Brandland Retirement Sets off a Chain of Candidate Announcements

State Senator Dale Brandland (R-42) announced his retirement on the floor of the Senate this week, setting in motion a number of announcements from other legislators and candidates scrambling to claim first dibs on the open seat. Rep. Doug Ericksen (R-42) immediately announced he would give up his seat in the House and run for the Senate seat in the 42nd District. This leaves Ericksen's House seat open.

At the beginning of the week, Democrat Pat Jerns of Birch Bay announced he would challenge Brandland for the State Senate. Democrat Richard May of Blaine has been campaigning for that seat for some months now, and has decided to switch to the open House race instead. He joins Democrat Al Jensen of Ferndale, who announced he was running for the House as soon a Ericksen moved to the senate race. Are you keeping up with this?

Rep. Kelli Linville (D-42), who holds the other House seat from the 42nd Legislative District, is expected to run for re-election. Republican Vincent Buys has filed to run against Linville.