Larry Phillips (politician)

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For other persons named Larry Phillips, see Larry Phillips (disambiguation).

Larry Phillips is a Democratic member of the King County Council in Washington state in the United States. Phillips has served on the Council since 1991, representing District Four, which includes the Seattle neighborhoods of Queen Anne, Magnolia, Ballard, Fremont, Belltown, Capitol Hill, Montlake, and Downtown. He served as Chair of the King County Council from 2003 to 2006. Phillips also serves on the Board of Directors of Sound Transit, a regional transit organization serving the Puget Sound area. Currently, he chairs the Council's Growth Management and Natural Resources Committee. He was most recently reelected in 2005 over his Independent opponent, Ed Pottharst, with 77 percent of the vote.^[1]

In 2004, during his tenure as Council Chair, he drew attention when he discovered that his absentee ballot had not been counted, along with 572 others, in the 2004 Washington gubernatorial election, which was decided by a margin of only a few hundred votes. As a result of Phillips' noticing the mistake, the ballots were counted, ultimately swinging the race in favor of Democratic candidate Christine Gregoire.^[2]

In 2007, he ran television ads for his County Council reelection campaign despite the fact that he was running unopposed. This led some to speculate that he is considering running for King County Executive in 2009 if Ron Sims retires from the office.^[3]

From 1989 to 1991, he was a member of the Washington House of Representatives. Before this, he served as the campaign manager for Randy Revelle's successful 1981 campaign for King County Executive.