At least two Democrats have announced plans to run for the position in the State House of Representatives that incumbent Democratic 1st Legislative District State Rep. Luis Moscoso is giving up to run for a position in the State Senate.
The two are Mountlake Terrace City Councilwoman Kyoko Matsumoto-Wright and Kirkland City Councilwoman Shelley Kloba.
Both Kloba and Matsumoto-Wright registered as candidates for the position with the state Public Disclosure Commission last week.
Kloba is a former legislative director for the Washington State PTA. She joined the Kirkland City Council by appointment in 2013. She was elected in November 2013 to serve the remainder of the vacated term, and again in 2015 to serve a full four-year term.
Matsumoto-Wright joined the Mountlake Terrace council by appointment 2008 and won election in 2009 and 2013. She earlier served on the Mountlake Terrace Planning Commission. She is a Realtor.
Registering with the Public Disclosure Commission allows a candidate to raise and spend money for the August primary and November general election. Candidates file for ballot position May16-20.
The top two vote getters for each position in the primary qualify for the general-election ballot.
Republican Ed Barton also has announced that he will seek the House position. Barton had registered with the Public Disclosure Commission as a candidate for the senate position, but announced a change of plans after Moscoso announced that he would leave the position open to seek the senate position.
District Democratic Chairman Dan Willner said Monday that he had heard of two other Democrats who were considering running for the House position.
Moscoso announced in early April that he plans to run for the position that Democratic State Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe is giving up after six four-year terms.
Moscoso has served three two-year terms in the State House.
When Republican Barton said after the April 9 Snohomish County Republican Convention that he would run for the House seat, he said that Republican Art Coday would run for the Senate seat. Democrat Guy Palumbo also has said that he will seek the Senate seat.
Barton ran against Moscoso two years ago.
The 1st Legislative District includes most of Mountlake Terrace, all of Brier and Bothell, north Kirkland, unincorporated areas of King County between Bothell and Kirkland, and unincorporated areas of Snohomish County north and east of Bothell including the Maltby area.
Democratic incumbent Derek Stanford and Republican Brian Travis plan to run for the district’s other seat in the House of Representatives.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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