It’s been 62 years since a Democrat won Washington’s secretary of state’s office, but a little-known political newcomer from West Seattle is undaunted by the challenge.
“If you’re a politician and you’ve never lost an election, well, maybe you haven’t tried hard enough,” says Greg Nickels, a 56-year-old self-described “student of history” who hopes to make a little history himself by becoming the first Democrat to win the office since “The Clown Prince of Politics” Vic Meyers won his first of two terms back in 1956.
“Public service is where my heart is,” explains Nickels about his decision to take what many pundits consider to be a long-shot run at the office: “Life is short, and you need to make it count.”
It’s a philosophy Nickels has certainly followed these past few years, as his passion has taken him through Boston, New York, Ukraine, and back home again to the shores of Puget Sound.
He wasn’t back in Seattle long before the White House called, asking him to serve as public delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, where he spent the fall of 2010 focusing on climate change. He also made statements from the UN podium on issues that included the rule of law, international criminal courts, and, on one occasion, blood diamonds—a speech, he says, that angered the Zimbabwean ambassador so much that he jumped up and down making train noises. “Choo-choo! Choo-choo!” mimicked Nickels, adding that “nobody had ever remembered any ambassador making train noises before.”
“I could’ve made a lot more money lobbying,” Nickels says about his past few years, “but it just isn’t me.”
Instead, he’s jumping into a race against two other Democrats—former state senator Kathleen Drew and current senate budget coup traitor Jim Kastama—and a Republican, Thurston County auditor Kim Wyman. Drew and Kastama are beatable, but Wyman, retiring secretary of state Sam Reed’s handpicked replacement and the inevitable endorsee of every single daily newspaper in the state, is the clear front-runner.
So can Nickels win?
“The hill is steep,” suggests political consultant John Wyble, “and Greg makes this hill a little steeper because the three words that define him are “former Seattle mayor.”
Oh. Did we mention that Nickels was a two-term Seattle mayor who came in an embarrassing third in the 2009 Democratic primary? And that, to Nickels’s own recollection, no Democratic Seattle mayor has ever gone on to higher office?
“Losing the ’09 election was a very humbling experience,” says Nickels. “Maybe I can communicate to voters about what I’ve learned, and maybe that will resonate.”
Maybe.
Meyers, the last Democratic secretary of state, staged a political comeback in 1956 to capture the office just four years after being tossed out of his 20-year term as lieutenant governor. That’s a bit of history Nickels wouldn’t mind repeating.
If he wins, Nickels wants to use the office as a bully pulpit for advocating greater accountability and transparency in the flood of unregulated money recently unleashed on elections. Nickels says he’ll also fight to reform an initiative process that was meant as “a relief valve for citizens” fighting entrenched interests but has been “flipped on its head” to enable those very interests to subvert the legislative process.
“If you’re willing to spend the money, you can get any piece of crap on the ballot,” says Nickels bluntly.
You won’t hear Nickels criticize Reed or Ralph Munro, the current and former secretaries of state, Republicans he praises for their nonpartisan administration of elections, a tradition he promises to continue. “Sam’s focus was as an elections guy, as a technical person,” says Nickels, “but I think that what’s wrong with our democratic process isn’t necessarily the mechanics of it. There’s a lot more to democracy than just putting a stamp on the ballot.” 