Constantine and his special guest at the 2016 debut of light rail service to Capitol Hill and the UW
After 15 years leading King County, Dow Constantine will step aside.
Constantine announced Tuesday he will not seek reelection in 2025 throwing open the race to replace him as King County Executive. Challengers are already stepping up.
“I ran for executive because I care deeply about this region where I was raised and the people who live and work here,” Constantine said in his announcement. “My priority was then – and still is today – that every person should be able to thrive, be economically secure, and contribute to the life of our community.”
Constantine’s run heading King County ends in cloudier times for the career politician after decades of public service beginning with his election to the State House of Representatives in 1996. At one time on a clear path to a run for governor, Constantine watched as State Attorney General Bob Ferguson guaranteed another Democratic term leading the state in last week’s election. The West Seattle resident turns 63 Friday.
In his announcement, Constantine says he will continue “our critical work of transit and transportation, climate action, behavioral health, affordable housing, arts and culture.” Constantine is chair of the Sound Transit board.
Constantine at a rally for reproductive rights in Cal Anderson Park (Image: CHS)
Leading the county through years of unprecedented economic and population growth, Constantine also led the county as it struggled with the pandemic and the unrest of the Black Lives Matter movement.
His political struggles to lead on change around youth incarceration became a defining characteristic of his administration in recent years. After promising the 12th Ave youth detention facility would be converted to “other purposes” by 2025, Constantine was bashed by both those who want the youth jail maintained and those who want it abolished as the King County Council voted this year to ignore the executive and vote “to maintain operations of the secure juvenile detention facility at the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center.”
Constantine’s leadership on homelessness has also been a struggle. Constantine and then-Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan signing of an Interlocal Agreement to create the King County Regional Homelessness Authority has mostly been eroded as officials moved this fall to streamline the $250 million a year effort and jettison most of the organization’s ability to develop new solutions to the area’s ongoing homelessness crisis.
Not all of the recent news for Constantine has been bad. Earlier this year, King County Metro opened the $144 million RapidRide G bus line from the waterfront to Madison Valley via First Hill and Capitol Hill — though even that launch had a few dents after it was discovered contractors screwed up wheelchair access on platforms and every bus shelter on the route needs work.
Last year, Constantine’s $1.25 billion proposal to create a system of Crisis Care Centers across the county won approval from voters.
And there is still work underway like a new $2.6 million initiative to address gun violence or a plan for a new Seattle “Civic Campus” and light rail station on the site of the current King County Administration Building.
Meanwhile, candidates are already lining up for a run at the now open seat. Former Bellevue mayor and current member of the King County Council, Claudia Balducci was first to formally announce her run. ”Throughout my career, I have always focused on outcomes that make a difference for the people of King County: transportation, housing and public safety. Our communities are growing increasingly expensive– which is why I fight for expanded access to affordable housing and convenient, sustainable transportation options,” Balducci said. “We deserve to feel and be safe in our communities– which is why I have delivered public safety solutions from support for law enforcement to crime prevention, and behavioral health responses.”
More candidates will follow as attention falls on other bright lights in the county like King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay who took the unusual step to announce he is “strongly considering” a run for the seat. The possible candidate is coming off a legislative triumph with the council’s passage of his “$1 billion workforce housing initiative” that will utilize “the county’s excess debt capacity to partner with housing agencies and developers in creating permanently rent-restricted, multiple-unit housing for the region’s workforce.”
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Need my transit kings /queens to run
He should have been recalled after the youth detention facility debacle. First he wasted a bunch of taxpayer dollars to build it in the core of the city on a huge lot that should have been housing rather than on a much cheaper lot in rural king county. Then he did a performative progressive dance about closing it for “equity” at the peak of hysteria in 2020. He is totally detached from reality. On top of it, he greatly reduced capacity of the King County jail “due to covid”. As a result of his failed leadership, crime and disorder in Seattle has skyrocketed because there is no place to put repeat offenders that are sowing chaos around the city. F*ck Dow and good riddance.
The youth prison was massively stupid. Typical Dow W
Stupid why? What’s your point? Was it the building of the youth jail or Constantine s pandering to eliminate it? Do you favor no youth jail? If so, no consequences for killers under 18 or Kia Boys stealing a bazillion cars? Would like to hear more on your perspective.
I think they spelled it out for you already. read again.
Stupid to build a massive youth prison in the middle of a dense neighborhood on valuable land that should have been housing. Stupid to then pretend to want to close the brand new $250m youth prison for equity.
No one who is sane would argue that a facility to detain under 18 persons who murder, assault and rape but I bet there are areas where this facility could be that arent in the middle of a dense neighborhood with a housing shortage.
I agree with you. But Dow did both of those things. Build stupid and then pander to the far left to immediately close it.
Finally good news!
Any candidate who thinks it’s a win to utilize “the county’s excess debt capacity” is fiscally irresponsible. That translates to “put it on the credit card and figure it out later”.