Ugh. Did I just put my foot in it?

We went to the 47th District Democrats' meeting last night - first time we'd been since October (we haven't been able to bear to since the horrors of Election Night, and last month I was sick). King County Council member Julia Patterson was there, and I happened to say something about having been redistricted into Pete von Reichbauer's district with the gerrymandering of the Council districts. I asked what the chances might be of getting a Democrat in von Reichbauer's place, and Councilwoman Patterson pointed out that no one wanted to run against him, because he'd amassed quite a sizable campaign chest, as he'd been entirely unopposed when he last ran in 2001. At that point, I blurted out something I've been thinking for some time. "Well, hell, if no one else files, I'll file just so he isn't unopposed!"

Oops. Now I've put my foot in it. But I really don't believe in permitting Republicans to just have seats by default; they should at least have to expend some money and energy campaigning. If no one is willing to run against him because they think the new 7th is a "safe" Republican district (it ISN'T!), or because he has too much money, or because incumbency is too much of a handicap for an opponent, well, hell, I'm willing to be the sacrificial Democrat. If a more viable candidate doesn't file, and the state Party is willing to help me with the filing fee, then I'll run against him just to have a Democrat on the ballot to give people a choice. Anything could happen between now and Election Day in November, and it's just crazy to totally cede that Council seat to him.

I think of Heidi Behrens-Benedict, running all those times against Jennifer Dunn, when everyone was convinced Dunn couldn't be beaten. At least Heidi gave us someone to vote for and campaign for; letting Dunn run unopposed would have been awful. If Heidi could do that for the much more important position of U.S. Congressperson, I'm willing to do it for King County Council.

Besides, County Council could be a really interesting position. Everything they work on affects every King County citizen more than almost any other elected officials' actions. They work on the very basics; transportation, zoning, safeguarding clean water, housing, things like that.

Looks like we'll have a chance to serve as appointed PCOs, even though we're not elected PCOs, and will have the opportunity to take part in district elections and such. We can be appointed to fill vacant PCO slots in other precincts, so we need to look at the map and pick a couple of high-performing (read: Democratic-leaning) adjacent precincts. We signed up to go to the 47th District Day in Olympia on Presidents' Day, including the PCO training sessions. I also volunteered to serve on the district's by-laws committee to get our by-laws updated. Overall, they look pretty good to me; they look like they only need some minor updating. Providing the other members of the committee don't have their hearts set on wordsmithing them to death!