Where's Logan? Somewhere, smiling

Outgoing King County Elections Director Dean Logan is a competent professional and solid public servant caught in the crossfire of the extremely close 2004 governor's election.

He endured a crisis and tried to turn around an office that was problem-plagued well before he arrived. His decision to take the No. 2 job with Los Angeles County, the largest election jurisdiction in the country, is King County's loss. It is fair to say he was hounded out of office by an overbearing County Council and an orchestrated political campaign designed to discredit him.

Logan was by no means perfect. His office made many unacceptable mistakes during the 2004 election. He accepted responsibility for the missteps and then worked tirelessly and cooperatively with three committees or task forces to fix the problems.

But few people can withstand incessant ranting of talk radio and sometimes rabid musings of the blogosphere, not to mention heavy-handed political posturing from the County Council.

Respect came from those who knew his work best. Logan received an impromptu standing ovation last week at a meeting of state elections officials.

Logan's boss, King County Executive Ron Sims, stood by him, writing a bitter epilogue: "While it is an incredible disappointment for King County to lose him, I am happy for Dean and his family. I have known for some time that, despite his calm and collected outward demeanor, Dean has been personally hurt by the constant barrage of harsh personal attacks on his character and professionalism leveled by some partisan extremists and elected officials."

Proof of Logan's importance came in Sims' decision to postpone by one year a switch to all-mail voting because Logan's departure leaves the county without an elections director or superintendent, the No. 2 position. A limited number of people have been interested in the superintendent's post because of the negative environment at elections.

The push to make the elections office an elected position is a non-starter because the elections office already has an elected official in charge, Sims. He was re-elected by a strong margin last November. No need to further politicize the office.

Logan will be missed by those who knew how hard he worked and how hard he tried to turn things around.