Muni League gives Gregoire, Bryan, Rogers top ratings among Port candidates

By Evan Smith

Seattle Port Commission incumbent Courtney Gregoire got the only "outstanding" rating from the King County Municipal League among 12 candidates for two port positions on 2015 ballots.

Two candidates for the open position, Darrell Bryan and Ken Rogers, have the League's second highest rating, "very good." They are among nine candidates running in the Aug. 4 primary, which will narrow the field for position 5 to two for the Nov. 3 general election.

Five other candidates for the open position got the League's third highest rating "good." They are Fred Felleman, Herb Krohn, Daniel Reandeau, Norman Sigler and Marion Yoshino. Candidates Mark Hennon and Richard Pope had "not qualified" ratings. No port candidates got the "adequate" rating.

The nine are running for the position that Port Commissioner Bill Bryant is giving up. Many observers expect Bryant to be a Republican candidate for governor next year.

Neither of Gregoire's opponents completed the League's questionnaire or appeared for an interview. One, John Naubert, has no active campaign. The other, Goodspaceguy, has a "not qualified" rating.

The League said when it announced its ratings Monday that the ratings are not endorsements because they do not consider a candidate's views on issues or political affiliation. Rather, the League said, the ratings are evaluations of each candidate's ability to do the job.

This year's ratings did not include county assessor, county elections ditector, positions in Shoreline or Lake Forest Park city government or any school board positions around the county.

A spokeswoman said that the League had dropped the two county positions, the Shoreline positions, and Seattle and Bellevue school board positions because of a shortage off volunteer evaluators and because the new Seattle city council representation system brought out 47 candidates for nine positions.

This year's ratings included three county council district positions, city positions in Seattle, Bellevue, Federal Way and Issaquah, and a short-term state legislative position in a south King County district.