King County Retains Sims As County Executive

Ron Sims, a Democrat who was appointed to replace Gary Locke as head of Washington’s largest county last winter, easily won election in his own right Tuesday night.

Sims, his party’s unsuccessful U.S. Senate nominee against Slade Gorton three years ago, swept past Republican state Rep. Suzette Cooke of Kent to win a four-year term as King County executive.

With 39 percent of the precincts reporting, Sims had 69 percent of the vote to Cooke’s 31 percent.

The post has been a political stepping stone, with Democrat Locke and Republican John Spellman both going on to win the governor’s mansion. Democrat Booth Gardner was county executive in adjacent Pierce County when he was elected governor.

Sims, 49, a longtime member of the King County Council before winning the appointment, had the endorsement of organized labor, Democratic activists and the Affordable Housing Council.

Cooke, 48, made her mark in Olympia as a fiscal conservative and social moderate, including cosponsorship of the state’s landmark welfare reform law and the chairmanship of the House Children & Family Services Committee.