Has 'prickly' Hunter mellowed enough?

This is one in a series of stories this week on the top contenders for King County executive.

State Rep. Ross Hunter had an epiphany of sorts two years ago, after undergoing treatment for the reoccurrence of a cancer called non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Until the diagnosis, the Medina Democrat had plans to run for Congress. "In fact, I had all the paperwork done up."

He then went through a treatment that made his body so radioactive that he had to live in a lead-lined room for 10 days so he wouldn't pose a risk to others. He was on morphine for three weeks to control the pain.

"It was pretty awful," Hunter recalled. "You find out what you care about."

Today, running to be the next King County executive holds more appeal than the prospect of spending most of his time in Washington, D.C.

"I'm not saying I'll never do it, but 40 weeks a year in D.C. is a hard thought," he said. "I found out I really care about where I live. And I really care about staying married, and this job is an opportunity to have a much more significant impact on where we live than being in Congress would."

Plus, he could still drive home each day to Medina, where he lives with his wife and children.

Hunter's health has been good since his last treatment in 2007, he said. All his checkups, including one just before his current campaign began, were clean.

He is energetic and a bit restless. He enjoys going door to door talking to voters. He's gregarious and likes to clown around. At an event promoting florescent lights he hugged a mascot dressed as a Yeti and stuck a bulb in his mouth, popping it out to say, "What do you think; do I have 13 watts in me?"

He's also known for having a prickly personality and acknowledges abrasive behavior in the past, although he says the Legislature has worn away his rough edges.

Hunter is one of five candidates who have raised enough money to run a serious campaign for King County executive. He faces state Sen. Fred Jarrett, County Councilmembers Larry Phillips and Dow Constantine, and former TV anchor Susan Hutchison.

Hunter has raised more than $250,000, which puts him fourth in the money race, although he's nearly tied with Hutchison.

He portrays himself as an outsider who can bring change to a county government he characterizes as bloated, wasteful, indifferent and ineffective.

He worked at Microsoft for 17 years. His jobs included program manager for Microsoft Access and general manager of the company's commercial Internet system. He was elected to the state House in 2002.

Hunter considers himself a moderate in the Legislature. "If you were to divide people into segments in terms of where they fit, I don't know where you'd put me," he said. "But I'm not at the left edge or the right edge."

Prickly

As a lawmaker, he's had a reputation for being impatient and, at times, prickly.

Hunter doesn't deny it.

"I grew up in Microsoft," he said. "That was my formative experience. Microsoft uses the blunt-trauma method of conflict resolution. I'm someone who is relatively transparent in that you know what I'm thinking."

When he first joined the Legislature, "I was a bull in a china shop and I pissed a lot of people off," Hunter said. "I wanted the place to go faster than it does. The way you get things to go faster at Microsoft is you push."

Time has changed him, he said. "You know what, I learned. And if you look at where I am now, you'd find I don't do needless friction," Hunter said.

Backers agree.

"I don't think I'd describe Ross as abrasive," said Rep. Mark Ericks, D-Bothell. "I think of an abrasive person as someone who is hard to get along with all the time. And that's not the case."

Ericks recalled Hunter's efforts in the Legislature to ban the use of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, a potentially toxic flame retardant.

Supporters of the ban cite concerns the chemicals could impair brain development in fetuses and children, and interfere with the thyroid gland.

Ericks said Hunter took up the issue and tried to get a bill passed for three years, finally succeeding in 2007.

"That was a very hard thing to do, but he stayed with it and was persistent, Ericks said. "He did all the hard work and got the job done, and the world is a safer place because of it."

But state Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, who is backing Jarrett for executive, questioned Hunter's tolerance for dealing with the large cast of characters a county executive has to work with. "I doubt he has the patience to sit down with a million other elected officials," she said.

"I have no doubt he could go in there and knock a few heads together, if that's what people want," Clibborn said. What's less clear, she added, is if he'd be able to put the pieces back together.

Hunter, for his part, said he's shown leadership on a variety of issues, and noted his role in helping get an education-reform bill passed this year that expands the definition of a basic education paid for by the state.

The bill, among other things, commits the state over time to provide a full day of school for kindergartners, rather than a half-day, and offer six classes a day for middle- and high-school students rather than five.

"I was in Spokane. I was in Vancouver ... trying to get communities all over the state to understand what the issue was and create pressure on the Legislature to make it happen," Hunter said.

How to pay for the changes hasn't been determined.

Hunter also notes that, as chairman of the House Finance Committee he's sponsored a number of complex bills that delve into the nitty-gritty of the state's tax structure.

"Tax policy is hard because if you make a screw-up, it's screwed up for decades," he said. "If you don't like a budget item, you just stop it. Tax policy is long-term strategic policy. That's what I do."

He's also a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and says he has broad experience in dealing with budget issues.

Budget

His legislative experience is important, he said, when it comes to straightening out King County's budget. Shortfalls of about $110 million in the general fund and $200 million in Metro Transit are expected over the next two years.

Hunter this month released a 16-page plan outlining how he'd deal with problems facing the county. The document talks about reducing the size of the executive's staff, doing a better job of tracking costs in the county budget and persuading workers to pick up a larger share of their health-care expenses.

Other things on his agenda include creating a regional jail system that he says would reduce costs by getting rid of duplicate services, and improving public transportation.

Hunter this year worked to pass a bill that included a provision allowing local governments to ask voters to approve a $20 vehicle fee that would help fund public transportation. The governor vetoed that part of the bill.

"I think we're going to need new revenue for transit, and I think people are going to want to do it," Hunter said.

Overall, he said he doesn't expect to reduce county spending to less than current levels. "We live in an inflationary world," he said. "We're going to add another million people. Just the growth alone of people adds to the tax revenues and the level of work you have to do.

"I want to control the growth."

Andrew Garber: 360-236-8266 or agarber@seattletimes.com