Is it David Irons, David W Irons or David W Irons Jr running for King County Director of Elections?

For someone running in the February 3, 2009 Special Election to be King County Director of Elections, you would think David Irons aka David W Irons aka David W Irons Jr would be a little more careful about how he uses his names in the campaign and associated required campaign filings.

After all, he can only vote under one of these names, not all three and voters likewise only have one name to choose of his on the ballot. So why does he at different times use one of three different versions of his name?

David Irons previously ran as a Republican for both the King County Council and for King County Executive. A big deal ihas been made by Republicans, of disqualifying ballots if voters do not sign their ballots exactly as they are registered to vote.

Yet in his official campaign dealings in this campaign Irons has used at least 3 “different variations of his name”. This can be confusing to voters but also appears to have confused the computers and/or workers at the Public Disclosure Commission enough that their programs listing campaign contributions and expenditures were not correctly reporting campaign finance data results for the Feb 3, 2009 King County Director of Elections race.

David Irons is registered to vote as “David W Irons” according to his declaration of candidacy. His response on his declaration of candidacy to “Please print my name on the ballot exactly as follows:” was “David Irons“.

So why did he not file all his forms with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission -as “David Irons”? This is who he is asking the public to vote for and the name you would thus logically expect to look up for more information at the Public Disclosure Commission.

He filed his C1 initial filing with the PDC as “David W Irons“. (See PDC -“actual reports” you will have to search for David W Irons as the PDC site does not stay live in searches). This is not, however, how he identifies himself on the ballot or video voters pamphlet or even on his website where he is David Irons.

But here’s where it gets confusing. He then filed all of his subsequent filings with the PDC using another version of his name – “David W Irons Jr.” (See PDC -“actual reports” – Again you will have to search for David W Irons Jr this time as reports do not stay live) This was how he filed his PDC forms previously with the PDC when he ran for King County Council and King County Executive.

The result of filing all of his forms under David W Iron Jr except for his C1, was that the Public Disclosure Commission up through yesterday, erroneously listed David Irons as not having raised any funds or made any expenditures when one used their “search the database” function for 2009 County Director of Elections races.

In reality, the actual reports filed not under the C1 name “David W Irons” or his ballot name “David Irons“, but under “David W Irons Jr” show him receiving $40,756 in cash and $6,460 in kind in his campaign to be the King County Director of Elections.. The bulk of his cash, some $35,000 came from his personal funds which he contributed back on Dec 8, 2008.

The PDC has now caught the problem caused by reports being filed by Irons under different names but one would think that someone running to be the Director of Elections for the largest county in the state with over 30% of the voters would be aware of the problems caused in computer databases by his using “different names” in filing required public documents.

Maybe the PDC should have been aware of the potential problem when it received his initial C1 and realized he had been a candidate before. Yet he also should have been aware of this, particularly considering the office he is running for.

Previous names he used when he ran for office likewise show show a lack of continuity in how he identified himself.

When he first ran for County Council he filed a C1 on 7/8/98 where he was listed as candidate – David William Irons Jr and his campaign name was- Friends to Elect David W Irons Jr

When he ran for re-election he filed an amended C1 on 10-23-2003 where he was candidate – David W Irons Jr and his campaign name was Friends to Re-elect David W Irons.

When he ran for King County Executive and filed another amended C1 on 3-23-2005 he was candidate – David W Irons Jr and his campaign name was – Committee to Elect David Irons. This was changed 4/05/2005 to David Irons for County Executive.

And his most recent C1 on 12/4/2008 lists him as candidate David W Irons and his campaign name as Irons for Elections and his ballot name as David Irons.

Of course the Jr issue is complicated by the fact that in 1996 his father David W Irons Sr ran for the Washington State Senate and those PDC records are still on file.