At the heart of Snohomish County's hard-fought executive race are 34,000 unemployed people and the fallout: home foreclosures, stagnant tax revenue, government layoffs.

The campaigns have splashed personal accusations across television screens and mailers, but voters will have to decide by Nov. 8 which candidate can better lead the county through continuing economic uncertainty.

Incumbent Aaron Reardon is a homegrown, fiscally conservative Democrat. In eight years, he has not proposed a single property-tax increase, though the County Council overrode his veto to pass one in 2007.

Reardon says he has made the best of bad times, even setting aside a $22 million rainy-day fund while other cities and counties burned through their savings accounts. The county's staff has shrunk by 12 percent since 2004.

"We brought a sense of financial stewardship to Snohomish County that is unparalleled across the state," Reardon said.

Republican Mike Hope, a Seattle police officer and state representative in the 44th District, led his campaign with a five-point economic plan to create jobs, cut government costs and root out mismanagement with a new watchdog county department.

Snohomish County's unemployment rate — 9 percent — is slightly higher than the state as a whole, and Hope blames Reardon for that.

In campaign literature and television ads, Hope says more than 38,000 jobs have been lost in the county since 2007. According to the state Employment Security Department, the county lost a net 9,300 jobs between August 2007 and August 2011.

A focus on jobs

Snohomish County, north of Seattle, is a mix of urban and rural communities with a wealth of natural resources, a recovering agricultural industry and two Indian reservations.

The county's economic health relies on the aerospace industry and its anchor, Boeing.

Traditionally, the county has been heavy on manufacturing and agricultural jobs. As employers seek more highly skilled workers, there's a push to train those who have been laid off, said Sue Ambler, president and CEO of the Workforce Development Council Snohomish County.

Her job center sees thousands of people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits but can't find jobs in fields such as the mortgage industry and construction.

"I don't think anybody can just create jobs," she said. "There are jobs. We need to connect the people who are out of work with the jobs."

Reardon found a building and helped get a lease for the Aerospace Training and Research Center, an Edmonds Community College program that trains aerospace workers at the county airport. Aerospace Futures Alliance Executive Director Linda Lanham said the program has already trained and found jobs for 200 people.

"He went out and actually sought out a building that would work for this center, made lease agreements affordable so we could do this," she said. "It was a matter of days."

The Aerospace Futures Alliance has donated $1,600 to Reardon's campaign.

Campaign got personal

Both Hope, 36, and Reardon, 40, are politically ambitious. Hope is in his second term as state legislator. Reardon served in the state House and Senate before running for county executive.

Although Reardon criticizes Hope for running without any management experience, Reardon didn't have much when he ran in 2004.

As a legislator, Hope worked with Democrat Rep. Hans Dunshee to bring a Washington State University campus to Snohomish County. The branch campus will offer five engineering programs by 2014.

Hope says that's an example of how he collaborates. He says Reardon's sharp personality has alienated regional leaders and his own County Council.

"He bumps heads all the time. He's not seen as a team player," Hope said, adding that he would work more collaboratively.

Reardon's second four-year term was marked by several problems with his staffers, including the head of his planning department drunkenly exposing himself to a lobbyist at a Redmond golf tournament. Reardon fired him.

He also investigated the county equal-opportunity officer for failing to investigate complaints. The officer resigned, and Reardon fired the deputy county executive, who oversaw him.

The string of problems has led Hope to accuse Reardon of "corruption."

Hope's own dirty laundry aired during the campaign when it was revealed he was suspended 10 years ago from his job after he tried to persuade a Mill Creek police officer not to arrest his date for drunken driving.

Disparity in cash

In his campaign for executive, Hope supports a Mukilteo-led effort to stop commercial flights from coming to Paine Field, though he sees them as inevitable. Reardon opposes commercial flights at the regional airport but says it's not up to him.

The Federal Aviation Administration is considering a request from Alaska Airlines.

Primary-election results were close. Reardon had 52 percent of the vote in August, and Hope had 48 percent.

And though Hope is running out of money in the general election — he has about $6,000 left — he has some big-name endorsements, including the state teachers union, the Washington Education Association, and the Seattle and statewide police officers' guilds.

Reardon, who has raised nearly $300,000 — twice as much as Hope — has nearly $100,000 remaining.

Snohomish County has never had a Republican executive, and the seat is seen as one of the biggest trophies in the off-year election. The state Republican party has given $4,750 to Hope; the state Democrats gave Reardon's campaign $5,000.

"I'm very direct"

Reardon's relationship with the County Council is stable after years of contention, but he still lacks endorsements from many of the county's top Democratic mayors and state legislators.

He acknowledges a poor relationship with council members, which he said was "issue-based." Specifically, the issue of money: When the County Council wanted to put a property tax on the ballot in 2009 for a new justice building, Reardon vetoed it. He also rejected pay and staff increases proposed by the Democratic-controlled council.

"I'm very direct. I'm very candid, but I'm not malicious and I'm never personal," Reardon said. "I'm just honest."

Reardon has smoothed relationships with some factions. Soon after taking office, he reached out to farmers, hiring a county liaison. The county hosted an agriculture summit at the fairgrounds in 2004 attended by 200 people.

This year, thousands attended the two-day summit. He is credited with improving relationships among farmers, developers and environmentalists, three groups traditionally at odds over the county's rural land.

Reardon worked to make it easier for small farmers to grow different types of crops after the county's dairy industry collapsed in the 1990s. He encouraged hobby farms, pumpkin patches and small organic farms. The USDA Census of Agriculture showed the acreage being used for agriculture in Snohomish County increased between 2002 and 2007 after declining for decades.

Boeing and the Sonics

Hope says Reardon gives too much leeway to home developers, "letting zoning go amok" in places that don't have enough infrastructure.

Reardon says he is being blamed for decisions made by the County Council, which approves zoning changes.

Hope calls the incumbent's work to court Boeing "a complete failure" because the company decided to build its second 787 line in South Carolina. Reardon has traveled all over the world with Boeing to recruit aerospace companies to Snohomish County. He helped recruit a Goodrich plant and Korry Electronics, among other companies, to the Paine Field area.

Hope says he would not make trade-related trips on the county's dime, though he thinks the county should woo Boeing. His economic plan promises to prune regulations, set aside savings for economic development, and add educational opportunities like the new WSU branch campus.

In his campaign and in the Legislature, Hope is pushing to bring the Sonics back to the Seattle area, charging players a fee to pay off bonds for a new arena.

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com