The Master Builders of King and Snohomish County just plowed $125,000 into a new PAC backing King County Councilwoman Claudia Balducci’s bid for King County Executive.
The infusion into the Cascade Leadership Fund is the first big outside money we’ve seen in the race between Balducci, who was formerly mayor of Bellevue, and Girmay Zahilay, her colleague on the council. Zahilay, considered the more progressive of the two, finished well ahead of Balducci in the August primary, although he fell short of 50 percent. The race is open for the first time in a dog’s age after former Executive Dow Constantine stepped down to make bank running Sound Transit.
The property-development crowd is generally backing Balducci, who is also beloved by the transit crowd for advocacy for light rail on the Eastside. Much of the progressive Democratic establishment, including Gov. Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown, have flocked to Zahilay’s banner. It should be noted that $125,000 doesn’t buy you much in a county-wide campaign. We’ve seen similar amounts essentially vanish without noticeable effect because King County is a big place.
The builders normally do their political spending as the Affordable Housing Council, a separate PAC. That committee is the single largest donor to the independent PAC backing incumbent Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, which currently enjoys a lopsided cash advantage over challenger Katie Wilson.
Protec17, the union representing about 3,300 Seattle muniipal workers, just dropped $75,000 into Katie Wilson for an Affordable Seattle, the PAC backing Wilson, who finished 18,000 votes ahead of Mayor Bruce Harrell in the primary. There may be more cash soon. UFCW 3000, the largest private-sector union in the state, just moved $60,000 into the Wilson PAC. Harrell enjoys a lopsided advantage in independent-expenditure money.
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