Also I do wish that someone was running who will finially admit that King County needs to be split into 4 or 5 new counties. We are too Seattle centered.

But if you’re looking for a candidate who is going to try even harder to force annexations of unincorporated areas, look no further than Ross Hunter, who pushed bills in Olympia that would have denied all state transportation grants to any city that didn’t annex adjacent unincorporated areas (unsuccessfully) and that established a new annexation procedure that eliminates the right of the residents of that area to vote on the annexation (successfully). That goes too far in my opinion.

I’m supporting Dow because he sticks by his guns even when his position isn’t necessarily popular, both in the Legislature and on the Council. He took on the incredibly challenging task of writing the 2004 Critical Areas Ordinance and got death threats and police protection as a result, but it was absolutely the right thing to do from a growth management and habitat protection perspective. I don’t mean this as an attack on Larry, but he has never really been known as a go-to-guy on issues that he doesn’t see as surefire political winners. Between these two guys for executive, I’m more confident that Dow, once in office, will be a vocal public advocate for transit and will fill the ST board with known supporters.