Partisanship takes back seat to survival as King County Council shrinks

For fans of political sadism, nothing is more fun to watch than redistricting, with its potential for ending lawmakers' careers merely by moving lines on a map.

A hurried effort to carve up the King County Council promises more political gore than most such exercises, however. Before a single boundary is redrawn, several politicians are doomed already.

Speculation is rampant around the county courthouse about who are the likeliest victims of an unprecedented redistricting process that gets rid of four of the 13 council districts, along with their occupants. It is the result of Initiative 18, which King County voters passed Nov. 2 to shrink the council to nine members.

Two members are leaving voluntarily, leaving less political blood to spill.

Dwight Pelz, a Democrat, will run for the Seattle City Council next year, so his District 5 in southeast Seattle, Tukwila and Renton can be absorbed into adjoining districts that grow bigger. Rob McKenna, a Republican, becomes state attorney general next month, so his District 6 covering Newcastle, Mercer Island and south Bellevue can be erased.

So which two of the remaining 11 council members might be most in danger of leaving office unwillingly?

Since the process is bipartisan, conducted by a citizens committee of two Democrats, two Republicans and an ostensibly non-partisan chairman, achieving a consensus might require sacrificing one Republican and one Democrat.

Democrats and Republicans alike speculate that Bob Ferguson, a Northeast Seattle Democrat from District 2, and David Irons Jr., a Sammamish Republican from District 12, are the likeliest targets of a council coalition that many think might be able to pull the redistricting levers.

The coalition consists of six of the seven majority Democrats -- all but Ferguson -- and two moderate Republicans, Jane Hague and Pete von Reichbauer, whose reward might be safe districts.

Ferguson and Irons could find their districts disappearing into those of neighboring council members as each of the nine new districts grows in population from about 138,000 of the county's 1.8 million residents to nearly 200,000. That could tempt them to move to adjoining districts.

"There are certainly members that are inside the tent and members that are outside the tent," said a courthouse political veteran, who like many sources requested anonymity because the issue is so touchy.

"And because you have members of both parties that are in the tent, I think they can move pretty quickly (to develop a redistricting plan) ... because for the first time ever in redistricting, self-preservation outweighs partisan politics."

In most congressional, state legislative or county redistricting, party control is the primary goal. Council Democrats expect to win at least five of the nine new seats just as council Republicans hope the redrawing of boundaries gives them a majority.

But since council districts this time aren't being merely reshuffled but reduced in number, individual survival seems to be the top goal.

Councilwoman Kathy Lambert, R-Redmond, said several council Democrats have told her privately "that the two people that (the coalition) want out are David Irons and Bob Ferguson because they both campaigned on the (I-18) issue."

Other sources, including Democrats, said Initiative 18 opponents feel that since Ferguson was the only Democrat now on the council who favored it, he should live with its consequences. And some Democrats dislike Irons for his vocal support of I-18 and other conservative causes.

Most council members profess to be too busy doing their jobs to worry about how the district lines are redrawn. Lambert, however, said, "Everybody is playing with maps."

Council Chairman Larry Phillips, D-Seattle, asked how he thinks it will turn out, replied, "I'm staying out of it. I will let all the others who are scared to death run the rumor mill."

The angst all stems from an act of revenge by the King County Corrections Guild, which sponsored I-18 after the council adopted a 2003 budget reducing the number of jail guards represented by the guild.

On the council, I-18's strongest backers were conservative Republicans. Democrats opposed it. But Ferguson campaigned on it in 2003 and unseated fellow Democrat and council Chairwoman Cynthia Sullivan -- although his District 2 constituents voted against it last month.

Some redistricting watchers suggest that Ferguson could end up running once more against a Democratic council chairman -- this time Phillips.

The theory is that Ferguson, who represents north-central and Northeast Seattle, might be thrust into the Shoreline-to-Bothell district of Democrat Carolyn Edmonds. If so, he could move into Phillips' district, now consisting of Queen Anne and northwest Seattle, where Ferguson grew up and has strong family ties.

Other council members are well aware of Ferguson's tireless campaigning: he rang the doorbells of 22,000 households to beat Sullivan.

"I like my district. I don't care how the (district) lines are being drawn because I plan on running and I plan on winning," Ferguson said.

Phillips, without mentioning any potential opponent, said, "I have door-belled the hell out of my district several times, been to every door in my district. ... For all those out there who think they're going to catch me napping, not a chance, not a chance."

Similar to Ferguson, Irons could see his district disappear and end up with a fellow Republican, possibly in Lambert's vast northeast King County district. Lambert is an ally. But Irons, too, could move and run against Hague, whose district covers Kirkland and most of Bellevue and could grow into McKenna's.

There is another unknown: When McKenna resigns Jan. 12, the council must appoint a successor nominated by Republicans in his district to serve for a year. The successor might or might not be someone who intends to run for the seat -- or for Hague's, if McKenna's district ceases to exist.

Reagan Dunn, an assistant U.S. attorney and son of a local GOP icon, retiring U.S. Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Bellevue, reportedly has shown interest in succeeding McKenna, probably for longer than merely a year.

A typical redistricting process, including public hearings, takes 10 months or more. But I-18 requires the process to be completed by Jan. 15 -- 51 days from when the redistricting committee first met Nov. 24.

The panel must divide the county into nine districts of equal population. The population data will be four years out of date, though, since redistricting must be based on the last decennial census, in this case 2000.

Lambert, Irons and Steve Hammond, Republicans who represent rural eastern King County, want three Seattle, three suburban and three rural districts. The problem, though, is that rural areas outside the county's urban growth boundary lack sufficient population, less than 8 percent of the countywide population.

Last week, the four-member districting committee appointed a non-partisan chairman, Steve Ohlenkamp, a Seattle business and public-affairs consultant and lobbyist and a former County Council chief of staff.

The initial panel was agreed upon by six Democrats plus von Reichbauer and Hague. The council's four other Republicans, including Irons, tried unsuccessfully to substitute veteran GOP lawyer Dick Derham for retired Quadrant Corp. President Steve Dennis as one of the Republican appointees.

The council unanimously supported the other three, one of them Issaquah developer Skip Rowley, a Republican and a friend of several Republican council members, but particularly of von Reichbauer.

Another flap arose last week when the committee chose Ohlenkamp, who calls himself a political independent. Although he is respected around the courthouse and was chief of staff to former County Executive Tim Hill, a Republican, he has political and professional ties to current County Executive Ron Sims, a Democrat -- and to Hague.

Irons and Lambert, among other Republicans, have complained about the redistricting chairman being someone who lobbies them.

Ohlenkamp "directly makes his money by getting (legislation) through the very people he is going to select," Lambert said. Ohlenkamp, however, said being on the districting committee could hurt more than help his business.

On top of everything else, council members must fret about whose district gets assigned which number.

All nine new council seats will be on the November 2005 ballot. But to stagger the terms, candidates in the five odd-numbered districts will run for four-year terms, and those in the four even-numbered districts for two-year terms. In subsequent years, all terms will be four years.

P-I reporter Neil Modie can be reached at 206-448-8321 or neilmodie@seattlepi.com

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