Unit­ed States Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Den­ny Heck, who has rep­re­sent­ed Wash­ing­ton State’s 10th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict since its incep­tion in 2012, announced today that he will be a can­di­date for the office of Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor, fol­low­ing incum­bent Cyrus Habib’s deci­sion to for­go reelec­tion so he can join the Jesuits.

“We are enter­ing an unprece­dent­ed era where a civ­il and fair approach to pol­i­tics is urgent­ly called for to get things done for Wash­ing­ton fam­i­lies,” Heck said in a state­ment sent to the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute. “Espe­cial­ly in times like these, we need civil­i­ty and decen­cy in our polit­i­cal dis­course and bold eco­nom­ic lead­er­ship to rebuild eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty to every community.”

Heck­’s inter­est in run­ning has been an open secret in polit­i­cal cir­cles around these parts for a cou­ple weeks. Heck began putting togeth­er a cam­paign last month.

Heck announced sev­er­al months ago that he would not seek reelec­tion to Con­gress this year. A pletho­ra of can­di­dates have stepped for­ward to run for his seat, from State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Beth Doglio and for­mer State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kris­tine Reeves to for­mer Taco­ma May­or Mar­i­lyn Strick­land and Phil Gardner.

In a can­did open let­ter, Heck explained that he decid­ed against pur­su­ing anoth­er term in the Unit­ed States House after the Intel­li­gence Com­mit­tee com­plet­ed its impeach­ment inquiry last autumn. As a mem­ber of the com­mit­tee, Heck had a promi­nent role in ques­tion­ing wit­ness­es like Lieu­tenant Colonel Vindman.

“The count­less hours I have spent in the inves­ti­ga­tion of Russ­ian elec­tion inter­fer­ence and the impeach­ment inquiry have ren­dered my soul weary,” Heck explained in his let­ter.  “I will nev­er under­stand how some of my col­leagues, in many ways good peo­ple, could ignore or deny the President’s unre­lent­ing attack on a free press, his vicious char­ac­ter assas­si­na­tion of any­one who dis­agreed with him, and his demon­stra­bly very dis­tant rela­tion­ship with the truth.”

He also expressed a desire to be near­er to his wife Paula, allud­ing to the toll that fly­ing across the coun­try many times a year takes on a person.

“Being away so much from Paula, my best friend and wife of near­ly forty-four years, can be lone­ly even when I am in a crowd­ed room. At our age, how­ev­er many ‘good years’ we have left togeth­er is not a grow­ing num­ber,” Heck said.

Habib’s recent deci­sion to step down as Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor cre­at­ed the per­fect open­ing for Heck. The job entails pre­sid­ing over the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate when it is ses­sion, which is only a few months out of the year, chair­ing the Sen­ate’s Rules Com­mit­tee, and fill­ing in for the gov­er­nor when the state’s chief exec­u­tive is out of state. The Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor has his­tor­i­cal­ly also been a key link between state gov­ern­ment and con­suls based in the Pacif­ic Northwest.

Those are all duties Heck could take on with­out hav­ing to be far from his fam­i­ly. By serv­ing as Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor, Heck can con­tin­ue to give back to the state he loves with­out hav­ing to com­mute to the Oth­er Wash­ing­ton. That, I under­stand, is ratio­nale for seek­ing the posi­tion, and it makes per­fect sense to me.

Unit­ed States Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Den­ny Heck speaks at the 2018 Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Crab Feed (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/Northwest Pro­gres­sive Institute)

Heck is the third cred­i­ble Demo­c­rat to declare for the office. State Sen­a­tors Marko Liias and Steve Hobbs are also run­ning. Incum­bent Cyrus Habib has cho­sen to endorse Liias. How­ev­er, Heck has the sup­port of many of his Demo­c­ra­t­ic col­leagues in Con­gress, along with for­mer gov­er­nors like Chris Gregoire.

“What our state and nation need now in posi­tions of respon­si­bil­i­ty, such as lieu­tenant gov­er­nor, is a steady hand, and Den­ny is as steady as they come,” said Gre­goire, who served as the state’s chief exec­u­tive from 2005 until 2013.

Heck­’s list of cam­paign co-chairs is impres­sive. It con­sists of:

• For­mer Gov­er­nor Chris Gregoire
• Con­gress­man Derek Kilmer
• Con­gress­man Adam Smith
• Con­gress­woman Kim Schrier
• Taco­ma May­or Vic­to­ria Woodards
• For­mer Everett May­or Ray Stephenson
• Van­cou­ver May­or Anne McEnerny-Ogle
• Ren­ton City Coun­cilmem­ber Ruth Pérez
• Spokane busi­ness leader Susan Ashe
• Port of Seat­tle Com­mis­sion­er Sam Cho
• Envi­ron­men­tal activists Martha Kongs­gaard and Stephanie Solien
• Com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teer and con­sul­tant Lin­da Vil­le­gas Bremer
• Com­mu­ni­ty activist George Scarola
• Tri­al lawyer and civ­il rights activist Lem Howell
• Nisqually Coun­cil Mem­ber Willie Frank III
• Sov­er­eign pol­i­cy advo­cate Peggen Frank

Heck will offi­cial­ly file next month for the posi­tion. The August Top Two elec­tion will begin in mid-July and end on August 4th. The two can­di­dates who receive the most votes will advance to the Novem­ber gen­er­al elec­tion, regard­less of party.