State Auditor

Democrat incumbent State Auditor Brian Sonntag is running against Republican challenger Dick McEntee, a corporate executive. These candidates also ran against each other in 2000.

Auditor Sonntag has been in office since winning the 1992 election. Prior to that he was twice elected Pierce County Clerk, and then two-term Pierce County Auditor.

Dick McEntee has long served in lesser known government roles such as sitting on the Fircrest City Council, Governor's councils, county-appointed corporations, and also was the Pierce County Republican Party Treasurer for 2 years. He has a long career in business including as Vice President of Nalley's Fine Foods and VP/Chief (Government) Compliance Officer of an investment firm.

Auditor Sonntag took the majority (59%) of the August Primary. Dick McEntee received 33% of the Primary vote (in a 3-way race).

Auditor Sonntag has been in office as the focus of the State Auditor's Office changed from purely letter-of-the-law CPA-style auditing to Performance Auditing as empowered by I-900.

He has done a pretty good job of going into budget-heavy sacred-cow territory (such as the state Department of Transportation budget) and given his own party the bad news. This has made Auditor Sonntag more popular in many Republican/conservative circles than in his own party!

Auditor Sonntag has received some key endorsements from the Association of Washington Business and the Building Industry Association of Washington.

Mister McEntee has been calling for more extensive performance audits for a long time, and makes the argument that he would be more forceful in this area than the incumbent has been.

While I have often thought that the State Auditor's Office should be more liberal in its use of its Performance Audit authority I also have to remember that it was under his watch, and (continuing) political leadership, that real Performance Audits came into existence in state government.

I am voting for Brian Sonntag for State Auditor.