Local Politics

And then they kicked me out of the 9th District.

No, no, wait. I am playing fast and loose with the truth. That's what happens when I don't get my official talking points.

I earlier mentioned both the Republican and Democratic held conventions in an attempt to avoid anything like democracy creeping into their choices for the the rejiggered King County Council. And I mentioned how the State GOP was having their hands full with two candidates in the 9th who are still running (Hammond and Dunn) after all the voting was supposed done and the State Dems have a similar problems with the 1st district (Edmonds and Ferguson). The two conflicts are different in the details - on the GOP side both candidates agreed that the loser would drop out. For the Dems, both stated they would stay in the race regardless of the outcome. Well, at least the Dems were honest with themselves.

And I was looking forward to watching a lot of the mailings and fireworks in the 9th District between organization darling Dunn and downcounty minister Hammond. I was particularly looking forward to the mailers. Sadly, it is not to be. I got my official voter's card (which you have to cut out using scissors, sort of like joining the Mighty Marvel Marching Society), and, lo and behold, I have been rezoned to the 5th District, which includes Parts of Renton, most of Kent, and SeaTac airport. And so I'm a little disappointed.

Now, to be fair, I really did think I was in the 9th. All the maps I saw were these little things that showed all of King County, so the exact borders were kinda flaky. I thought the edge of the 5th was Route 167. Or at worst Benson. But no, the border lies to the east, and I have been consigned to the 5th, not the 9th. Which is sad because I tend to identify with the more rural turf to the west of here than the housing developments, light industry, and superfund sites to the east.

Now here's the interesting thing - the new 9th has a long, chunky neck leading up to the population centers of southern Bellevue. Where a lot of developers are based. And the 9th also includes a lot of the land to the south and east, where the developers want to develop. So all of them are now in the same district, while towns that are going to have to deal with the increased traffic load (like Kent and Renton) are in another district entirely. Strange how all that worked out.

But that's not my worry, because I am in the 5th, which means I will be looking at Julia Patterson (Democrat, incumbant) versus Orin (Not Orson) Wells (GOP). And as things heat up, I will pass along the information. But I gotta tell you, this took a lot of wind out of my sails.

More later,