West Seattle is already home to the city’s mayor – will it be home to the King County Executive too? Depends on whether County Council Chair Dow Constantine runs, and then wins. Last night in Fauntleroy, he made the 34th District Democrats a promise … read on for details (plus, State Sen. Joe McDermott reveals who recently booed him):

As you probably know, King County is in the market for a new Executive because Ron Sims is leaving to join the Obama Administration. His job was on the ballot this fall anyway. Now, the County Council — chaired by Constantine, who’s from West Seattle — has to decide on a temporary successor, while the jockeying intensifies to see who will run for the permanent job.

County Councilmember Larry Phillips already has tossed his hat in the proverbial ring, and Constantine is deciding whether to do the same. He told the 34th DDs he would decide soon: “I am having serious conversations and making my phone calls around, I will not leave you hanging — I will make a quick decision about whether to seek the office of King County Executive and i will let you know right away.”

(“Do it!” yelled a voice from the crowd.)

After the meeting, we asked him to elaborate on what “quick” means. His reply: “A week to 10 days.” (As the crowd was reminded, a recent vote means that the county executive and council positions are now nonpartisan offices, like their counterparts in Seattle city government.)

Constantine wasn’t the only councilmember at the 34th DDs’ event; two Seattle City Councilmembers attended too, including Sally Clark (photo left). She had a brief progress report on the “multifamily code” proposal, featuring townhouse-design reform: “You’ll see quite a bit of work on this through March.” Asked “where does neighborhood planning stand for West Seattle?” she said the “neighborhood planning advisory committee” is working on a timetable for which neighborhoods will follow the ones currently in line for plan updates (Rainier Valley, Beacon Hill, etc.). Then an even tougher question, about last Monday’s 8-1 council vote against accepting the annexation-process deal with Burien that would have split up the North Highline area: Clark said, “I think Seattle could do a good job of serving a portion of that area – Roxbury’s not a good boundary – but without the money [from sales-tax revenue], we are at a deep disadvantage.” She also said Seattle would not be rescuing the South Park Bridge from its unincorporated status: “We cannot receive it as a gift in its current condition,” she joked, to big laughs.

Next, councilmember Bruce Harrell talked about his main areas of emphasis, utilities and technology. In particular, the latter – he pitched again for his “citizen engagement portal,” which he says could connect people to city government in a way that will enable them to receive personalized information and comment solicitations: “A means to capture the silent majority.”

After the city councilmembers, the government talk jumped up a couple levels to state government. The first “cutoff date,” after which many bills without significant support will be dead for the year, is coming up in about a month. 34th DD’ers were encouraged to go to Olympia for “Legislative Action Day” next Monday.

A detailed update on the session so far came from State Sen. Joe McDermott, who warned that times will be tough for any bill that would “cost money,” given the state budget crisis, which he says could get even worse – a briefing that’s coming up soon could expand the gap to $7 billion — and then, he warned, “we will no longer be able to talk about a ‘no new taxes’ budget.”

Specific bills he mentioned tracking include expansion of rights for same-sex couples, in a bill McDermott says would provide “all the STATE rights of marriage except the term.” That still wouldn’t be a final victory, he cautioned, as federal rights for married couples include 1,100 additional “rights and responsibilities.”

Also, an unemployment-insurance bill is about to go before the State Senate, McDermott said, adding: “There are a quarter million people unemployed in our state right now.” Claims for December were almost double month-to-month over the course of a year, he said, also noting something you’ve probably read about elsewhere – the phone-filing system for unemployment claims is jammed up (“I hear the volume is lower on Thursdays and Fridays,” he offered).

One of the biggest legislative challenges he mentioned: Figuring out how to fix public-education funding. “There’s talk of trying to merge (alternatives) into one bill, and that’s been difficult,” McDermott said, while admitting that he’s worried nothing might “move forward,” not an acceptable option for him “because if we don’t do something, we will be inadequately funding our schools for another 30 years.”

As controversial as education funding can be, McDermott says he’s drawn even more fire for one more issue he’s forwarding – voting reform. He says a recent meeting of “election workers” booed him for pressing his point that he wants people to be able to register to vote on Election Day. He says he may not be able to get that achieved any time soon, but he’s hopeful that the deadline for registration might move closer – the last deadline currently is 15 days in advance, and he thinks an 8-day deadline might be a possibility, but overall, he vowed, “I commit to keep working until we have Election Day voting registration in Washington state.”

If you are interested in what the Legislature’s up to, it was repeated several times last night – you’ll want to attend Legislative Action Day next Monday (here’s more info from the 34th DDs’ site).

One last note from the meeting: We’ve reported previously on a proposal circulating around the area, to rename the West Seattle (high-rise) Bridge in honor of the late former City Councilmember Jeanette Williams, who fought for federal funding to help get it built. The 34th DDs have agreed to consider a support resolution at their March meeting, which will be at 7 pm March 11, The Hall at Fauntleroy. (The 34th DDs have a lively website too – check it frequently at 34dems.org.)