SAN FRANCISCO - Three men have thrown their hats in the ring for the contest to replace retiring Washington Treasurer Michael J. Murphy.
Assistant treasurer Allan Martin, ChangMook Sohn, the longtime executive director of the Washington Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, and state Rep. Jim McIntire, an economics and government professor at the University of Washington, have entered the Aug. 19 state primary, which will send the top two finishers to the November general election.
Martin is a Republican, and Sohn and McIntire are Democrats, though the party labels will not affect the outcome of the primary because for the first time, Washington will employ its new "top two" primary system.
That system puts all candidates on one primary ballot, and sends the top two through to the general election, regardless of affiliation. The state's voters approved the system in 2004, but it was delayed because of court challenges from political parties. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way in March in a 7-to-2 ruling upholding the new system.
Secretary of State Sam Reed helped devise the new system after the courts overturned the state's previous blanket primary, in which voters were free to pick and choose candidates from any party, with the top vote-getters from each party moving to the general election.
"For 70 years we had a blanket primary," said Reed spokesman Dave Ammons. "That's where we got into the habit of splitting our tickets."
Even if one candidate gets a majority of the vote in August, the second place finisher will still advance to the November general election, Ammons said.
Martin was the Chelan County treasurer before joining the state treasurer's office. Murphy has endorsed him, though Murphy is a Democrat and Martin is a Republican.
Sohn served more than 23 years as the first director of the forecast council, which was created to give impartial economic forecasts the state's policy makers can use to help develop. He retired from the office in February and announced his candidacy for the treasurer's office a few days later.
McIntire is touting his financial experience as an economics professor and as chair of fiscal committees in the Legislature. He claims endorsements from several public employee unions.
Murphy is retiring after serving three four-year terms. He is known for his steadfast support of selling bonds on a competitive basis.
All nine statewide offices are up for election this year, including the governor's office. That race is highly likely to feature a rematch of the 2004 battle between Republican Dino Rossi and Democrat Christine Gregoire, who won by the slimmest of margins.
