Mike the Mover, perhaps the state’s most notorious perennial candidate for state and local office, is not running for anything this year, or at least not anything I can find.
That ends a run of 10 straight even-year elections in which the Mover, who owns a moving company, has appeared on primary ballots running for office.
He first ran for Lieutenant Governor in 1988 as Michael Shanks then changed his name to Mike the Mover. Since then he’s run for a seat in the state House, for governor twice, for the U.S. Senate three times, for the U.S. House once, for state auditor once and for state public lands commissioner once.
He’s run as a Republican, an independent and a Democrat.
It leads you to wonder just how much he’s spent on filing fees over the years. And it turns out that running for those last nine posts as Mike the Mover, assuming he never gathered signatures to avoid the filing fee, cost a total of $10,528.58, according to figures quickly compiled by the Secretary of State’s Office.
For all that he appeared on zero general election ballots.
But all that doesn’t count his campaigns in odd years which included runs for mayor of Edmonds, mayor of Seattle and Snohomish County Sheriff.
You can find the Seattle Times’ 2004 profile of Mike the Mover here.
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