Published: Sunday, August 16, 2009
Drama in a slow election season
Snohomish County voters are on track to attain their usual level of indifference in primary elections.
At the rate ballots are trickling in for Tuesday’s election, turnout will reach 29 percent. That, believe it or not, would be an above average level of voter excitement in primaries held in odd years since 2003.
Obviously when voters aren’t picking presidents, they don’t find it all that intriguing to be narrowing the field in contests for city council, mayoral and school board seats.
Even where voters have a chance to knock out incumbents such as mayors in Monroe, Lynnwood and Granite Falls — and Snohomish County Councilman Dave Somers — there’s been no surge in activity.
That’s no guarantee for the officeholders. Predicting winners and losers is really dicey when only a few hundred people cast ballots, making a handful of votes the difference between finishing first or last.
The biggest bloc of voters staying home this week will likely be independents.
Traditionally those from the left and right edges of the political spectrum show up every election and candidates with strong support in one of those sectors can do very well.
Monroe will provide a good test of this theory.
Mayor Donnetta Walser is a Democrat and likely will gobble up votes of those on the political left.
Councilman Mitch Ruth and former Councilman Robert Zimmerman, her two opponents, are associated with the Republican Party. Ruth’s politics tend toward the party’s middle and Zimmerman's toward its right.
Conventional wisdom says they’ll split the GOP vote with only one advancing against the incumbent, though voters may not adhere to convention.
The one place where all voters are fired up is Woodway.
Residents there are deciding two pocketbook issues — taxes to run the town and a bond to buy a convent to use as City Hall. As of Thursday morning — the last available statistics — 413 of the town’s 927 registered voters, or 45 percent, had cast ballots. They could double that by Tuesday.
Many more voters will awaken in November as issues heat up and new contests arrive.
One of the tougher competitions will be among those vying to succeed the late Judge James Allendoerfer on the Snohomish County Superior Court.
Candidates can start filing Wednesday but attorneys Joe Wilson and Rico Tessandore already are out campaigning for the post.
In 2008, Wilson ran for a different Superior Court seat. He spent $167,000 in what turned out to be a lopsided loss to George Appel.
Tessandore is a friend of Appel’s and was encouraged by him to run. He’s also snared endorsements of two people who backed Wilson — state Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, and former Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart, a Republican.
This race is already stirring talk in county political circles and is bound to attract attention among voters this fall.
For now, it’s all about Tuesday — if you’re interested.
Political reporter Jerry Cornfield’s blog, The Petri Dish, is at www.heraldnet.com. Contact him at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
At the rate ballots are trickling in for Tuesday’s election, turnout will reach 29 percent. That, believe it or not, would be an above average level of voter excitement in primaries held in odd years since 2003.
Obviously when voters aren’t picking presidents, they don’t find it all that intriguing to be narrowing the field in contests for city council, mayoral and school board seats.
Even where voters have a chance to knock out incumbents such as mayors in Monroe, Lynnwood and Granite Falls — and Snohomish County Councilman Dave Somers — there’s been no surge in activity.
That’s no guarantee for the officeholders. Predicting winners and losers is really dicey when only a few hundred people cast ballots, making a handful of votes the difference between finishing first or last.
The biggest bloc of voters staying home this week will likely be independents.
Traditionally those from the left and right edges of the political spectrum show up every election and candidates with strong support in one of those sectors can do very well.
Monroe will provide a good test of this theory.
Mayor Donnetta Walser is a Democrat and likely will gobble up votes of those on the political left.
Councilman Mitch Ruth and former Councilman Robert Zimmerman, her two opponents, are associated with the Republican Party. Ruth’s politics tend toward the party’s middle and Zimmerman's toward its right.
Conventional wisdom says they’ll split the GOP vote with only one advancing against the incumbent, though voters may not adhere to convention.
The one place where all voters are fired up is Woodway.
Residents there are deciding two pocketbook issues — taxes to run the town and a bond to buy a convent to use as City Hall. As of Thursday morning — the last available statistics — 413 of the town’s 927 registered voters, or 45 percent, had cast ballots. They could double that by Tuesday.
Many more voters will awaken in November as issues heat up and new contests arrive.
One of the tougher competitions will be among those vying to succeed the late Judge James Allendoerfer on the Snohomish County Superior Court.
Candidates can start filing Wednesday but attorneys Joe Wilson and Rico Tessandore already are out campaigning for the post.
In 2008, Wilson ran for a different Superior Court seat. He spent $167,000 in what turned out to be a lopsided loss to George Appel.
Tessandore is a friend of Appel’s and was encouraged by him to run. He’s also snared endorsements of two people who backed Wilson — state Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, and former Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart, a Republican.
This race is already stirring talk in county political circles and is bound to attract attention among voters this fall.
For now, it’s all about Tuesday — if you’re interested.
Political reporter Jerry Cornfield’s blog, The Petri Dish, is at www.heraldnet.com. Contact him at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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