Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart will run for county executive in 2007, he announced Feb. 9.
“You can expect me to go after this position with the same tenacity I showed as a homicide detective,” Bart said. “I’m not going after this to lose.”
The sheriff, a Republican, said he filed now so he could start raising money and making plans to challenge Democratic County Executive Aaron Reardon.
The two have been at odds since Reardon took office in 2004.
Reardon said he was surprised by Bart’s decision to declare now.
“I think Rick owes it to the citizens to focus on the job he has and not politicize public safety,” Reardon said.
Reardon filed to run for re-election Oct. 4, just 10 months into his first year as county executive, and already is collecting campaign donations.
Reardon said in November that he filed because his agenda won’t be accomplished in four years. He said Feb. 9 he doesn’t plan to make a final decision on whether to seek re-election until 2007.
“I’m not even thinking about that now,” Reardon said.
Bart said he received hundreds of calls from people urging him to run after he announced he was considering the job. Some offered money, which he had to turn down because he wasn’t yet a candidate.
Bart registered Feb. 1 with the state Public Disclosure Commission, allowing him to accept campaign donations. He expects to need at least $250,000 for a successful campaign.
Bart, who is starting his 10th year as sheriff, cannot run again for that job because of term limits.
Steve Neighbors, chairman of the Snohomish County Republican Party, said Bart is a strong candidate for county executive.
“Sheriff Bart is well respected. … He’s done a great job as sheriff and has a good record to run on,” Neighbors said.
Bart and Reardon have spent the past year arguing about public safety.
The biggest sparks flew over the county’s 2005 budget. Law and justice programs make up about 70 percent of the county’s $174 million general fund, or about 18 percent of the county’s total budget.
“Law and justice is my No. 1 priority,” Bart said. “Even in lean budget years, I’m not going to approach the sheriff or the prosecutor or the courts and say there’s going to be major budget cuts.”
Last year, Reardon asked the sheriff to cut his budget by 2 percent. Instead, Bart asked for 97 new deputies and $17 million to pay for new equipment and services during the budget year.
He told Reardon that he would have to let 13 deputies go if he had to make the $765,000 in cuts Reardon wanted.
At that time, the county had planned to devote $41.9 million to the sheriff’s office in the 2005 budget.
The County Council turned down some of Reardon’s proposed cuts to Bart’s department, and no deputies were laid off.
“Public safety has been one of the priorities of my administration the first year I’ve been in office, and will be the next three years,” Reardon said, saying his budget actually increased overall law and justice spending.
Katherine Schiffner is a reporter with The Herald in Everett.
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