When last I spoke to Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, she said people were asking her to run for the newly elected position of King County elections director. (It's appointed right now.)

There will be a special election in February.

Sherril Huff, who holds the job at the moment, also has filed. Read these earlier postings about Huff and Roach.

There are others who have talked about it, but haven't put their name on the dotted line just yet.

Here's the King County Election website.

And the price tag is now more than $1 billion higher for both the final options. It's $3.5 billion. The Legislature has set aside only $2.4 billion.

That means the money has to come from somewhere else. (Other projects?)

Part of the reasons for higher costs are improvements that would be made to Interstate 5, the other main north-south corridor which is expected to pick up a lot of traffic from Alaskan Way (Highway 99), and other Seattle city streets.

Transit costs appear to be ongoing.

Gov. Chris Gregoire, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and King County Executive Ron Sims are supposed to make a final recommendation by the end of the year. Then, we'll see what the Legislature has to say.

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The MV Rhododendron, which usally plies the waters between Point Defiance and the Tahlequah landing, has capacity for 48 cars. But it's going to be out of service for six weeks for maintenance and inspection.

The Hiyu has room for only 34 cars, so the Washington Ferry System is scheduling an extra run.

34-car Hiyu to serve Point Defiance/Tahlequah ferry route for six weeks beginning on Jan. 5, 2009

POINT DEFIANCE – Beginning Monday, Jan. 5, 2009, the 34-car Hiyu will operate on the Point Defiance/Tahlequah route (Tacoma to south Vashon Island) for approximately six weeks while the 48-car Rhododendron is out of service for scheduled maintenance and inspection.

To assist customers on this route, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Ferries Division (WSF) will add an additional midday roundtrip sailing. The Hiyu will depart Point Defiance at 12:50 p.m. and Tahlequah at 1:15 p.m.

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Tacoma officials were working on a way to start rehabilitating the Murray Morgan Bridge long before there was any talk of state or federal "economic stimulus" projects, but all that talk might help.

Tacoma city lobbyist Randy Lewis said the city is trying to get the bridge project under way, and a plan might be coming together.

For some background, here's a story I wrote back in March, telling what the Legislature agreed to do about the bridge.

Here's how it would work:

1. Tacoma would accept full responsibility for the bridge, along with the $40 million the Legislature and governor already have set aside in this year's state budget to either demolish or fix up the bridge. (The state is insisting the city take over the bridge if it wants the money.)

2. The Tacoma City Council would borrow an additional $25 million, using councilmanic bonds. That's the kind of loan the council can do by itself and just pledge part of its regular tax revenues to make payments.

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The Census Bureau's American Community Survey results for 2005-2007 have just been released. The estimated data isn't perfect and there are some categories where the margins of error are pretty high. Nor is there a super easy way to compare one period of time with another.

That said, I thought some folks might be curious about the latest snapshot of Pierce County. Give a shout if something interesting jumps out at you.

For example, I noticed the median gross rent is $819. And that 32 percent of men, compared to 24 percent of women have never been married.

Updated: Something else I spotted. U.S.-born men and woman are split pretty equally (50.1 percent men vs. 49.9 percent women). But foreign born women outnumber men 56.3 percent to 43.7 percent; naturalized women outnumber men 59.6 percent to 40.4 percent; and non-citizen women outnumber men 52.7 percent to 47.3 percent.

Granted, I'm far from an expert on the topic, but I had always thought there would be more immigrant men here working and sending cash back home.

You'll find the big of list of numbers after the jump.

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House Democrats, who have a 62-36 majority over Republicans, picked a few more members for leadership positions. (I think they now have a leadership post for 61 of 62 members.)

Anyway, Rep. Larry Springer, D-Kirkland, is the "Majority Caucus Liaison," which means his "primary duties are coordinating with stakeholders and acting as liaison between stakeholders and leadership."

In layman's English, I think that means if the teachers union or the poverty lobby or any other interest group has heartburn over a particular bill or part of a bill, they go to Springer and say so. Then Springer stands up in the closed-door caucus meeting and announces, "The teachers got a problem with such-and-such...." and everybody then votes to get rid of whatever is upsetting the Washington Education Association.

On the flip side, with the Legislature is facing a $5-6 billion deficit, Springer's job also will have to go back to the "stakeholders" and say, "Frank (Chopp) says we don't have enough money to pay for that. Sorry."

You sure you want that job, Larry?

House Democrats elect additional leaders

OLYMPIA – Washington House Democrats have selected more members of their leadership team. Joining Speaker-designate Frank Chopp (Seattle), Majority Leader Lynn Kessler (Hoquiam), Caucus Chair Bill Grant (Walla Walla), Majority Whip Sharon Tomiko Santos (Seattle ), and Speaker pro tem-designate Jeff Morris (Mount Vernon) are:

Majority Floor Leader: Zack Hudgins (Tukwila)
Majority Caucus Liaison: Larry Springer (Kirkland)
Caucus Vice Chair: Dawn Morrell (Puyallup)
Assistant Majority Floor Leader: Tami Green (Lakewood)
Deputy Majority Whip: Kevin Van De Wege (Sequim)

In 2007-08, Hudgins and Springer shared Floor Leader duties while Morrell served as Deputy Majority Whip and Van De Wege was an Assistant Majority Whip.