The Times endorses
Return Owen, Murphy, Sonntag to Olympia

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Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, state Treasurer Mike Murphy and state Auditor Brian Sonntag have served Washington well and receive this paper's endorsement for re-election in the Nov. 2 general election.

They face nominal Republican and third-party competition, but none of the opponents can match the Democratic incumbents in experience or service to the state.

Owen is seeking re-election to a third four-year term. The office of lieutenant governor sometimes is viewed as a ceremonial job, whose constitutional obligations entail presiding over the state Senate and filling in during the governor's absence. But Owen has used his position to promote issues of importance to Washington citizens, including international trade, drug-abuse prevention and gun safety. He has a well-rounded background, having grown up in a military family, run a retail business in Shelton, and served in both the House and Senate before being elected lieutenant governor in 1996.

He outdistances Republican opponent Jim Wiest, an Olympia business owner, Libertarian Jocelyn A. Langlois of Richland, and the Green Party's Bern Haggerty of Bellingham.

Murphy, the state treasurer, also is seeking a third term. He worked on staff in the office as early as 1972 and later served as treasurer of Thurston County before winning election to the statewide post in 1996.

In addition to overseeing and helping to manage billions of dollars in state investments, he has instituted or collaborated on programs to help local jurisdictions finance projects at better rates, and to enable parents to invest in their children's college education. He points to major interest savings from a public financing plan he helped push for the second Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Murphy's experience and performance in office trump the field, which includes Republican Oscar S. Lewis of Bellevue and Libertarian John Sample, a businessman.

Sonntag has shown the aggressiveness and integrity needed in an independent auditor for the state. He has pushed strongly for open government and accountability in his first three terms in state office. We back his call for performance audits of state agencies. And he has earned deserved plaudits for his efforts to strengthen the state's Open Public Meetings Act. Sonntag is one of the best public servants produced by this state.

Sonntag faces Libertarian Jason G. Bush and Republican Will Baker in his fourth-term bid. It was troubling to see that Baker, the sole GOP entrant — who recently had been released from jail on appeal of a conviction for disturbing a Tacoma City Council meeting — polled more than 400,000 votes in the Sept. 14 primary.

That should serve as a wake-up call that either our newly begotten primary model, with its blind allegiance to party label, is flawed, or that the state's parties need to better ensure strong, credible candidates from the top of their tickets on down.