Originally published in The Seattle Sunday Times, March 26, 1911
Insurgents desire to get him out of way
Judge Robert Albertson desirable banner bearer but leaders can’t ignore faithful work of sheriff
If Bob Hodge, King County sheriff, keeps the faith that certain politicians have in him, he will be a candidate for mayor next year, as a preliminary move toward a candidacy for either congressman from the first district or governor of the state.
Tom Page, brother-in-law and personal representative of Senator Miles Poindexter, claims to have Hodge’s pledge in writing that he will experiment with the Seattle electorate before he starts out on a state or district campaign.
The Seattle charter provide that one must have been a resident of the city for four years prior to his election as mayor. Popular belief is the Sheriff Hodge was a deputy in Black Diamond up to the time of election as sheriff in 1908.
It may be that the sheriff transferred his residence in some manner and is qualified to become a candidate for mayor, but those who follow politics have not been informed of the fact.
Kindly plans of friends
As a matter of fact, the demand made by insurgent leaders that Hodge try out his popularity at home is born of a hope that he will fail. The insurgents, or at least a big faction of that Republican wing, does not want to go into the gubernatorial campaign with Hodge as a candidate. At the same time Hodge has been such a faithful performer that he cannot be turned down with excuse.
If left alone, the insurgent group would prefer Superior Court Judge Robert Albertson as a gubernatorial candidate. Albertson is not figured upon as a tried-and-true insurgent, but he is listed as a man who could win. Above all else, the insurgents want the prestige of “putting something over” in the next gubernatorial campaign.
The present executive is unsatisfactory to the insurgent or Poindexter leaders. Hay has opposed Poindexter, been against a long series of measures that the Poindexter leaders want and does not look to be a winner. Precedent has demonstrated that no Washington governor became the chief executive at a popular election. The insurgent group is canny enough to defeat precedent and to be afraid of the present executive’s record.
Rumors of candidacies
The political atmosphere is filled with rumors of candidates, but none of them is developed well enough to lead politicians to support the candidates. Senator A.S Ruth has announced himself as an aspirant for Hay’s job; Senator G.U. Piper is lauded as a candidate of the suffragettes; Railroad Commissioner J.C. Lawrence, Tax Commissioner T.A. Parrish, Speaker H.D. Taylor, Mayor A.V. Fawcett of Tacoma, A.W. Pearley, Representative James McNeeley, Senator J.A. Falconer, and a number of others, including Judge A.W. Frater, Col. Otto A. Case, and Senator R.A. Hutchinson, have been proposed as gubernatorial possibilities.
But the insurgent organization that wants to control national politics rather than state affairs, insists that something be done at home first to demonstrate local popularity before the Poindexter strength is turned over to any candidate.
Black Diamond History 
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