A single county position is up this year, and with it comes scandal. The King County Assessor's office is responsible for setting the taxable value (valuation) of residential, personal, and commercial property for property taxes. They do not have influence on what those taxes are (though they have opinions) but are responsible for setting the base number that those taxes are based on.
Here's the current scandal, the current County Assessor, John A Wilson, has served long and well, and has on occasion ran without competition. However, of late he has been hip-deep in personal problems, including stalking and harrasing his ex, at one point being fitted with an ankle monitor to track his migratory habits. The surprise here is that he hasn't stepped down before now (because we kinda take that sort of thing serious in these parts) but he has stated he will not run for re-election. So we have four candidates that are are up for his position.
Al Dams is the Chief Deputy Assessor under the current guy, and has been keeping the lights on over there while his boss was posting taunts from his hot tub. He points out there will be no ramp-up period for a new guy to get his bearing. He has a bunch of endorsements.
Rob Foxcurran was the Senior Appraiser of the City of Seattle, and, as such has been deeply involved in valuations of properties in the city. He also has a whole pack of endorsements.
Christopher Roberts is a former mayor of Shoreline and has managed big budgets and delivered on housing affordability. He is pushing transparency in office and regaining the trust of the electorate. He is also weighing in with a lot of endorsements.
Dominique M Scarimbalo is a wraith. She's on the ballot, has a web site, but has raised no funding according to the Public Disclosure Committee. Nor has she showed up in discussions from The Stranger or the Times of the candidates. According to her Voter's Guide entry, she's proudly not a politician (she runs a brewpub down here in Kent) and is protesting our current tax system overall. So if you want a protest vote of the entire system, have at.
Me? I'm going to go for Robert Foxcurran, who combines both experience in the field with a fresh face and outlook.
More later,
