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We all remember Peter Venkman listing the side effects of a possible Armageddon, "Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, incumbents running against incumbents, mass hysteria!" This fall mass hysteria may be coming to a ballot near you.
Last fall voters passed charter amendments 1A and 1B, which shrunk the King County Council from thirteen seats to nine effective in 2006. Which means that this fall some incumbent council members will have to run against each other to keep their jobs. Every district seat is also up for re-election even though half ran two years ago.
The county was re-districted last January by an independent committee who got their names in the newspaper. While council mainstays such as Larry Phillips, Dow Constantine, Jane Hauge, and Peter von Reichbauer were spared when their districts remained largely unchanged, newcomer Bob Ferguson wasn't so lucky.
Ferguson, who rules over Northeast Seattle's District 2, will be squaring off against District 1 council member Carolyn Edmonds. The new district, which is sure to have that new redistricted smell, will encompass most of Ferguson's territory and Edmond's area of North King County.
Even though both are Democrats they will probably face off in November because of another new rule, which as in Seattle's civic races, states that the two candidates with the most votes in the primary will run against each other in the general. This is different from two years ago when Ferguson beat incumbent Cynthia Sullivan in the primary and didn't have a Republican challenger in November.
Although he supported shrinking the council Ferguson feels that the redistricting committee protected the council's veteran members, telling The Times in January, "What was observed primarily [by the districting committee] was where certain council members live and protecting them. Unfortunately, the redrawing of the lines was politics first and the people second."
Both candidates intent to campaign hard for the position, so we will see if a district with urban and suburban voters living together will put us any closer to the end of the world.
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