Ex-Seattle police guild president sues to defend Pierce County Council candidacy
Mike Solan, a longtime Seattle police officer and former president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, will be on the ballot for the Pierce County Council District 7 race after successfully challenging the county’s denial of his filing.
On May 8, Solan filed a lawsuit in Pierce County Superior Court against Pierce County Auditor Linda Farmer, alleging that the county had incorrectly omitted him from the August primary election ballot. Solan filed to run for the District 7 seat on May 4, but learned on May 7 that the county auditor was rescinding his candidacy based on the rule that all candidates must be registered voters in their council district for at least one year prior to filing, according to court records.
He registered to vote in Pierce County on March 26, 2026, and has lived in the area since 2022, according to court records.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Shelly K. Moss ruled in favor of Solan on Monday. Pierce County Elections Manager Kyle Haugh confirmed in a phone call that Solan will be in the voter’s pamphlet and will be on the Aug. 4 primary ballot.
“Per the judge’s ruling the candidate will be on the ballot,” Chief Deputy Pierce County Auditor Linda Kent wrote in an email, after The News Tribune called the Auditor’s Office for comment. “We cannot speculate what this means for the future but we are looking into the issue.”
The office isn’t appealing the decision, according to Kent. She cited a state law that requires courts to promptly address alleged errors or omissions on ballots and says these cases “shall be heard and finally disposed of by the court.”
The News Tribune also asked what precedent Solan’s lawsuit sets for other future candidates. Kent wrote that the “decision is specific to the candidate in this election and is final.”
Solan’s name was absent from the online county voter’s guide when The News Tribune first reported the list of candidates who had filed to run in Pierce County by May 8. His name appeared on the list Monday, along with candidates Chuck West, Brenda Lykins and Ann E. Jolie. District 7 includes the areas of Gig Harbor, Key Peninsula, Fox Island, Ruston and parts of north and west Tacoma.
Solan has lived in Pierce County since 2022, according to court records. His campaign website states that he’s worked for 27 years as a police officer and plans to prioritize public safety, including recruiting and retaining deputies; fiscal transparency; and managing growth and infrastructure planning if elected.
Solan told The News Tribune in a phone call Tuesday that he’s running for the District 7 seat because he’s seen elected officials failing to listen to their constituents’ needs. He also emphasized the need for the county to invest further in public safety, including addressing deputy staffing shortages in the district.
In his lawsuit, Solan challenged a Pierce County Charter provision which states that “all Councilmembers shall be residents and registered voters of their Council districts for at least one year immediately prior to filing for the Council position, and shall maintain residency in the Council district during the term for which the Councilmember was elected.” Solan became a registered voter in Pierce County on March 26, 2026, according to the email Solan received from the auditor’s office that rescinded his candidacy.
That requirement goes above what the state requires, Solan argued in a motion to the court. State law says that candidates for public office must be U.S. citizens and “electors” — qualified to vote — in the district or subdivision they’re running for. The state Constitution also doesn’t include a one-year voter registration requirement for candidates, he argued.
He argued that the one-year voter registration requirement violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Solan pointed to a 1972 court case, Sorenson v. City of Bellingham, which found that the “right to run for elective office is a fundamental right which should be restricted only by a compelling state interest.”
“Pierce County’s one-year residency requirement can be understood to serve a recognized interest—ensuring that a candidate is familiar with and connected to the electorate,” Solan wrote in his motion to the court. “The additional requirement that a candidate have been a registered voter for one year serves no independent interest ... A restriction that merely duplicates an already-sufficient requirement cannot be considered necessary to serve a compelling state interest.”
In a brief responding to Solan’s arguments, Pierce County prosecuting attorneys wrote that the Washington Constitution authorizes counties to set qualifications for council members through their charters, and pointed to a 1974 state Supreme Court case, Lawrence v. City of Issaquah, that upheld the constitutionality of the one-year voter registration requirement for a city council candidate.
“Here, a one-year requirement is reasonable in duration and serves a compelling purpose,” the attorneys wrote. “The one-year requirement is not likely to limit the pool of qualified candidates and is an additional protection against carpet baggers or frivolous filers.”
The court ultimately agreed with Solan’s argument about equal protection and directed the Pierce County Auditor to restore Solan’s filing for the District 7 seat, according to a copy of the court’s judgment.
Solan served as president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild for six years before announcing that he wouldn’t be seeking reelection after his term ended in February. During his tenure, Solan said he helped the union secure two contracts and up to a 40% pay raise.
In 2023, body camera footage of a conversation between Solan and another Seattle police officer, Daniel Auderer, became a controversy. The footage only captured Auderer’s side of the phone conversation while the two were discussing the death of a 23-year-old woman, Jaahnavi Kandula, who was hit by a police vehicle earlier that day, KUOW reported.
In the video, Auderer was heard making light of Kandula’s death, suggesting that she had “limited value,” KUOW reported. He later said that his words were meant to mock the lawyers who would look into the case, KOMO reported.
After his firing from the Seattle Police Department, Auderer sued the city of Seattle, alleging wrongful termination. He argued the city used the comments as a way to fire him for his involvement in the police union. In the lawsuit, Auderer acknowledged that his comments were inappropriate for the public to hear and wrote that he had been engaging in “gallows humor” with Solan, The Seattle Times reported.
Solan told The News Tribune that only Auderer was disciplined for the incident and that the phone call with Auderer was a private conversation.
