Kathleen Drew, Kim Wyman to compete for the office of Secretary of State in November

Wash­ing­to­ni­ans appear to have cho­sen two women as the final­ists in the crowd­ed race to suc­ceed Sam Reed as Sec­re­tary of State.

As of a few min­utes ago, Wyman (Thurston Coun­ty’s incum­bent audi­tor) and Drew (a for­mer state sen­a­tor and advis­er to Gov­er­nor Gre­goire) were com­fort­ably ahead of the five oth­er can­di­dates who filed for the seat. Wyman was the only Repub­li­can to file, but Drew had to con­tend with two oth­er Democ­rats (Greg Nick­els and Jim Kas­ta­ma) who each sought the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty’s nom­i­na­tion and support.

The Sec­re­tary of State is Wash­ing­ton’s top elec­tions offi­cial and records-keep­er. The Sec­re­tary of State is one of sev­er­al inde­pen­dent­ly elect­ed offi­cers in the exec­u­tive depart­ment, along with lieu­tenant gov­er­nor, attor­ney gen­er­al, trea­sur­er, audi­tor, com­mis­sion­er of pub­lic lands, and insur­ance commissioner.

Ear­ly returns were as follows:

Kim Wyman (Repub­li­can): 39.16% (300,886 votes)
Kath­leen Drew (Demo­c­rat): 21.53% (165,402 votes)
Greg Nick­els (Demo­c­rat): 16.18% (124,347 votes)
Jim Kas­ta­ma (Demo­c­rat): 13.88% (106,644 votes)
Karen Mur­ray (Con­sti­tu­tion Par­ty): 3.84% (29,508 votes)
David J. Ander­son (Inde­pen­dent): 3.69% (28,371 votes)
Sam Wright (Human Rights Par­ty): 1.71% (13,133 votes)

Greg Nick­els, the third place fin­ish­er, is more than forty thou­sand votes behind Drew, and it seems unlike­ly that he will catch up, espe­cial­ly con­sid­er­ing that Drew is win­ning in King Coun­ty, where Nick­els is best known.

One oth­er impor­tant obser­va­tion: A glance at the coun­ty-by-coun­ty map shows that Drew is beat­ing Wyman in Demo­c­ra­t­ic-lean­ing Jef­fer­son Coun­ty, despite the Demo­c­ra­t­ic vote being split between her and two oth­er seri­ous can­di­dates. She has a plu­ral­i­ty of the vote there — 31.33%, which bodes well for her going forward.

Here’s the take­away: If Drew can beat Wyman in a bell­wether swing coun­ty like Jef­fer­son in the win­now­ing elec­tion, she should be able to win in Sno­homish, Kit­sap, What­com, Skag­it, Island, Pierce, and oth­er key swing coun­ties this Novem­ber — not to men­tion King, which usu­al­ly votes Democratic.

“On behalf of Kath­leen, let me say that the results prove that eight months of hard work, reach­ing out statewide does pro­duce results,” Drew’s hus­band Steven wrote in a mes­sage on Face­book acknowl­edg­ing sup­port­ers after ear­ly results were post­ed. “Thank you all for your sup­port and trust.”