State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, announced Wednesday that she will run for a King County Council seat that is being vacated.
She will seek the council District 4 seat, where the incumbent, Larry Phillips, is not running for re-election. District 4 covers most of northwest Seattle.
Kohl-Welles, 72, represented northwest Seattle's 36th Legislative District as a state representative from 1991 to 1994, and has been that area's state senator since 1994. "I'm ready for a last chapter," Kohl-Welles said of her hope to switch legislative bodies. Also, she wants to stake out a position as a progressive-leaning woman on the County Council, noting the other two women council members are more conservative than she is.
Kohl-Welles, who has a doctorate in the sociology of education, has had a deep interest in juvenile justice, human trafficking and affordable housing in the Senate. She hopes to pursue those interests on the King County Council. She has also been one of the Legislature's point people on meshing the state's medical and recreational marijuana systems this year.
Kohl-Welles is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Higher Education Committee, plus she is on the Ways & Means and Law &Justice committees.
Kohl-Welles' candidacy has been endorsed by Phillips, and County Council members Rod Dembowski, Joe McDermott, and Dave Upthegrove. She also has been endorsed by Democratic 36th District Reps. Reuven Carlyle and Gael Tarleton, plus all of the Democratic state senators from King County.
The County Council elections are officially nonpartisan.