WA Filing Week 2020: A look at who’s filed in key races as of Wednesday morning

Wel­come to our con­tin­u­ing cov­er­age of Fil­ing Week 2020!

Until this Fri­day, the Sec­re­tary of State and coun­ty elec­tions offi­cials will be accept­ing for­mal dec­la­ra­tions of can­di­da­cy from Wash­ing­to­ni­ans who have decid­ed they want to run for office at fed­er­al, state, and local levels.

This is a pres­i­den­tial year, which means we’ll be elect­ing all ten of our U.S. House posi­tions, all nine of our statewide exec­u­tive posi­tions, most of our state leg­isla­tive posi­tions, and sev­er­al of our State Supreme Court posi­tions, not to men­tion a large num­ber of local posi­tions, espe­cial­ly in Pierce County.

This post is the fifth in a series of Fil­ing Week reports we’ll be bring­ing you at reg­u­lar inter­vals until the close of fil­ing at 5 PM on the final day of the workweek.

U.S. House

The Unit­ed States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives is the larg­er of the two cham­bers of Con­gress estab­lished by the Unit­ed States Con­sti­tu­tion. Mem­bers of the House serve two year terms and must face the vot­ers each elec­tion cycle. Since the 2010–2011 redis­trict­ing process, Wash­ing­ton has had ten seats in the House.

Can­di­dates who have filed since yes­ter­day evening:

Executive Department

Wash­ing­ton State’s exec­u­tive depart­ment con­sists of nine statewide direct­ly elect­ed posi­tions head­ed by a gov­er­nor. All posi­tions are for four-year terms, filled in pres­i­den­tial years. Each posi­tion is inde­pen­dent­ly elect­ed and thus has its own port­fo­lio of respon­si­bil­i­ties. Key man­age­ment posi­tions with­in the exec­u­tive branch that are not direct­ly elect­ed are filled by guber­na­to­r­i­al appointment.

Can­di­dates who have filed since yes­ter­day evening:

Gov­er­nor

• Amer­i­can Patri­ot Bill Miller

Insur­ance Commissioner

• Repub­li­can Chi­rayu Avinash Patel
• Lib­er­tar­i­an Antho­ny Welti

Lieu­tenant Governor

• Demo­c­rat Den­ny Heck

State Audi­tor

• Demo­c­rat Joshua Casey

State Supreme Court

The most impor­tant judi­cial body in Wash­ing­ton State is its State Supreme Court, which, like its fed­er­al equiv­a­lent, has nine mem­bers. How­ev­er, unlike the Unit­ed States Supreme Court, some­times referred to as SCOTUS for short, mem­bers of the State Supreme Court are direct­ly elect­ed by the vot­ers for six-year terms.

No new can­di­dates have filed since yes­ter­day evening.

Key legislative races

The Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture, like the Unit­ed States Con­gress, is a bicam­er­al body with a House and Sen­ate. Mem­bers of the state House serve two year terms, just like their fed­er­al coun­ter­parts, while mem­bers of the state Sen­ate serve four year terms. Present­ly, Wash­ing­ton has forty-nine leg­isla­tive dis­tricts, with each dis­trict elect­ing two rep­re­sen­ta­tives and one senator.

Can­di­dates who have filed since yes­ter­day evening:

Pierce County positions

Pierce is Wash­ing­ton’s sec­ond largest coun­ty by pop­u­la­tion. Unlike its north­ern neigh­bor King and oth­er home rule coun­ties in Wash­ing­ton State with char­ters, Pierce elects its coun­ty-lev­el posi­tions in even-num­bered years (when turnout is high­er), as opposed to odd-num­bered years (when turnout is typ­i­cal­ly lower).

Can­di­dates who have filed since yes­ter­day evening: