2 GOP bids may benefit elections incumbent

Two of the three best-funded candidates for King County elections director are political cousins.

Former Metropolitan King County Councilmember David Irons and state Sen. Pam Roach are Republicans, each backed by factions of their common party.

They are running against incumbent Sherril Huff, who was appointed to the newly elective post by County Executive Ron Sims, a Democrat.

There's the rub.

In a six-way race without a primary to narrow the field, Irons and Roach run the risk of splitting the more conservative vote, leaving Huff to pick up the lion's share of liberal votes. Both candidates said they're unhappy the other decided to run.

Three other candidates -- former King County Elections Superintendent Julie Kempf, high-school teacher and political gadfly Christopher Clifford, and former banking-industry manager Bill Anderson -- have raised no money and appear more likely to draw votes away from the top three than to win the election.

The vote-by-mail Feb. 3 election in the nonpartisan race is being held because voters decided in November they wanted to pick the election director.

Roach received a boost from the Building Industry of Washington (BIAW).

The BIAW gave $30,000 to the Leadership Council, a political committee of the Senate Republican Caucus, which in turn gave $26,500 to the newly created Citizens for a Better Washington for "robocalls" and mail advertising for Roach.

"At the state level in the Senate we have been very supportive of her," BIAW Political Director Elliot Swaney, said of Roach, noting that the Leadership Council decided how to use the no-strings-attached money the builders' group gave it.

Roach raised $3,200 for her own campaign fund before the annual ban on fundraising by legislators went into effect.

Irons has raised the most money -- mostly by putting in $103,460 of his own cash for a total of $115,536 -- followed by $21,326 for Huff.

Irons and Roach both promote their experience as preparing them for elections management, Irons as a telecommunications entrepreneur and County Council member who sat on the elections Canvassing Board, Roach as ranking minority member of the Senate Operations and Elections Committee for 16 years.

After leaving the County Council at the end of 2005, Irons worked full time as chairman and CEO of privately held Convention Communication Provisioners Inc., which he sold in 2007 to a larger competitor. Roach sponsored election bills and tougher DUI laws and in 2006 helped South King County citizens defeat an expansion of the Valley Medical Center taxing district with a 94 percent no vote.

Both say they are ready to do a better job than the incumbent.

"Her history is that of a bureaucrat in government and she's good at that," Irons, 56, says of Huff. "But is she an out-of-the-box thinker who's going to push the envelope? Emphatically no."

Roach, 60, says she would be a vocal advocate for the citizen initiative process -- something she claims Huff wasn't when she didn't speak out against a proposed county charter amendment that would have doubled the number of signatures to qualify citizen-initiated amendments for the ballot.

"The initiative process is under attack and I would be a person defending it," said Roach, who was an aide for 14 years to the late County Councilmember Kent Pullen.

Both candidates also carry the baggage of widely publicized personal conflicts.

When Irons first ran for County Council against a family friend, incumbent Brian Derdowski, a rift opened that has still not healed. Irons' parents and his sister Di Irons opposed his candidacy, and Di ran as a write-in candidate against him, while his sister Janet Irons supported him.

Things got uglier in his 2003 rematch with Derdowski, when Irons' mother, Janet Irons, accused him of having knocked her down during an argument in the 1990s. David Irons has consistently denied the accusation, saying his mother was confused because of a diabetic episode.

Roach has gotten in hot water twice with her Senate colleagues over her dealings with staff members. Senate leaders reprimanded Roach in 2003 for allegedly creating a hostile work environment for two employees, and Republican leaders in 2008 forbade her from dealing directly with GOP caucus staff for the same reason.

"It's difficult because she has very volatile emotions. It's difficult to know what's going to set her off next," said Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park.

But Sen. Don Benton, R-Clark County, said he hasn't seen Roach show unusual bursts of anger. As for creating a hostile work environment, Benton said, "For crying out loud, that's what the Legislature is. It's a hostile workplace. We fight over issues. ... If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com