Full Dis­clo­sure: I per­son­al­ly sup­port Richard Mitchel­l’s cam­paign for coun­ty coun­cil in my capac­i­ty as Sec­ond Vice Chair of the King Coun­ty Democ­rats. NPI does not endorse or make finan­cial con­tri­bu­tions to can­di­dates for elect­ed office. 

Only a few days remain until King Coun­ty Elec­tions begins mail­ing out bal­lots for the August 16th win­now­ing elec­tion. One of the most impor­tant races on the bal­lot will be the con­test for 6th Coun­ty Coun­cil Dis­trict, which will be decid­ed by res­i­dents of Belle­vue, Kirk­land, Mer­cer Island, Med­i­na, Clyde Hill, and oth­er East­side cities.

The con­test pits incum­bent Repub­li­can Jane Hague (who has a trou­bled past) against three chal­lengers: Seat­tle Port Com­mis­sion­er John Creighton, for­mer Belle­vue City Coun­cilmem­ber Pat­sy Boin­con­tri, and first-time can­di­date Richard Mitchell, who, despite not hav­ing run for office before, has plen­ty of expe­ri­ence in the polit­i­cal are­na (he served as Chris Gre­goire’s gen­er­al coun­sel dur­ing her first term).

Mitchell may not be as well known as his oppo­nents, but he is one of the most impres­sive can­di­dates that Democ­rats have field­ed for local office in years. He has three degrees from respect­ed uni­ver­si­ties (in law, urban plan­ning, and archi­tec­ture) and cur­rent­ly serves on the boards of the King Coun­ty Hous­ing Author­i­ty, Seat­tle Uni­ver­si­ty, and King Coun­ty Bar Association.

Though Hague and Creighton have been attract­ing most of the region’s insti­tu­tion­al sup­port to date (they are both incum­bents in offices elect­ed at the region­al lev­el, so that’s not too sur­pris­ing) Mitchell has man­aged to land sev­er­al key endorse­ments, includ­ing the Amal­ga­mat­ed Tran­sit Union and the Sier­ra Club.

And his cam­paign’s momen­tum con­tin­ues to build.

Ear­ly this after­noon, the Munic­i­pal League released its rat­ings for can­di­dates seek­ing local office. Michell was the only can­di­date to earn the League’s high­est rat­ing of “Out­stand­ing”. (Jane Hague and John Creighton received rat­ings of “Good”; Pat­sy Boin­con­tri was rat­ed “Very Good”).

And just hours lat­er, he picked up the endorse­ment of The Seat­tle Times, which is rarely bestowed on a pro­gres­sive candidate:

RICHARD Mitchell is the most accom­plished and promis­ing chal­lenger to Jane Hague on the Met­ro­pol­i­tan King Coun­ty Coun­cil, and earns The Seat­tle Times’ endorse­ment. In our inter­views with the four can­di­dates for this seat, he stood out for his quick mind and grasp of detail.

Mitchell still has a big hill to climb. He does­n’t have the name recog­ni­tion that his oppo­nents do, or the same access to easy mon­ey. But he appears to be run­ning a strong cam­paign that is get­ting stronger by the day. Demo­c­ra­t­ic activists have been say­ing since the ear­ly days of his cam­paign that he would be an extreme­ly com­pelling addi­tion to the coun­ty coun­cil if elected.

It seems they’re not the only ones who feel that way.