It's hard to miss the signs of primary election season if you live in West Seattle. Signs are scattered along the West Seattle Bridge and throughout neighborhoods, displaying the names of candidates running in the crowded race for the 34th district senate seat.
Senate Majority Leader Sharon Nelson, D-Maury Island, is retiring, and eleven candidates are vying to replace her.
Seven Democrats, two Republicans, an Independent and one candidate without a party preference have filed in the race to represent the district that also includes North Highline, Vashon and Maury Islands and parts of Burien.
“There is a huge slate of candidates in some of these races, so it's kind of daunting,” said Barry Devenney of West Seattle who just finished filling out his ballot.
“We had four ballots in our household for the first time, so I wanted to go first in case the family wanted to talk about things.”
That includes a state senate race that spans several pages in the Voter's Pamphlet.
“The signs I've seen in my neighborhood: Annabel, Lois and Joe,” said voter Christina Woelz of Delridge.
“I know Lois is getting a lot of support in my particular neighborhood,” said Kevin McLaughlin who lives in the Pigeon Point neighborhood of West Seattle.
Candidate Lois Schipper, a nurse from White Center, is getting attention for some creative campaigning including a dinosaur display at Alki Beach over the weekend.
But leading the money race is Shannon Braddock who serves as deputy chief of staff for county executive Dow Constantine. She’s no stranger to politics or campaigns; Braddock finished second in a very close and competitive city council race in 2015.
Braddock has picked up several significant endorsements, including one from the 34th District Democrats.
But that organization also endorsed candidate Joe Nguyen, a Microsoft senior manager, who points out on his voter statement, if elected he would be the first legislator of color from the 34th.
Candidate Sophia Aragon, executive director of Washington Center for Nursing is also a contender when it comes to endorsements and money. Her background includes lobbying for health care in Olympia.
“There’s so much going on, it's hard to keep track of what's going on. I feel like I don't have any bandwidth,” said voter Christina Woelz who admits she still has some studying to do when it comes to the candidates. However, she can quickly list the issues she’s thinking about in state and local races.
“Property taxes, holy moly, oh my gosh,” she said. Woelz and other voters in West Seattle list transportation as another hot topic.
“I'd like to see some advocacy for more mass transportation because people aren't going to get out of their cars unless buses run on time and they're convenient and they're frequent. To me those are quality of life issues,” said Kevin McLaughlin who also counts fully funding education as a priority for him, as well as housing density and the challenges that come with growth.
Only two candidates will advance to the November General Election following the primary. Ballots are due by August 7.
The West Seattle Blog has covered several candidate forums in the race for the 34th; you can watch them here.
Also see | Local politics king5.com
