Last week Shift reported that a Seattle trial lawyer had accidentally put up a campaign website, without actually announcing he was a candidate for anything. Once he was outed, Jeffrey Sprung decided he may as well make it official, and on Monday jumped into the State Auditor’s race.
The Olympian carried the story on the same day that Sprung’s fellow Democrat, the disgraced incumbent Troy Kelley, returned to work after a 6-month break defending himself against a multi-count federal corruption indictment. Sprung also had to share media attention with an announced bi-partisan effort to impeach Kelley during the next legislative session.
Sprung’s qualifications are fairly thin for the Auditor’s office, especially when compared to the leading Republican candidate, State Senator Mark Miloscia – who has actually done audits in his career. Sprung tries to portray his trial lawyer work as more about investigations and returning money to government rather than the money chasing that his firm, Hagens Berman, is known for.
But before he gets to explaining his legal work, first Sprung will have to get past the stench that his party has created in the office with the election of Troy Kelley.