Marcia McCraw for lieutenant governor

The office of Washington lieutenant governor was created in 1889 to replace the elected governor if the incumbent could not serve. In 119 years, that happened three times.

Mostly, the elective job is held by career politicians who serve for a very long time. Turnover is nil, and expectations for the job are low and usually met. The primary constitutional duty is to preside over state Senate sessions and fill in during the governor's absences. The lieutenant governor is also a member of several legislative committees.

Incumbent Democrat Brad Owen fits the historic template. He has been in elective office more than half his life, and he has been lieutenant governor 12 years.

We doubt the office needs to exist. Make the secretary of state the stand-in governor. Out of the spotlight, Owen has used the office to weave together public interests and private activities that suggest too much comfort and too little scrutiny.

Republican Marcia McCraw has a complicated personal story that gives us pause, but she represents an opportunity for an infusion of new ideas and energy.

McCraw is a Seattle attorney with a diverse legal background. She is currently on the staff of King County Councilmember Jane Hague, and works on Eastside transportation issues. She is broadly educated, well traveled and her fluency in Mandarin Chinese is a bonus for a trade-dependent state.

McCraw knows the region via a résumé of civic volunteer work that stretches from the Woodland Park Zoo and Junior League of Seattle to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council in Washington, D.C.

Owen is thanked for his past 12 years of service. The post, however, is not a lifetime appointment. The time is right and ripe for a change.

Republican McCraw is endorsed for lieutenant governor for the potential her skills and background hold for the state.