Prosecutor's Office as Stepping Stone

David Brewster comments on offices as political stepping stones, saying that one effect of Norm Maleng serving for so long as King County Prosecutor was that young talent didn't rise from his post to other elected offices. (He says the same thing happens with Jim McDermott serving so long in his congressional seat.) An opportunity for new talent to rise in Washington politics, Crosscut, May 26, 2007.

It's true that no one else was King County Prosecutor and moved from there to statewide office. But Norm Maleng's office did nurture talent in the deputy prosecutor slot, and people moved on from there (e.g., Gary Locke from prosecutor to legislator to county executive to governor).

The office of prosecutor can be a stepping stone politically. Even if that's a consideration for the people who will seek the office, I hope that they also have the ambition to run a competent, fair office, ably prosecuting the crimes in our spread-out, urban, suburban, and rural county.