Allan Martin for state treasurer

The office of state treasurer, which manages the state's cash and sells its bonds, comes open this year with the retirement of Michael Murphy. Among three excellent candidates for his replacement, our choice is the assistant state treasurer, Allan Martin.

Martin, a Republican, has the strong endorsement of Murphy, a Democrat, who says the job is about the management of money, which is neither "red" nor "blue."

"It's all green," he says.

Martin's two Democratic opponents, Chang Mook Sohn and Jim McIntire, are men of strong public reputation. McIntire, a Democratic state representative from Seattle, is a consulting economist. He has dealt extensively with budgets. Sohn has been the state's official economist. He has been the brains behind the state's revenue forecasts.

Neither Sohn nor McIntire has managed billion-dollar cash funds, the liquidity levels of state employee pension funds, or some of the other things the state treasurer does. Either could learn it. Martin already knows it.

Martin's career background is similar to Murphy's. Before Murphy ran for state treasurer, he was a county treasurer. So was Martin (who is supported by most county treasurers).

A Washington State University graduate, magna cum laude, Martin had an early career in community banking, and was recruited by the Chelan County treasurer in 1989. When the county treasurer retired, Martin ran for the post and won it.

In 1998 he went to work for Murphy, and is now making the same move he did in Chelan County.

One question is whether Martin would have the boldness to do what Murphy did two years ago, when the Seattle Monorail Project announced a plan to pay $9 billion in interest on $2 billion in principal. Murphy said it was "ludicrous" — a comment that sunk the monorail like the Lusitania. Murphy, who has worked for the state since 1972, justified his retirement benefit in that one day.

The moral authority to speak out like that, Martin says, "has to be earned." We want a state treasurer who will earn it.