Here's who's running for King County executive (so far)

After an unprecedented four terms running King County, Executive Dow Constantine plans to retire next year.

So far, two Democratic elected leaders have stepped up to run the largest county in the Pacific Northwest: County Councilmember Claudia Balducci and County Assessor John Arthur Wilson.

Both will face big questions about how to fix the county’s money issues — including a structural imbalance in tax revenue and spending, creating a budget hole that could reach $150 million by 2026.

Both have previous experience in elected county positions. Balducci worked for the county jail system for 15 years, running it for three, and served on Bellevue City Council for a dozen years before running for County Council in 2015. She’s been influential in the expansion of light rail, particularly east of Seattle.

“There was a battle for light rail in East King County, unlike some other parts of the county, which I fought and won,” Balducci said. “I dove into housing policy and programs, starting when I got on the King County Council, and we are creating thousands of homes. We are turning the tide on exclusionary zoning. We are making it so that down the road, not too far, you will see an improvement in our housing market.”

Wilson is a former journalist and communications director for Congressman Al Swift. Wilson has also been in his current position since 2015, overseeing the appraisers who establish property values in King County.

Wilson said as King County has grown, its biggest responsibility — the criminal legal system — hasn’t grown to properly serve the population.

“We just haven't funded the criminal justice system adequately over the last 15 to 20 years, and what you've seen is it means we don't have enough cops, we don't have enough mental health counselors,” Wilson said. “We don't have enough public defenders. We don't have enough prosecutors.”

Balducci also said there needs to be more funding for supportive housing, and she applauded the jail’s recent move to start booking people for misdemeanor charges again.

Wilson said he would “scrub” the budget, trimming inefficiencies like the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, a city-county project that has gone through four CEOs in the five years since it was created.

“Probably you need to shut it down, and we need to start over. And that would save literally millions of dollars that could be put into vital direct services that would help deal with the public safety issue,” Wilson said.

Balducci sits on the governing committee of the Regional Homelessness Authority, and pointed out that much of that money is just pass-through funding to shelters, behavioral health, and vouchers to keep people off the streets.

“You could shut down the homelessness authority, but… I would not propose cutting those services,” Balducci said. “You might like to distribute them in a different way. And, you know, we'd be open to that.”

As a County Councilmember, Balducci will be involved in many of these cost-cutting decisions during next year’s budget cycle, which will mostly happen during and right after the odd-year election.

King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay, who represents South Seattle and South King County, is considering a run, but told KUOW he would announce his plans after Thanksgiving.