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KC executive race heats up as primary nears

KC executive race heats up as primary nears

Plus some recommended reading

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Paul Queary
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Tim Gruver
Jul 08, 2025
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The Washington Observer
The Washington Observer
KC executive race heats up as primary nears
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The open race for the penthouse suite in King County government is getting more interesting by the day, with dueling endorsements, competing TV ads, and a self-demolishing candidate.

King County Assessor John Wilson, who had a plausible path to win before enmeshing himself in a stalking scandal, likely took himself all the way out of the race last week when he poured gasoline on the problem by getting arrested near his former fiancee’s home. (See the recommended reading section for details.)

In non-coincidental news, Claudia Balducci, the former Bellevue Mayor currently serving on the King County Council, won the prized endorsement1 of The Seattle Times’ editorial board on Monday, setting up a two-horse race with Girmay Zahilay, who represents a large chunk of Seattle proper on the county council.

Zahilay, meanwhile, won the endorsement of The Stranger, a valuable signifier for the leftward end of the electorate in next month’s primary.

Here’s why you should care about this: King County has a $10B budget and runs important things including the Metro transit system. The executive is also effectively the mayor of unincorporated King County, which would be the second largest city in the state by population if it were contiguous.2 Two former executives went on to the governor’s mansion in Olympia, although the last two faltered on that step up.3

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