KING 5 Poll: County Executive race neck-and-neck

06:12 PM PDT on Monday, October 17, 2005

By ROBERT MAK / KING 5 News

SEATTLE - With the election just three weeks away, a new KING 5 poll shows that the race for King County Executive's is neck-and-neck.

A full 46 percent of those surveyed said they would vote for Republican David Irons now, compared to 43 percent for incumbent Ron Sims.

That is within the poll's four-percent margin of error.

Another factor in this race could be Green Party candidate Gentry Lange, who polled at 7 percent. Four percent of those surveyed told SurveyUSA that they're still undecided.

Irons may be ahead, but strangely enough, many voters know very little about David Irons.

The Republican is hitting the campaign trail hard, saying he's hit virtually every corner of the county.

"Capitol Hill, Burien, I don't care where you are in King County, I've been there," he said.

But who is David Irons, and is he ready for the job?

KING

King County Council member David Irons campaigns in an effort to oust incumbent Ron Sims from the King County Executive's office.

Irons lives in Sammamish. He's the father of three girls. He met his wife at a ballroom dancing competition.

"That's how I won her heart, through my feet."

He studied math and economics, but left college when a friend told him he could get a job on the Alaskan Pipeline when a friend told him that the annual salary was $54,000 a year, a lot to college kid in the 70s.

After that, he tried real estate, worked for his father's cable business. Then, he was chief operating officer for an Internet access company called Brigadoon.com.

The company went belly up, but irons laughs at suggestions he was responsible since he left a year and a half before its demise.

If working for a dotcom that went belly up is a black mark, he says, "I think there would be a whole lot of people that would have black marks in our region."

Irons has been on the King County Council for five years now, and from the critical areas ordinance, to a now rejected plan to move Southwest Airlines, to the Elections Division, Irons hammers Sims for what he calls bad management.

But Democrats say his conservative record is out-of-step with King County.

He voted against higher wages for child care workers and he opposed a higher tax for Metro service.

"No, I think I'm a very good fit. I'm a fiscal conservative, that means spending money wisely."

Part of the intrigue surrounding Irons is his family.

His younger sister Di once ran against him, and this year, gave money to Ron Sims.

Sibling rivalry?

"I haven't seen Di in some time, no. I don't see her socially. I don't see her," he said.

In the race for campaign money, Ron Sims is still the winner, having raised $554,000 in his last report.

David Irons at $367,000.

Money isn't everything, but it helps get your message out in the final days of the campaign.