We have eleven terrific council candidates to choose from at Monday’s council meeting, to fill the vacancy left by Dan Clawson.

I wish to thank all of them for their participation in this process.

For those that have not seen the interviews yet, the interviews will be played on channel 21 during the week and they should soon be available on our city website. In addition, one of the candidates furnished us written answers to our questions (an alternative we offered for applicants with a timing conflict), and we will read her excellent answers aloud at the council meeting on Monday night.

This will not be an easy decision for any of the council members, as everyone of the applicants has unique strengths and experiences that they can offer to the council.

I am proud to have all of these eleven individuals already making a difference in our community… it was clear from the interview process that the eleven of them together are touching thousands of lives already with their engagement in Renton volunteer programs.

I have no idea whom my colleagues and I will collectively choose on Monday, but we know there is only one spot and eleven applicants.

So there will be ten who won’t make it onto council on Monday, and I would like to share a little of my perspective and experience with them….

First thing to share is that when it comes time to face election, an appointment to city council is not the same thing as winning election to council. I’ve seen many cases of appointed candidates not winning in the first election cycle…I can think of two times that I have seen this in Renton School Board for instance. I think this is because the appointed candidate has very little time to get familiar with the responsibilities of the post while simultaneously gearing up for a campaign. They also have less time than an elected candidate to get to know people, and network with constituents, before facing the election cycle. Furthermore, they don’t have the name recognition that comes from winning a previous campaign, and they are barred from saying “re-elect …….” in their campaign material and on their signs. While being the incumbent can give a slight fundraising advantage in a campaign, without being able to ask for “re-election” it may never be clear to many of the actual voters that they are the incumbent. And on the downside, even though they do not get many of the traditional advantages of incumbency, they can still catch blame for anything that is going wrong, the way everyone does in public office. While this can really seem unfair for someone who has only been in office for a year when they start- off their campaign… welcome to politics.

The second thing I wish to share is that these eleven have all already made a difference. By being available to serve, they have shown our community and our neighboring cities that we have smart people ready to step up and take the reins of our city on short notice. And they have made a difference by sharing their perspectives on some important topics, in such areas as our business plan, annexation, growth management, and spending priorities, and their opinions are important to us.

So, to all eleven who applied to this position, I wish to say thank you very much. I hope they will all see themselves as winners no matter what the outcome on Monday….that is how I see them.

Best Wishes,

Randy