Pat McCarthy has ample lead over Chris Leyba in bid to remain Washington State Auditor

For­mer Pierce Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Pat McCarthy appears to be on track to keep the posi­tion of Wash­ing­ton State Audi­tor in Demo­c­ra­t­ic hands, four years after tak­ing over from con­vict­ed suc­ces­sor Troy Kel­ley, NPI’s research has found.

48% of like­ly Wash­ing­ton State vot­ers sur­veyed on Octo­ber 14th and 15th say they’re vot­ing for McCarthy’s reelec­tion, while 34% say they’re sup­port­ing her Repub­li­can oppo­nent Chris Ley­ba. 18% of those sur­veyed were not sure.

The con­test for Audi­tor is one of the qui­etest down­bal­lot races this year. Lit­tle has been writ­ten or said about it, per­haps owing to the fact that McCarthy’s tenure in the office has been free of scan­dal or palace intrigue, unlike her predecessor.

The posi­tion of Audi­tor is one of nine inde­pen­dent­ly elect­ed statewide offices in Wash­ing­ton’s exec­u­tive depart­ment. Here’s how the role is defined in the Con­sti­tu­tion, Wash­ing­ton State’s plan of government:

The audi­tor shall be audi­tor of pub­lic accounts, and shall have such pow­ers and per­form such duties in con­nec­tion there­with as may be pre­scribed by law. He shall receive an annu­al salary of two thou­sand dol­lars, which may be increased by the leg­is­la­ture, but shall nev­er exceed three thou­sand dol­lars per annum.

– Arti­cle III, Sec­tion 20

The audi­tor’s office audits state and local pub­lic agen­cies both for finan­cial health and for per­for­mance; as not­ed in the above cita­tion, the Leg­is­la­ture has the abil­i­ty to define the office’s pow­ers and duties by statute.

The Everett Her­ald char­ac­ter­ized McCarthy as hav­ing “quick­ly right­ed the office of some four hun­dred audi­tors and oth­er employ­ees and restored morale” in its endorse­ment of her, adding: “McCarthy has shown able stew­ard­ship of her office, which in return has helped assure good stew­ard­ship of pub­lic finances.”

Against McCarthy, who has the advan­tage of being from Pierce, the state’s biggest swing coun­ty, Repub­li­cans have put up Chris Ley­ba, a felony crimes detec­tive with the King Coun­ty Sher­if­f’s office, who is cer­ti­fied as a law enforce­ment auditor.

Like Kim Wyman, Ley­ba believes the office he aspires to should be made “non­par­ti­san”, but, curi­ous­ly, he is run­ning as a Repub­li­can, with the “proud sup­port” of Repub­li­can Par­ty orga­ni­za­tions all over the state, as well as right wing talk radio hosts like John Carl­son and Kir­by Wilbur (Wilbur is a for­mer par­ty chair.)

On his web­site, Ley­ba lists his oth­er pri­or­i­ties as order­ing a per­for­mance audit of Wash­ing­ton’s response to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and elim­i­nat­ing the office’s leg­isla­tive direc­tor posi­tion. That’s about the extent of his vision for the position.

Here’s Ley­ba’s video pitch for the job:

McCarthy, on the oth­er hand, has a record of accom­plish­ments to run on, as well as expe­ri­ence run­ning Pierce Coun­ty to draw on. Her pitch to vot­ers could be sum­ma­rized as keep me on the job as your effec­tive watch­dog.

She envi­sions a more flex­i­ble, dynam­ic agency made pos­si­ble by employ­ees work­ing remote­ly from home — a shift dri­ven pri­mar­i­ly by the pandemic.

Here’s McCarthy’s video pitch for the job:

Wash­ing­ton’s edi­to­r­i­al boards are enthused about what McCarthy has got­ten done dur­ing the past four years. Sev­er­al have writ­ten glow­ing edi­to­ri­als urg­ing that she receive anoth­er term, includ­ing The Her­ald of Everett (linked above), The Columbian of Van­cou­ver, The Seat­tle Times, and the News Tri­bune of Taco­ma.

Vot­ing in the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion is cur­rent­ly in progress and is set to con­clude on Novem­ber 3rd, 2020 at 8 PM Pacif­ic in Wash­ing­ton State.