The political story of this cycle in Washington was written this week not in any newspaper but in a blog, in Horse’s Ass, about King County executive contender David Irons, a Republican seeking to unseat Democrat Ron Sims. It is a story that grows out of the candidate’s personal life – almost though not quite as person as the reportage of the Spokane Spokesman-Review on Mayor James West. West is now saying he plans to sue the Spokesman for invasion of privacy.

There’s been some talk about legal liability in the comments section at Horse’s Ass too, but the Irons story is rather different: Provided in whole by members of the candidate’s family, including his mother and father, who say they will vote against him next month.

That much had gone public already in a column by Joni Balter of the Seattle Times, but none of the details – what underlay the family rift – did. That’s what David Goldstein, proprietor of Horse’s Ass, addressed in his long, and remarkable, October 20 post.

The story it tells is ome of an ugly little family quarrel with roots in the relationships between the members. It became bitter enough that, according to Irons’ mother’s account, the future executive candidate hit her and knocked to her to the floor, then ripped a phone from the wall when she said she would call 9-1-1 (which, apparently, she never did). Irons has denied the incident, and one of his siblings backs him.

Goldstein acknowledges the he said-she said element to the story. But wherever the fire may be burning, there’s smoke aplenty. That has created an uneasy situation for some King Republicans who spent years during the Clinton 90s talking about the importance of character, and how private behavoir can say much about public actions. This family story, which on Friday went onto substantial radio broadcast (including conservative programs) and into the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is throwing a new twist into the Sims-Irons race.