Two front-runners vying to fill Mike Cooper’s former seat on the Snohomish County Council have spent much of the past week and a half drumming up endorsements.
The Edmonds City Council picked Cooper July 20 to replace former Mayor Gary Haakenson, after Haakenson left to take a top post in the county executive’s office.
Lynnwood City Council Vice President Stephanie Wright and Edmonds City Councilman D.J. Wilson want to fill the remaining 17 months of Cooper’s term as the county’s representative from District 3.
Haakenson is backing Wright.
“I think it’s high time that we had a woman on the council,” said Haakenson, who isn’t aligned with Democrats or Republicans. “I think she’ll do a fine job.”
The last woman to serve there was Barbara Cothern Hawksford, who left office at the end of 2001.
Because Cooper is a Democrat, the Snohomish County Democratic Party gets to nominate three people to fill his seat and rank them in order. That’s likely to happen today, when the party’s precinct committee officers are scheduled to vote. The final decision rests with the County Council and is likely within a couple of weeks.
County Council members haven’t always gone with the party’s pick.
Last year, they selected veteran deputy prosecuting attorney Mark Roe to replace Janice Ellis as the county’s prosecuting attorney. Jim Kenny, a Snohomish County fire commissioner and an assistant Seattle city prosecutor, had more votes from precinct committee officers than Roe. Kenny is running against Roe for a full four-year term in this November’s election.
Wright’s other high-level endorsements include County Executive Aaron Reardon, County Councilman Brian Sullivan and the union that represents a majority of Snohomish County’s workers.
Cooper is staying neutral.
His legislative aide while at the county, Kim Cole, is backing D.J. Wilson. She and Wright both sit on the Lynnwood City Council.
Wilson’s endorsement list includes past county Democratic Party chairman Mark Hintz, Edmonds Foundation executive director Kerry Ayers and Priya Cloutier from the Snohomish County Democratic Central Committee.
Wright and Wilson both list support from state Sen. Paull Shin, D-Edmonds. Shin said Friday he has known both a long time and is making a dual endorsement.
Wright, 37, is a teacher and librarian in the Northshore School District. She said if she gets the county job she would like to focus on finances and land-use decisions.
Wilson, 34, owns a public-policy consulting company. He said he would try to define what county government should look like as it loses revenue because of a declining economy and annexations.
Lynnwood community advocate Maria Ambalada, 74, also is interested in Cooper’s seat.
Ambalada said she would offer a positive attitude working to protect the environment, look out for senior citizens and to better include minority groups in civic life.
The Democratic Party’s naming convention begins at 10 a.m. today at the Labor Temple in downtown Everett. There are 58 precinct committee officers in the County Council’s District 3, the seat Cooper represented. They will caucus to pick three names.
Precinct committee officers for the whole county have to ratify their choices. Not all are expected to attend.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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