Just as winter-blooming crocuses and hellebores signal the coming of spring, a leak from U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert used to mark the startup of an election year. Sheriff Dave would tell KING-TV he was of a mind to run for governor. He would next get cold feet as the weather warmed up, but the attention was welcome.
Six years after retiring from Congress — he was in jeopardy of losing his seat — Reichert is finally back in the arena of statewide politics. The MAGA Republicans dominating the party’s state convention wouldn’t have him, but their candidate Semi Bird was demolished in the August primary.
It’s been tough sledding since. In DC, Reichert usually went along with the GOP House caucus and his anti-abortion and abolish-Obamacare votes have come home back to haunt him. Reichert is hammered by negative TV spots nonstop during news programs. The anti-Reichert barrage is largely the work of Washington State Democrats and allied groups.
His general election opponent, Democrat Bob Ferguson, is packing luncheons with donors and using the money to reintroduce himself and deliver an upbeat program.
The former sheriff should have spotted the clues. In the spring of 2017, no fewer than 700 demonstrators marched on Reichert’s Issaquah congressional office, protesting Trump’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Republicans have long set a benchmark of 40 percent of King County’s vote as the mark they must hit to be competitive statewide. Trump’s totals in King County have hovered around 25 percent.
Meanwhile, the Republican Governors Association has poured resources into the North Carolina campaign of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, only to flee after CNN revealed Robinson’s self-description as a “black Nazi” and his reputed celebration of the upside of slavery.
Reichert has been left with an unattractive supporting cast, typified by discredited initiative promoter Tim Eyman, strident podcaster Brandi Kruse, and blustery GOP Chair Rep. Jim Walsh. That supporting cast tends to believe in conspiracies and see a threat to the Republic in transgender teens invading girls’ athletic events.
I recall hearing former GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Bryant (who ran against Jay Inslee in 2016 and lost) speaking to a Lincoln Day dinner in Eastern Washington. He spoke with eloquence, referencing Lincoln’s second inaugural and Theodore Roosevelt’s trust-busting. That speech went over like a lead balloon, after which Bryan yielded to a rancid radio host.
Sheriff Reichert is making noises about law and order, talking about the cost of the state’s Climate Commitment Act, and defending girls’ sports. A Dan Evans-style “Blueprint for Progress” it ain’t. Bob Ferguson, on the other hand, has lashed onto a popular idea that helped elect Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, namely expanding vocational training and not requiring a college degree to work for the state.
Washington State’s Democrats have learned discipline in holding the Governor’s office for 40 years. One aspect of this is the way the ambitious pols wait their turn. When Gov. Jay Inslee made a brief 2019 run for the Democratic presidential nomination, Ferguson and Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz launched exploratory gubernatorial campaigns. But they backed off when Inslee returned to Washington (and earth) and sought a third term.
This year, Ferguson is leaving nothing to chance. Jay Inslee ignored swaths of the state that are not into solar panels, biofuels, and windmills. Not Fergy, who has twice toured all 39 counties. I scanned Facebook and there was a picture of Bob mugging alongside my friend Bobby Whittaker, who lives in rural Ferry County. Drop in on Pacific County Democrats’ annual crab feed and the attorney general will drape a crustacean on your plate. Ferguson is a chess master who has proven a ferocious debater.
Where does that leave Sheriff Dave? Likely with only 45-46 percent of the vote. And reflecting on the benefits of NOT playing along. I recall two high points in Reichert’s House tenure.
When a far right chairman held up authorization of the U.S. Export-Import Bank — so vital to Boeing as well as small exporters — Reichert (and Democratic colleague Denny Heck) mounted a discharge petition. It forced a floor vote in which “Ex-Im” passed by a three-to-one margin. Reichert was also behind adding land to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and protecting the middle fork of the Snoqualmie River, the closest mountain valley to Seattle. That wilderness vote meant getting on the bad side of powerful Republican Rep. Doc Hastings, a state delegation colleague and chair of the House Natural Resources Committee.
With a strategic intervention by Sen. Patty Murray, the valley was protected. Once again, Reichert sat atop a bipartisan achievement. But such a bipartisan reputation won’t really help Reichert. The Republican regulars are in the Trump camp, which has repelled state voters and independents. The Democrats, wanting to hold the state’s top office, show no mercy. They are depicting Dave as a MAGA man and scoffing when he says he’ll vote for neither Trump nor Harris.
The sheriff is caught in a crossfire. It’s tough to show your skills as a hostage negotiator when you’re taking so much incoming fire.
This is adapted from an article that appeared in the Cascadia Advocate.
Joel,
I think it’s “Josh Shapiro” not “Joan” unless we have had some transgender surgery that the mainstream media missed.
Great column, Joel. You nailed it.
A couple of thoughts.
1) One has to wonder if Reichert was recruited to run for governor, or the thought just popped into to his head to jump off his fishing boat and into the race on his own. The Republican Governors Association is a likely suspect. Reichert would not be the first state Republican recruited by a national organization only to have the promised money withdrawn.
2) I haven’t seen it reported anywhere but Reichert is an old guy. He is just older than Inslee who has served three terms. At the end of his first term Reichert would be in Joe Biden territory. Since he is scarcer than mountain beaver, many of the stock photos of Reichert appear to be from Reichert’s stint in Congress, years ago.