson raised the most. He says he raised most of his funds before he knew he would run unopposed.

Ferguson: "You have to assume you're going to have an opponent, right, and prepare as if you're going to have an opponent, a candidate who waits until filing week ends to look around and see if they hav an opponent or not, is asking for trouble."

Ferguson says that's how he was able to unseat 20–year incumbent Cynthia Sullivan in 2003. He says with district–based positions like the county council, it is possible to defeat an incumbent without massive sums of money.

Ferguson: "With a district, you can do it the way I did it, I knocked on doors. I was outspent 2–1 by my opponent, but I was able to knock on 22,000 doors."

The state legislature tried to make it easier for challengers without deep pockets. Last year, it ended a ban on public financing of local campaigns. Now local governments have the option of providing campaign funds to anyone who raises a modest sum on their own. But public campaign funding is unlikely in an economic climate that has local governments cutting even basic services. I'm John Ryan, KUOW News.

© Copyright 2009, KUOW