UPDATE 5: I wasn’t able to stick around (via live feed, anyway) until the end, but others report the meeting ended with the 4-4 deadlock intact. The selection will have to wait until 2010.
My quick reaction (more details, including info from behind the scenes, tomorrow): The county council’s inability to choose a replacement for Dow Constantine shows—in case there was any doubt—that “nonpartisanship” in county offices is a sham. The 4-4 split was along party lines; party members met, as they always have, in their respective caucuses to discuss what to do; and ultimately, the reason the council couldn’t come to a decision was because no party held a majority of five. I am a little surprised, however, that council members didn’t come to some sort of arrangement before the meeting (as is customary at city council meetings). Not having a final decision going into the meeting is one thing; (apparently) having never even discussed the alternatives prior to bringing them up in public is quite another.
UPDATE 4: West Seattle Blog reports (via Twitter) that council members have just asked McDermott to meet with them privately in council chambers.
UPDATE 3: Republican Pete Von Reichbauer just nominated state Rep. Zack Hudgins (D-11) in Jhaveri’s place, on the assumption that he “may” be willing to serve as a caretaker. Julia Patterson, a Democrat, responded that it didn’t make any sense for Hudgins to agree to serve as a caretaker, given that he would have to give up his seat in the House. My understanding, too, is that Hudgins would want to run for the position. Now they’re in recess again, trying to get Hudgins on the phone.
UPDATE 2: Reagan Dunn, a Republican, just appointed Arun Jhaveri of Burien, one of the original 11 folks who put their names forward to replace Constantine, as “a reasonable person to take up the spot” as a caretaker, given the deadlock on Drago and McDermott. And they are now in recess… again.
UPDATE: They just came back and deadlocked 4-4 on both Drago and McDermott, and now they’re in recess again, this time supposedly for ten minutes. Watch the hearing live here.
The King County Council, which is currently in recess, is deadlocked 4-4 on who will replace former Position 9 council member Dow Constantine, who was just elected King County Executive.
The council—putatively nonpartisan—is in reality split between four Republicans and four Democrats. (Ordinarily, the council has nine members—and most recently five Democrats—but Constantine’s departure leaves it split down the middle, allowing deadlocks like today’s.) The Democrats want Constantine’s replacement to be state Sen. Joe McDermott, who has said he will run for the seat next year whether or not he is chosen. The four Republicans want it to be former city council member Jan Drago, who has said she would serve only as a “caretaker” in the position until next November’s election.
Democrats remain hopeful that the Republicans will come around on McDermott, one of four finalists who made it to this point in the replacement process. (The others were state Rep. Zack Hudgins (D-11) and state Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-34), a longtime Constantine aide and confidante). Given that McDermott is going to run next year (and almost certainly win) even if Drago is appointed, the logic goes, why would the Republicans want to piss off the Democrats now by appointing someone else temporarily—especially given that, if McDermott wins, the Dems will be in the majority?
If McDermott is picked, Nelson will almost certainly be appointed to his current Senate seat. Then the question becomes: Who will replace Nelson? The names in circulation: Longtime Nelson aide Joe Fitzgibbons; Washington Bus co-founder Josh Johnston, a former aide to King County Council member Julia Patterson and US Rep. Norm Dicks (D-6), Washington Public Campaigns activist Marcie Stone, 34th District Democrats co-chair Kim Becklund (who has sought the seat before), and 34th District chair Tim Nuse.
