County officials oppose presidential primary

OLYMPIA — County officials, reluctantly backed by Secretary of State Sam Reed, on Friday urged the Legislature to cancel next year’s scheduled Washington presidential primary.

Reed, the state’s chief elections officer and a staunch backer of the primary, gave in as pressure for cancellation of the election mounted. "It can’t pass the straight-face test" to run a meaningless beauty-contest election during a recession, he said.

The Washington State Association of Counties and Washington Association of County Officials, meeting in joint session in SeaTac, approved a resolution saying, "The election is estimated to cost $6.2 million without a meaningful purpose."

The officials, including the 39 county auditors who run elections, requested that Gov. Gary Locke call a one-day session in early December, when lawmakers already are scheduled to be in Olympia for committee meetings.

That would minimize the cost of the session and would halt the election in time for taxpayers to save the entire amount, officials said. If the Legislature waits until the January session to pass such a bill, counties would be forced to do about $2.5 million worth of useless preparation, they said.

Reed said he has decided to go along with the cancellation, as long as it’s for one time only. He said he wants lawmakers to "emphatically underscore" the state’s long-term commitment to letting all voters, not just party activists, vote on White House nominees.

"When push comes to shove, in economic terms, you can’t really argue with that (cancellation)," he said.

Locke supports the special session if there is consensus in the House and Senate, if the session is limited to that lone subject, and if lawmakers can agree ahead of time on what to do with the $6.2 million in savings, said Marty Brown, state budget director and acting chief of staff.

A number of lawmakers, led by Locke’s fellow Democrats, say the election would be a huge waste of money.

State Democrats have been told by their national party that they can’t allocate national convention delegates via the March 2 primary. That’s because the Democrats already had opted to choose most delegates through precinct caucuses on Feb. 7. The Democratic National Committee said the hybrid system would be too confusing to voters and unfair to candidates.

Critics also note that Republicans have no true primary contest this year, with President Bush a shoo-in for the nomination.

Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, has drafted a bill to suspend the election for 2004 only.

The primary was created in 1989 as an initiative to the Legislature.

Some sponsors want to shift the money to health care for the working poor, or some other purpose. Brown said lawmakers should either use it on post-Florida election upgrades or add it to the state’s reserves for possible use next year.

"In this time of tight budgets, when counties and state government are pinching pennies and stretching every dollar, it makes sense to forgo this expenditure and save millions of taxpayer dollars," said Mary Dodge, Douglas County treasurer and president of the county officials.

Suzanne Sinclair, Island County auditor and head of the state association of auditors, said "it’s a shame" that the two parties aren’t using the primary for 100 percent of their delegates. But for now, cancellation makes sense, she said in an interview.