Wel­come to Fil­ing Week 2021!

Today through 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 the local level.

This is an odd num­bered year, which means that cities and char­ter coun­ties like King and Sno­homish will have leg­isla­tive and exec­u­tive posi­tions on the bal­lot, along with some judi­cial posi­tions. School dis­tricts, ports, and oth­er local gov­ern­ments across the state will also be hold­ing elec­tions this year.

This post is the first 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.

Browse current candidate filings by county

Coun­ties are list­ed in order of pop­u­la­tion, not alphabetically

Notable filings

• Seat­tle: Coun­cilmem­ber Tere­sa Mosque­da has drawn sev­er­al chal­lengers, which is inter­est­ing, because the oth­er at-large posi­tion is an open seat due to Lore­na Gon­za­lez’s deci­sion to run for mayor.
• Red­mond: Melis­sa Stu­art is run­ning for the posi­tion cur­rent­ly held by Tani­ka Pad­hye. She’s the first can­di­date to file in Red­mond this cycle. NPI under­stands she has pre­vi­ous­ly served as a Red­mond Library trustee.
• King Coun­ty: Even before Fil­ing Week, chal­lengers had emerged to near­ly every incum­bent coun­cilmem­ber, and sev­er­al of them wast­ed no time in fil­ing, like Sarah Per­ry, who is run­ning against Kathy Lam­bert. For the first time in a long time, the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty has a chal­lenger to each of the Repub­li­can coun­cilmem­bers who is either an elect­ed offi­cial or has deep polit­i­cal expe­ri­ence as an activist and an organizer.
• Sno­homish Coun­ty: Incum­bent Repub­li­can Sam Low has a Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger: Brandy Don­aghy. Low filed this morn­ing and Don­aghy filed this after­noon. Don­aghy is a real­ly impres­sive can­di­date. She is a Navy vet­er­an with a his­to­ry of com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice and neigh­bor­hood orga­niz­ing. She has a B.A. in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion from UW Both­ell. She is endorsed by State House Speak­er Pro Tem John Lovick and Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Den­ny Heck along with State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive April Berg and Sno­homish Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­bers Mea­gan Dunn and Jared Mead.
• Edmonds: Three con­tenders have declared for Posi­tion #2 on the first day of fil­ing: Luke Dis­tel­horst, Will Chen, and Janelle Cass. Two can­di­dates filed for Posi­tion #3: Adri­enne Fra­ley Monil­las and Neil Tib­bott.
• What­com Coun­ty: The only coun­ty-lev­el race with mul­ti­ple can­di­dates in it so far is for Coun­cil Dis­trict #3. Fred Rinard and Rebec­ca Lewis are the con­tenders. Like King Coun­ty, What­com Coun­ty is a home-rule coun­ty with a char­ter. It elects coun­cilmem­bers in odd-num­bered years.
• Camas: Two can­di­dates have declared for May­or, Jen­nifer Senes­cu and Steven C. Hogan. This is a spe­cial elec­tion for an unex­pired term.
• Van­cou­ver: Three can­di­dates are already in the race for Posi­tion #1: Mike Pond, John Blom, and Kim D. Har­less.
• Forks: There’s plen­ty of fil­ing action in this small Clal­lam Coun­ty town out on the Wash­ing­ton coast. Two coun­cil races and the may­oral race are already each con­test­ed… and there’s four days of fil­ing left.

Upcoming deadlines and important dates

Fil­ing Week will con­tin­ue until this Fri­day, as men­tioned above.

Key dates after that:

• Mon­day, May 24th, 2021 is the can­di­date with­draw­al deadline
• Tues­day, May 25th, 2021 is the last day for Sec­re­tary of State to cer­ti­fy can­di­dates to Coun­ty Auditors. 
• Fri­day, May 28th, 2021 is the date when can­di­date state­ments and pho­tographs for the state vot­ers’ pam­phlet are due.

The Top Two elec­tion will begin in July, with bal­lots expect­ed to land around July 16th. Vot­ing will con­clude on Tues­day, August 3rd at 8 PM.