Sims takes early lead; Irons says "marathon" isn't over

King County Executive Ron Sims led challenger David Irons in early returns Tuesday night in a race that hinged on voter confidence in Sims' management of county government.

Supporters greeted Sims, a Democrat, with boisterous cheers at the Westin Hotel in Seattle as the early vote totals were announced.

"Right now, I'm feeling really good," Sims said, adding that despite Republican attacks, voters "stepped back, as we asked them to do, and looked at the record."

Irons, a Republican King County councilman, dismissed the early returns as inconclusive: "We've been saying all along it's a marathon."

Green Party candidate Gentry Lange won a small slice of votes.

Despite King County's Democratic leanings, the GOP viewed this election as its best chance to recapture the county's top administrative post since 1993, when Democrat Gary Locke dashed Republican Executive Tim Hill's bid for a third term.

Sims, a former county councilman, was appointed to finish Locke's uncompleted term when Locke was elected governor in 1996. Sims won re-election by wide margins in 1997 and 2001.

Tuesday's election, coming in the wake of the county's botched handling of the 2004 governor's election, was largely a referendum on Sims' leadership during his nine years in the job.

Until the close governor's race revealed mismanagement in the county elections office, Sims was widely seen as a shoo-in for re-election. But his approval rating fell and Republicans smelled blood as Sims stood behind Elections Director Dean Logan during months of revelations of misplaced votes, illegal voting and sloppy accounting for ballots.

"Every facet of the problems in King County comes back to the failures of Ron Sims," Irons said last night as his supporters watched results at Bellevue's Doubletree Hotel.

Republicans kept up their offensive against the county elections office practically up to Election Day, challenging the registrations of thousands of voters the GOP said were illegally registered at private mailboxes or storage units.

But Democrats fought back after many of those challenges proved erroneous. Some voters who claimed to be properly registered were outraged to learn their ballots were being challenged.

Irons also tried to tap voter anger over gridlocked freeways, restrictive rural land-use policies and an aborted $39 million computer project.

But Irons' campaign was tarnished by a continuing feud with his parents and one of his two sisters. His mother, Janet Irons, accused him of knocking her down during an argument in the mid-1990s. No police report was filed, and David Irons denied the allegation.

Sims turned to negative campaigning, calling Irons a right-wing supporter of President Bush, whose values, Sims said, were at odds with Democratic-leaning King County voters. Sims touted his own record of bringing the county through several years of recession without major tax increases and with top-tier bond ratings.

Despite his management controversies, Sims retained the support of his core constituencies, including organized labor, environmentalists, and women's and minority-rights groups. Unions and environmental groups organized door-to-door campaigning and ran independent ad campaigns on Sims' behalf.

Sims enjoyed a significant fundraising advantage, reporting contributions of $745,574 to Irons' $508,129 through the end of October. Irons' heavier spending on his office staff and consultants left Irons with limited money to match Sims' aggressive advertising campaign.

Times staff reporter Jonathan Martin contributed to this report. Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com