Sax's act has grown old

Early in his 2005 re-election campaign, Snohomish County Councilman Jeff Sax sat down for a political roast meant to poke premeditated fun at his bull-in-the-china-shop style. No one mentioned the embarrassing fact that a house was built on his property without a building permit. Ho, ho, ho, ha, ha, ha.

Sax and his supporters were obviously trying to disarm opponents with a list of his political faux pas. But there are limits to partisan joshing. Imagine, a senior, elected county official being such a silly goose. Not a deck or fence or, oh, heck, a family room. A whole damn house! Like it wasn't even there!! Oh, stop, you're killing me, I'm practically incontinent.

So what happens when he and his extended family get caught with no permit? Does Sax plead forehead-slapping ignorance, which his critics might concede? No, he said such offenses were common. His defense was to defame everyone else. Of course, that's not true. Most landowners follow the law and pay up.

Sax has been the mouth that roars at the Snohomish County Courthouse for four years. His persona is of contempt for government as the source of anything, other than, apparently, a personal paycheck.

He cultivates an image of feisty independence, as when he brashly leaked the contents of a pending legal settlement from a confidential council briefing. After listening to Sax's attorney, the county ethics committee ruled he bent, but did not break, the rules.

One moment he wraps himself in the cloak of the people's right to know, the next he refuses to declare a position on Initiative 912, the rollback of gas taxes.

Three weeks before the election, Sax was ballyhooing a proposal to increase fees paid by developers. The whole topic will come up again safely after the election. Development interests undaunted by a theatrical flick of the lash have poured spectacular sums in Sax's race and that of Republican colleague John Koster.

Look for a final flood of mailings out of the Sax campaign. The mind boggles at what they will allege. One can predict they will be full of fury signifying exactly what voters should have learned to ignore by now.

Sax's opponent, Democrat Dave Somers, offers the missing experience and maturity. The county is forecast to gain 275,000 residents over the next 20 years. An area facing those kinds of growth pressures does not have a council seat to squander on comic relief.

For a contrast in style, look at Republican Council Chairman Gary Nelson, who is not on the ballot. See the respect for the public he brings to the office as he leads a potentially contentious hearing. Welcoming, steady and all business.

Likewise, Koster is a modulated politician, who may be more con-servative than Sax, but brings balance to the job. He does not flinch while endorsing I-912. Yes, he concedes, the gas taxes are important to Snohomish County, but he thinks the package is too skewed toward King County. And he does not want to pay for "Seattle's seawall" and associated viaduct.

I think he is setting back traffic improvements in his county, but Koster speaks his mind.

A disappointment in the Koster race is that Democratic challenger Suzanne Smith barely has enough money for an organic muffin, let alone to mount a serious campaign. She talks constructively and consistently about nurturing agriculture in the county. Smith has good ideas about training the next generation of farmers, growing retail markets, getting farm-fresh products into school cafeterias and generally promoting the business of farming.

Lately, the buzz about farmland in Snohomish County sounds more like sprouting houses and harvesting development rights.

Democratic incumbent Dave Gossett is up for re-election. His political sensitivities were honed on the Mountlake Terrace City Council, and as a former policy analyst he favors facts over political cant. He solved a nasty traffic problem in his district, and he found a pilot program through the National Association of Counties that offers all county residents access to discounted prescriptions.

Snohomish County Council politics have sharp partisan moments, and fundamental disagreements exist on the pace of growth. But there is a sense of comity and competence, with one glaring exception, Jeff Sax.

Lance Dickie's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is ldickie@seattletimes.com