Julie Anderson got a raw deal in WA Secretary of State race, thanks to ugly partisanship
Julie Anderson was right.
The point she was making — about the toxicity of current-day partisan politics, and the need for truth and decency, and the danger of chasing victory and power above all else — is exactly what she stumbled into, headfirst.
It’s ironic, I suppose, in a fatalistic sense of the word.
On Tuesday, Election Day, Anderson officially wrapped up her campaign for Secretary of State. Win or lose, so did every other candidate on the ballot, but Anderson’s run for office was different, by design. It was nonpartisan, meaning she attempted to eschew the conventional two-party political dynamic and appeal to voters’ better selves. It was nonpartisan, because that’s how Anderson fervently believes the job of overseeing elections should be approached.
Anderson — who’s been in charge of elections in Pierce County since 2010, as the local auditor — did not win, but you probably know that by now. For the first time since 1960, Washington voters elected a Democrat to the statewide position. Steve Hobbs, a moderate who was appointed Secretary of State by Governor Jay Inslee last November, now embarks on the remainder of Kim Wyman’s term, with the blessing of the electorate.
And you know what? That’s fine. Since being appointed, Hobbs, a lieutenant colonel in the Washington Army National Guard who spent three decades in the Army, has handled the job diligently. He’s focused on cybersecurity and battling disinformation, and he’s clearly capable.
But here’s the thing: Even if there’s little reason to worry about the Secretary of State’s office under Hobbs, there should be significant concern about how we got here, and the path the state Democrats took along the way. The campaign the state party waged against Anderson — who advanced to the general election in August alongside Hobbs, edging out a gaggle of Republican hopefuls in the process — embodies nearly everything that’s wrong with our current politics.
Using blatant mischaracterizations and calculated deception, Anderson was repeatedly cast as a secret MAGA fraternizer, and as such, a threat to our democracy. Party chair Tina Podlodowski — a former Secretary of State candidate herself — frequently led the attacks.
Then, when a late-game Republican entered the fray as a write-in candidate — real-life election denier Brad Klippert — state Dems did everything they could to make sure his no-shot candidacy ate into Anderson’s votes. During the final throes of the campaign, Podlodowski and Inslee even dropped an almost comical video, solemnly (and repeatedly) warning Washingtonanians that Klippert, as “the only Republican in the race,” must be defeated. The not-so-subtle strategy felt vaguely similar to the dubious tactics we saw Democrats employ across the country this year, propping extreme, dangerous, far-right candidates as an easier path to victory.
Elections are complicated. It would be too simplistic to suggest Anderson lost solely because state Democrats smeared and undercut her. The reality is she ran a campaign that was nearly impossible from the start, because it relied on disrupting the entrenched two-party system and claiming superiority over its ardent supporters, including Democrats, which happen to be the same people she’s most ideologically aligned with. In the end, Anderson was always going to need to attract a significant number of liberals to win, and her approach made that difficult, whether her justifications were valid or not.
Mostly, though, the votes show Klippert’s futile write-in candidacy sealed Anderson’s fate. The stage was set as soon as he threw his hat in the ring, since even a couple of percentage points next to his name would doom Anderson’s chances. Surely realizing it could help hand Hobbs the victory, the state Republican party endorsed Klippert anyway, despite his record of questioning the validity of our elections. Plenty of Republicans then willingly voted for him, some likely as a matter of party principle, and others because they saw Anderson as — you guessed it — a secret Marxist Democrat. There is no higher ground here.
Still, one thing is beyond dispute:
None of it excuses the baseless attacks Anderson endured, or the character assassinations she faced.
Anderson got a raw deal. There’s simply no way around it.
Embellishment and hyperbole
Nowhere did the state Democrats’ attacks against Anderson sound more ridiculous than in Pierce County.
It was here that Anderson was elected to the nonpartisan Tacoma City Council in 2003, and it was here that she was first elected Pierce County Auditor six years later.
When it comes to Anderson’s personal beliefs and convictions, Pierce County has long known the score. She caucused for future President Barack Obama in 2008, as former News Tribune reporter Melissa Santos recently reported for Axios, and has donated at least $2,900 to Democratic candidates over the last 15 years, compared to just $100 to Republican campaigns. In her quest for Secretary of State, she garnered the support of Democratic state senators T’wina Nobles and Yasmin Trudeau, along with Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards — among other liberal elected leaders.
Anderson has also consistently been a champion for equity at the forefront of local fights over discrimination. In a recent op-ed, Tacoma School Board member Lisa Keating described Anderson as “an unwavering ally.” Keating’s daughter, Stella, is a local activist who became the youngest transgender teen to testify before the U.S. Senate last year.
“Julie Anderson stood alongside us while rights for transgender people in our state were under attack,” Keating wrote. “Few leaders were willing to fight back against the lies and misinformation being spread, especially in the early days.”
From the very beginning of her tenure as auditor, however, Anderson was adamant about exiling any whiff of partisanship from the job — to the point that her particularity became the stuff of local legend. She focused on registering voters, expanding access, especially for historically disenfranchised populations, and conducting free, fair, transparent elections. She has been one of the most well-respected elections administrators in the state, earning praise and personal endorsements from Democrats and Republicans alike.
Compare all of this to how Podlodowski and the state Democratic party chose to portray Anderson in press releases and soundbites.
“Anderson has actively courted Republican support, accepting an endorsement from the Mainstream Republicans of Washington, as well as far-right King County councilmember Reagan Dunn, who is fundraising on her behalf,” an Oct. 21 press release shouted. “She has accepted $2000 from the Republican-aligned cascade PAC, which is supporting far-right MAGA candidates including Matt Larkin and Tiffany Smiley.”
“Anderson has recently spoken at Republican events including one with House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox’s annual Salmon Bake,” the press release continued, before adding the sucker punch: “donations from which are funneled directly to anti-abortion, election-denying Republican candidates.”
So what’s wrong with a little embellishment and vicious hyperbole on the campaign trail? Nothing, I suppose, unless the state Dems care about Pierce County credibility. But the bigger shame is what voters missed out on in the process. There were plenty of real, substantial issues to chew on, and plenty of ways for Hobbs to differentiate himself in the minds of voters, from Anderson’s belief that the Secretary of State should be a nonpartisan office to her support of local ranked-choice voting. This race will be remembered for none of that.
Instead, what the race between Hobbs and Anderson will be remembered for is the name-calling and, at least here in Pierce County, the obvious misrepresentations. That raises an important question, while also revealing the true risk of the Democrats’ game plan:
Will voters believe the party next time, when there really are dangerous, election-denying candidates on the ballot?
If there’s one thing Podlodowski and the state party she leads got right in all of this, it’s that legitimate threats to our democracy exist. It’s not hard to find them, either, whether it’s Joe Kent in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District or failed 2020 gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp. The truth is Anderson is nothing like either of those candidates, but by repeatedly suggesting otherwise state Democrats haven’t just cried wolf, they’ve callously insulted our intelligence while sowing the seeds of future skepticism.
If winning is all that matters — and plenty claim it is — then all will be forgotten. That’s often how it goes. As Podlodoswki has correctly asserted, her job is to get Democrats elected, and securing the Secretary of State’s office for the first time in 60 years is no small feat.
But if there’s anything bigger out there, any hope that our civic dialogue can be more than a greased-up race to the bottom, the deceitful tactics her party relied on during the course of this campaign will inspire introspection and a reckoning.
Anderson’s campaign focused on taking the ugliness and partisan nonsense out of elections.
Unfortunately, ugly partisan nonsense is precisely what she found.
Correction: This column has been updated to reflect Steve Hobbs’ rank in the Washington National Guard. He is a lieutenant colonel.
This story was originally published November 12, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Julie Anderson got a raw deal in WA Secretary of State race, thanks to ugly partisanship."
