In the King County Executive Race, Claudia Balducci Says Experience Sets Her Apart

King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci is a career public servant, a big booster of public transit, a staunch advocate for the homeless, and a climate hawk. She should, on paper, be a darling of the left, which is a good thing to be this election cycle.

However, Balducci came out of the primary in bad shape, trailing her opponent and fellow King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay by a little more than 14 points. The candidates earned 30% to 44% of the vote, respectively.

To be fair, this may have something to do with being endorsed by The Seattle Times, which historically blesses the rightmost candidate in a race. The Stranger, on the other hand, gets to define the "left" candidate, and they went with Zahilay.

The Times has certainly started to portray Balducci as the more moderate, fiscally conscious candidate. In a recent editorial, The Times' editorial board lauded her for being publicly upset about the results of a recent audit of the county's Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS), which said that the department's $1.8 billion in grant money had been poorly accounted for. In the same editorial, it portrayed Zahilay as being nonchalant at the council meeting in which the audit was discussed, never mind that he had, months before, released a detailed plan to address the audit's findings. (Editor's Note: On Sept. 23, the King County Council unanimously approved legislation mandating tighter fiscal review of DCHS's grant funding.)

In an in-person interview with the Emerald, she avoided criticism of Zahilay in favor of an argument that fiscal responsibility shouldn't be the sole purview of the right.

"What was the famous Reagan quote? 'Government isn't part of the problem. They are the problem,'" she said. "We, who think that government is a huge part of solutions, get backed into a corner [where] we don't want to criticize [spending], because then we're seen to be tearing down the collective governmental response. I think that's a false choice, though."

To break out of that catch-22, she said, legislators need to be more willing to scrutinize spending and make sure we're getting our money's worth.

"I think that we should be able to say it's continuous improvement," she said. "We just can't be afraid of being self-critical. We have to be willing to do that."

Regularly evaluating the government's performance is, whether she means it to be or not, traditionally very popular with Republicans. But in this case, it hasn't exactly won them over. Or at least it hasn't won over one very important Republican: erstwhile candidate Derek Chartrand. Chartrand took just shy of 12% of the vote in the primary, but surprised everyone when he released a Facebook video bequeathing that vote to Zahilay.

That video, she told the Emerald, was news to her, but it didn't dampen her optimism.

"I mean, neither of us got over 50%," she said. "There is a contingent of voters that chose neither of the top two candidates."

Besides that, she anticipates a lot of voters who skipped the primary showing up for the general election. Even considering Chartrand's endorsement, she thinks her message of fiscal responsibility and a government that gets results might resonate more with those voters.

"When I look at all of that, of course, there's a path to victory," she concluded.

How will she win over those general election newcomers and politically homeless primary voters? With results, she said, listing prior accomplishments that include opening the first crop of homeless shelters on the Eastside, creating "thousands" of units of affordable housing, "frog-marching Sound Transit to deliver on light rail," and, in general, "taking big rocks and pushing them up hills."

As ever, though, Zahilay is not exactly opposed to any of that. In their work together on the King County Council, the two candidates voted together a majority of the time. As Balducci noted, despite endorsing Zahilay, The Stranger had plenty of kind words for her. Fuse WA's Progressive Voters Guide pitched them as "two outstanding progressive leaders."

But only one can win.

"I don't actually have bad things to say," she said of Zahilay. "Why would I?"

Asked why voters should choose her over him, given they're mostly aligned, she pointed to her record. She does boast a lengthier one than Zahilay's, who entered politics just over five years ago.

"I do truly believe that when people say we're just the same because we vote the same, you're not looking at impact," she contended. "The impact I have had has been regional and very large: billions of dollars in investments, thousands of new homes. I have been able to make a really big difference."

Will those accomplishments be enough? She hopes so.

"I feel like I could do a lot of good in the executive role. I think I have got experience and understanding of how the county works. It is a big, complex institution with a lot of really under-the-radar roles."

As if to illustrate that, her pitch veered off into a warning about wastewater treatment and water quality in the face of an ever-increasing number of county residents.

"We still have pipes in this city that are made out of wood," she said. "They're getting to be 80 years old!"

Come November, she wants to be the one in charge of updating them.

Up next: A profile of King County executive candidate Girmay Zahilay (tomorrow, Sept. 30).

You can learn more about both candidates at the South Seattle Emerald's King County Executive Candidate Forum on Saturday, Oct. 4, 12:30–2 p.m., at Albert Talley High School, where you’ll hear each candidate share platform ideas in person.

As a 501(c)(3) organization, the South Seattle Emerald™ cannot endorse candidates or political campaigns.

Tobias Coughlin-Bogue is a writer, editor and restaurant worker who lives in South Park. He was formerly the associate editor of Real Change News, and his work has appeared in The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Vice, Thrillist, Thrasher Magazine, Curbed, and Crosscut, among other outlets.