First official candidate files for county executive
Published 9:00 pm Friday, March 1, 2002
By Warren Cornwall
Herald Writer
The race for the Snohomish County executive’s chair has officially begun, more than a year and a half before voters will cast any ballots.
Kevin Quigley, 44, an Internet executive from Lake Stevens and former Democratic state senator, in mid-February spelled out his candidacy in documents filed with the state’s campaign finance watchdog.
That makes him the first of a group of rumored candidates to officially start pursuing what could be a crowded race for executive. Three-term executive Bob Drewel, a Democrat, is barred from running again by term limits, leaving the Democratic nomination open.
Ray Stephanson, a 55-year-old Verizon executive and former Everett City Council member, said he also is contemplating entering the race as a Democrat.
With the county facing budget shortfalls and cutbacks, Quigley said his chief message would be the need to restructure county government.
"You’re going to have to refocus on having less resources and fewer priorities, and that’s a sea change. That’s turning a corner on doing something fundamentally differently," he said.
Quigley said his top priorities would be public safety and public health.
He was born in Lake Stevens and was senator for the 39th Legislative District from 1992 to 1996. After that, he became an executive for Teledesic, a satellite communications firm based in Kirkland, before shifting to help head Gear.com, an Internet retailing site later bought by another company.
In 2001 he made a failed bid to fill the Snohomish County Council seat left open by Rick Larsen’s election to Congress. A finalist, he was passed over for Silvana farmer Mike Ashley to fill the one-year term. Quigley is now president of Everett Shipyard, a shipbuilding and repair company. He is married and has four children.
Stephanson, an Everett native, served on the city council from 1982 to 1988, and led the city’s economic development effort from 1996 to 1998. He has worked for Verizon, formerly GTE, for 32 years, rising to the rank of director of the telecommunications company’s division overseeing underground utilities. He is married and has three children.
Quigley said he filed his candidacy early because people began sending him money for his campaign. State law requires people to file campaign papers when they begin asking for or collecting money.
You can call Herald Writer Warren Cornwall at 425-339-3463 or send e-mail to cornwall@heraldnet.com.
