Attorney general

The Washington state attorney general oversees more than 500 lawyers, about half the size of the entire Spokane County Bar Association. The AG’s office has 26 divisions and offices in 12 cities, including Spokane.

It represents all branches of state government, from prisons to community colleges. It is a consumer protection watchdog and occasionally a prosecuting attorney.

In electing an attorney general, voters need to look for someone with proven legal expertise as well as management skills. Their choices in the general election are Republican Rob McKenna, who’s held the job for the past four years, and Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, a Democrat.

Ladenburg, a former county prosecuting attorney, is a credible challenger to McKenna. His solid record as a local official inspires confidence that he could do the job well.

But McKenna, a former King County councilman, has spent four years doing the job, not just well but with remarkable energy, skill and dedication.

He has been a forceful consumer advocate. He has attacked identity theft and methamphetamine use. Within his office, he has cut down on staff turnover and taken other steps to improve efficiency.

He also has led a bipartisan charge to keep public records and meetings open. It should comfort citizens to know that in a contest over their ability to keep an eye on government agencies, McKenna is on their side.

Washington voters are lucky to have two impressive candidates for this critical office, but McKenna’s record makes him a known quantity and the preferred choice.

Insurance commissioner

Democrat Mike Kreidler is running for his third term as insurance commissioner, and once again he’s facing Republican John Adams, a West Side insurance broker who hasn’t noticeably raised his profile since running as an obscure candidate in 2004.

When Kreidler took over the state agency in 2000 it was controversial and not respected among insurers. For one thing, the office had lost its accreditation. Kreidler hired qualified people in key positions to restore the office’s standing.

Since then, he has been a steady hand through some tumultuous times. He ably handled Premera’s application to become a for-profit insurer and made the right decision for Washingtonians by rejecting the request. When trial lawyers and doctors floated competing initiatives for handling the medical malpractice controversy, he provided reasoned arguments for rejecting both measures. He also advocated legislation that gives his office greater access to insurance company data for when the next “hard market” arrives and the cries of crisis are renewed.

The signature initiative of a new Kreidler term will be his push for universal catastrophic health insurance. The idea is to cover everyone after their medical expenses exceed $10,000 in a given year. The plan would be paid for by raising the payroll taxes of employees and employers. We’re skeptical about his claim that the plan would be revenue neutral because severing catastrophic coverage makes regular coverage cheaper. We fear it could become another burden for businesses and discourage job creation.

Nonetheless, Kreidler is clearly the better candidate and an easy choice in this race.

Secretary of state

In 2001, when Sam Reed took office as Washington’s secretary of state, citizens were angry and discouraged about voting irregularities during the 2000 presidential election. The term “hanging chad” entered the lexicon, and every state’s voting system came under intense scrutiny.

During his two terms in office, Reed has responded to voters’ concerns about election integrity. His office centralized the state’s voter registration system; 400,000 ineligible voters were removed from voter lists. Reed, a Republican, worked across party lines to retain Washington voters’ ability to pick the top two primary candidates, regardless of party affiliation. The Supreme Court concurred.

Reed also worked systematically to preserve Washington’s history. He helped save the state library, in danger from budget cuts in 2002 and 2003. In 2004, the state’s digital archives went online at Eastern Washington University; 32 million public documents are now accessible. And last session the Legislature approved funding for the Washington State Heritage Center to be built on the Capitol campus in Olympia.

Reed is also proud of the fact that citizens now can file articles of incorporation online and be in business within 48 hours, rather than the six weeks it once took.

Democrat Jason Osgood, co-founder of Washington Citizens for Fair Elections, is Reed’s opponent. The Seattle software developer says he wishes to “restore the sanctity of the secret ballot,” but he offers few specifics.

Reed’s commitment and enthusiasm for citizens’ voting rights – and for preservation of the state’s long history – make him the easy choice in this race.

Superintendent of public instruction

If the Washington Assessment of Student Learning were a ballot initiative, it would get crushed. Liberal and conservative politicians have figured out they can score quick points by bashing it. But candidates for superintendent of public instruction cannot do a hit and run. Nor can they dwell on that issue at the expense of others.

Randy Dorn has made the elimination of the WASL the centerpiece of his campaign. In the 1990s, he was a chief architect of school reform as a legislator, helping write a bill that gave rise to the now unpopular test. He says the implementation has gone awry and now he would like for the state to purchase a cheaper, less exhaustive test. He is not enthusiastic about increasing the number of math classes students must pass before receiving a diploma.

The concern with Dorn is that he is too close to the teachers union, which endorsed him, to implement tough reforms and raise standards. One of the purposes of reform is to ensure that teachers are up to the task of educating children to excel in a changing economy.

The incumbent, Terry Bergeson, has served three terms and has fallen out of favor with many teachers. The WASL has forced many changes in schools and it hasn’t proved to be a cost-effective way to improve education. Students have shown improvement, but the math assessment has been a failure. That’s disappointing to the business community and taxpayers, but Bergeson’s overall commitment to higher standards and accountability remains strong.

Bergeson gets the nod, but she has a lot of work ahead of her.