GOP regrets its state auditor candidate

TACOMA – Republican leaders were happy to have a contender for state auditor when they accepted Will Baker as an eleventh-hour candidate.

They didn’t worry too much about who he was or how he spent his time – until they realized a considerable amount of his time was spent in jail.

Baker, a 41-year-old roadside flower salesman and self-styled political activist, has been booked into the Pierce County Jail at least 19 times since 1992, mostly for disrupting city and county council meetings.

Party leaders scrambled Friday to remove Baker as a candidate, days after naming him as the Republican choice to challenge popular state Auditor Brian Sonntag, a Democrat seeking a fourth term.

State election officials denied the request. Such a move would require court action.

“We didn’t check him out,” GOP chairman Chris Vance conceded Friday. “If I could, I would withdraw the letter putting him on the ballot as the Republican candidate – but it’s too late.”

Baker has been arrested numerous times for refusing to stop speaking at Tacoma City Council and Pierce County Council meetings. In June, he was sentenced to six months in jail for behavior at three City Council meetings in September 2003, the Tacoma News Tribune reported Saturday. He was released June 24.

He’s got an October court hearing scheduled for a disorderly conduct charge stemming from actions at another Pierce County Council meeting, Deputy Pierce County Prosecutor Kevin Benton told the Seattle Times.

Baker declined to be interviewed by the Tribune, but when asked about his candidacy said, “No one’s asked me to withdraw.”

When no Republican candidate emerged for the state office by the July 30 deadline, Vance said Baker called GOP leaders and volunteered.

In haste, Vance and his staff accepted Baker on Tuesday as a committed volunteer without thoroughly examining his background.

“He told us that he was a conservative activist and he was willing to run against Brian Sonntag,” Vance said. “We did just a minimal amount of checking and saw that he had run as a Republican for secretary of state.”

Sonntag, a Pierce County resident familiar with Baker, said the situation illustrates flaws in the election filing process.