EVERETT — A pandemic didn’t dampen people’s political aspirations.
Open seats in the state House and other offices drew a crowd of hopefuls as candidate filing came to a close Friday.
Dozens of hopefuls signed up to run for state and federal offices, and a seat on the Snohomish County Council.
Three people will compete to succeed Rep. Jared Mead, D-Mill Creek, who is not seeking re-election after getting appointed to the Snohomish County Council.
Two Democrats, Anne Anderson of Lake Stevens and April Berg of Mill Creek, and one Republican, Mark James of Marysville, are seeking the two-year legislative job representing the 44th District including the cities of Mill Creek, Snohomish, Marysville and Lake Stevens.
James and Berg now hold elected office. He is a Marysville City Councilman and she is on the Everett School District Board of Directors. Anderson is the executive director of Victim Support Services.
Meanwhile, Snohomish Mayor John Kartak, a Republican, filed to challenge incumbent Rep. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, for the district’s other House seat.
In the 10th District, five people are vying to succeed Republican state Rep. Norma Smith, who is retiring. The district takes in all of Island County and slivers of Snohomish and Skagit counties.
Four Democrats — Suzanne Woodard of Clinton, Ivan Lewis of Greenbank, Angie Homola of Oak Harbor and Scott McMullen of Mount Vernon — and one Republican, Greg Gilday of Stanwood, are seeking the two-year post.
A bevy of challengers filed to take on each of the county’s Democratic members of Congress.
U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen of Everett picked up five opponents: Democrat Jason Call of Marysville and Republicans Timothy Hazelo of Oak Harbor, Kari Ilonummi of Arlington, Cody Hart of Sedro-Woolley and James Dean Golder of Oak Harbor.
U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene of Medina will be opposed by a crowd of candidates, including Republicans Jeffrey Beeler, a Sultan City Councilmember, and Derek Chartrand of Redmond; Libertarian Steven Skelton of Snohomish; and Robert Mair, of Redmond, who is not stating a party preference. Beeler and Mair also ran for the seat in 2018.
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, of Seattle, will face Republicans Craig Keller and Scott Sutherland. Keller ran for the seat in 2014 and 2016 as well.
All statewide executive jobs will be on the ballot, with Gov. Jay Inslee’s pursuit of a rare third term sure to grab much of the spotlight.
More than 30 people, from initiative activist Tim Eyman to perennial candidate Goodspaceguy, have signed up to challenge the governor in the August primary.
But the most competitive race ahead of the August primary may be for lieutenant governor. The job is coming open as Democratic Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib is retiring.
Three prominent Democrats — state Sens. Steve Hobbs of Lake Stevens and Marko Liias of Lynnwood, and Congressman Denny Heck of Olympia — are in. On the Republican side, Marty McClendon, who lost to Habib in 2016, is vying again.
And Democratic Snohomish County Councilman Jared Mead of Mill Creek, who was appointed to the job in April, will be running to retain his seat through 2021. He’ll face three challengers: Democrat Amber King, Republican Brenda Carrington and Independent Delia O’Malley.
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