(The Center Square) – Former Seattle Police Officer’s Guild President Mike Solan is celebrating a court victory this week that allows him to move forward with seeking a seat on the Pierce County Council.
Solan resigned as president of the guild in January of this year, but remains a Seattle Police officer. He has served in law enforcement for 27 years.
He has lived in Pierce County since 2022 and is now running for the District 7 seat covering Gig Harbor and parts of unincorporated Pierce County. Incumbent Democrat Robyn Denson is not seeking reelection.
The Pierce County Auditor had moved to withdraw Solan’s candidacy over what they said was a voter registration violation under county charter rules, drawing Solan’s legal challenge.
“I filed for candidacy on May 4th and was then notified three days later…the auditor’s office told me [they’d] rejected my candidacy based upon what their perception was for violating charter language,” Solan said.
The charter indicates council candidates must be registered voters in the district where they seek office for at least one year.
Solan told The Center Square in a Wednesday interview he is not convinced his candidacy was randomly reviewed, but rather targeted.
“When I asked them, did anybody give you a heads up on this in terms of my voter registration somewhere and then that influenced your decision, they couldn’t answer that either,” he said.
“So, for me, I was pretty sure that there were some shenanigans afoot.”
Pierce County Auditor Linda Farmer was unavailable on Wednesday to discuss Solan’s case, but Linda Kent, Pierce County Chief Deputy Auditor, emailed The Center Square to explain the Pierce County Charter adopted by the voters of Pierce County in 1980 requires a council candidate to be a registered voter: “all Councilmembers shall be residents and registered voters of their Council districts for at least one year immediately prior to filing for the Council position.”
Katie Blinn, Assistant Chief Deputy Attorney, which provides legal counsel to the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, told The Center Square Wednesday that the judge who ruled in Solan’s favor Monday agreed with the county on that point.
“Because the charter can establish county elected office and then also establish the qualifications for those offices and requirements to file for office, the judge agreed with the county on that,” said Blinn.
It was the second legal argument where Solan prevailed in Pierce County Superior Court.
“The second legal argument was this particular requirement of having a year of voter registration in addition to a year of residency. [Was it] too high a bar, essentially, does it violate equal protection?” said Blinn.
“The theory being filing for office is a fundamental right, and that requires a compelling state interest in order to impinge on that right.”
Judge’s order in Solan’s favor
“The court concluded that the year of residency already satisfies a compelling interest that the government has in making sure that candidates are familiar with their communities in order to file for office and requiring the year of voter registration essentially….there’s just not a need for that over and above the year of residency,” Blinn said.
Solan told The Center Square he kept his home address secret and did not tie a voter registration to the address because of what happened to his family before he moved out of West Seattle.
He explained his family was targeted during the 2020 “defund the police” movement.
“I had about a mob of a hundred people march on my private home in West Seattle, and they found my information, when it was publicly available through voter files or what have you,” he said.
“I had my kids inside my house……drums, strobe lights, megaphones, lasers, anything to be disruptive. It was a bridge too far, it was dangerous,” he said while describing the protester’s tactics.
Solan said that’s when the family decided to move to Pierce County because they already loved the area, but opted not to publicly list their address.
“I created a trust in which my name was removed, hidden, if you will from public records. And it was the best thing I did,” said Solan.
“If you file to register as a voter, you have to list your primary residence where you lay your head at night. And I didn’t want to do that, because once I did that, then I would be exposed potentially, and another mob showing up at my private home where I’m trying to find safety and refuge,” he added.
Blinn told The Center Square while Solan’s candidacy moves forward, future legal challenges are not out of the realm of possibility.
“This candidate will appear on the primary election ballot, but it’s also possible that there could be an appeal on this matter later,” said Blinn. “The State Supreme Court did take up a similar argument even after a candidate had won a general election, because there were questions outstanding on eligibility to serve.”
Election could determine appeal
“It might depend on whether or not Mr. Solan advances from the primary to the general or wins the general election,” Blinn said regarding a potential appeal.
The Center Square asked the Pierce County Auditor’s office for details on who challenged Solan’s voter registration status once he filed his candidacy.
“Many people alerted the office that the candidate may not be eligible, including other candidates. It’s not uncommon for candidates to question other candidates’ eligibility,” wrote Kent, Pierce County’s chief deputy auditor.
“The Auditor’s Office checked eligibility under the charter for all of the County Council candidates. Under the charter provision, we had to reject the candidacy. The remedy if someone believes a candidate filing requirement is not legal is to ask the courts to clarify, which is information we provided the candidate.”
Solan says he’s convinced that the attacks on him within days of registering his candidacy are evidence that opponents are afraid he will win.
“They’ve already resorted to trying to scrape me off the ballot and prevent me from running, but I’m seeing a flood of support from my constituents, and I have the energy to do this,” Solan said.
Democratic candidate Brenda Lykins, running for the District 7 position did not respond to an email request for an interview.
Chuck West, a Peninsula School Board member and retired Key Peninsula Fire Department battalion chief, has also filed to run as an independent.
The Washington primary is on Aug. 4 and only the top two vote-getters will advance to the November general election, regardless of party.
