Posts published in “Day: October 7, 2007”

Jane Hague

Richard Pope

There's ever a debate among political strategists, on how much to concentrate one's efforts on the best shots at a win, as opposed to spreading resources more widely, to cover all bases. There's no perfect answer. But we lean toward the second view - doing the best you can to fill all your ballot slots - because so often, well, things happen, and wild cards flip up.

Today's case in point is the race for the King County Council District 6 seat, which wasn't supposed to be much of a contest.

District 6 is directly east of Seattle, anchored by Bellevue, and taking in a clutch of cities around it: Mercer Island to the southwest, Medina, Clyde Hill and Hunt Point to the west, Kirkland and a small piece of Redmond to the north - an area which over the course of several decades has voted mostly Republican. This seat has had long-running political stability, and its council member, Republican Jane Hague, has held the seat (formerly seat 11) since 1993. She was unopposed for it in 2001 and 2005. In 2004 she launched a run for the U.S. House against Democrat Jay Inslee, and newspaper reports at the time described her as the strongest Republican congressional challenger in the state that year, until she unexpectedly pulled out. Seeking re-election this year, this would seem to be a contest Democratic strategists might pass over.

And they mostly did, and you can bet there's some knashing of teeth and rending of garments in those quarters now.

One reason for that was predictable, because the District 6 area, so strongly Republican for so long, has been trending Democratic in the last few elections, and it will be a U.S. House hotspot next year. This is competitive turf which Democrats could make more competitive by running hard here in advance of next year.

The other reason was unexpected.

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