King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg switches to Team Democrat

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, who was elected as a Republican in 2007, 2010, and 2014, has revealed he is now a Democrat.

“I can honestly say that my values align much closer with the Democratic Party than the Republican,” Satterberg told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson.

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Satterberg is currently running for re-election against Democratic challenger Daron Morris. The position of prosecuting attorney was changed to a non-partisan seat two years ago.

“The easiest way to describe who I am is to say I’m a lot more blue than I am red,” Satterberg said, adding jokingly, “though I’m a Husky, so there’s a little purple in the mix.”

The prosecutor stated that he is pro-choice, anti-discrimination, believes in gay marriage, supports gun control, wants to reform criminal justice in terms of drug policy, and stands against the death penalty.

“All of those things are positions which align with the Democratic Party and not the Republicans, anymore,” he said.

He feels that the current Republican Party has “sailed away” from the values that it used to stand for, particularly with the most recent presidential election.

“This president has made it pretty tough to stand up and defend what is going on in the nation’s capital, with the leader of the party,” he said.

Satterberg will still appear as a non-partisan on the ballot. He emphasized that the office itself should be non-partisan because keeping people safe and punishing crime should not be party-line issues.

“You don’t want partisan politics in this office … Whoever leads this office isn’t going to be taking orders from one party or another,” he said.

If elected, during his next term Satterberg would like to expand the LEAD program throughout the entire county, which allows low-level drug and prostitution offenders to avoid jail through community-based services. He pointed out that people who go through the program, which stands for Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, are 60 percent less-likely to be arrested again.

Satterberg said that all he wants to do is help people in a non-partisan way, and that he is only talking about his political beliefs because so many people have asked him what party he supports.

“Number-one, I still want to be the prosecutor and prosecute the serious crimes that are taking place in our community,” Satterberg said.

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