Election season is in full swing as we head into the Aug. 18 primary and the races should heat up as we get closer to the November general election.

On the local scene, things are pretty quiet with four City Council candidates and three open seats up for election and the only contested race being for Position 4 between incumbent Kimberly Allen and political newcomer Sally Chen. The top two candidates move on to the Nov. 4 general election, so all the city council candidates will advance.

While we expect the Allen-Chen race to increase in intensity in the coming months, campaigning should be less stressful for current City Council Vice President Pat Vache and Redmond Arts Commissioner John Stilin, who are both running unopposed. Vache, a longtime city councilmember, is seeking re-election to Position 2. Stilin is the lone candidate for Position 3, which will be open when Council President Nancy McCormick retires at the end of the year.

The two Lake Washington School District seats up for voting will also be one-horse races as Sammamish resident Doug Eglington (District 4) and Kirkland’s Nancy Phillips Bernard (District 3) will run unopposed in their bids for re-election.

But the granddaddy race of this election season is for King County Executive. The five legitimate candidates are current King County Councilmembers Dow Constantine and Larry Phillips; Senator Fred Jarrett; State Rep. Ross Hunter; and Susan Hutchison, a former television news anchor.

There’s no question the county is in a budget crisis. Whoever wins will have a heavy-duty job of trying to turn things around and get the county back on solid ground.

We here at the Reporter have been covering the various candidate forums and debates — both on the county and city level. In the Aug. 7 issue, we allowed the top five King County Executive candidates to state their bid for election. If you missed it, check it out online at www.redmond-reporter.com. In this issue, we covered a King County Executive candidate forum, co-hosted by the Redmond and Kirkland Chamber of Commerces. Make sure to review that in print or online.

As we get closer to the November general election, we will give the city council and school district candidates, along with the two remaining county executive candidates chances to express their views and campaign platforms.

And that brings us to the Redmond Reporter’s latest tool for candidates: blogs. We’ve invited all our local candidates to participate in the blog section of our Web sites at www.redmond-reporter.com.

Hopefully, they’ve all checked into it and are considering writing a blog for us — because that is their way to give us all the full details of their campaign. It’s all there for the taking, so why not go for it? Residents will have an opportunity to comment on those blogs. That’s why we’re here — to get people talking, sharing ideas and getting fired up about the election.

It should be a fun ride.