Dave Reichert files declaration of candidacy with the Public Disclosure Commission

Yes­ter­day after­noon, Dave Reichert con­firmed rumors that he’s run­ning for gov­er­nor next year by fil­ing a dec­la­ra­tion of can­di­da­cy with the Pub­lic Dis­clo­sure Com­mis­sion — known as a C1 form. Reichert’s per­son­al web­site has yet to be updat­ed to say he’s run­ning for gov­er­nor, but some sort of for­mal launch is clear­ly immi­nent, and will prob­a­bly occur after the long Fourth of July weekend.

Reichert’s fil­ing turned the heads of Seat­tle’s local news pro­duc­ers. Both KING5 and KIRO7 led off evening news­casts with news of Reichert’s fil­ing, using archival B‑roll footage to rein­tro­duce him to their audi­ences while they talked about his loom­ing entry into the guber­na­to­r­i­al con­test, which already includes more than a dozen can­di­dates, includ­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic hope­fuls Bob Fer­gu­son, Hilary Franz, and Mark Mul­let, along with Repub­li­cans Raul Gar­cia and Semi Bird.

NPI report­ed on Reichert’s expect­ed entry into the race ear­li­er this week.

Late Fri­day, Bob Fer­gu­son’s cam­paign respond­ed to Reichert’s C1 fil­ing, warn­ing that his can­di­da­cy is a threat to repro­duc­tive rights in Washington.

“Dave Reichert rep­re­sents a pro­found threat to repro­duc­tive free­dom,” Fer­gu­son said in an emailed state­ment. “Reichert’s anti-choice record is deeply con­cern­ing in the face of attacks from anti-choice extrem­ists seek­ing to elim­i­nate access to abor­tion in every state, includ­ing Wash­ing­ton. Wash­ing­to­ni­ans need a gov­er­nor that will fight for their free­dom to choose.”

Fer­gu­son’s state­ment then repro­duced and linked to a Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty press release from the 2010s out­lin­ing Reichert’s woe­ful record on repro­duc­tive rights.

NPI’s research last year found that a super­ma­jor­i­ty of like­ly Wash­ing­ton vot­ers opposed the Supreme Court’s Dobbs deci­sion. Even more said they sup­port­ed a state con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment to pro­tect repro­duc­tive rights. And a whop­ping 76% said ear­li­er this year that they sup­port­ed a repro­duc­tive data pri­va­cy bill — the My Health, My Data Act — to be enact­ed into law, which it was.

In 2006, the Seat­tle Times described Reichert as “walk­ing a tightrope” on abor­tion care when he faced Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Dar­cy Burn­er. Reichert has admit­ted he oppos­es abor­tion care in all but a few cir­cum­stances.

Even if he were to be elect­ed, Reichert would not be able to uni­lat­er­al­ly out­law abor­tion care in Wash­ing­ton State — he’d need a Repub­li­can-con­trolled Leg­is­la­ture to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to sign leg­is­la­tion rolling back repro­duc­tive rights.

How­ev­er, he’d def­i­nite­ly have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to appoint right wing judges and maybe even state Supreme Court jus­tices to fill any vacan­cies, and he could install peo­ple hos­tile to repro­duc­tive rights in key posi­tions at state agen­cies like the Depart­ment of Health. Reichert would also be able to thwart the enact­ment of any new leg­is­la­tion pro­tect­ing repro­duc­tive rights by a Demo­c­ra­t­ic-con­trolled Leg­is­la­ture for at least four years (the length of a sin­gle guber­na­to­r­i­al term).

Wash­ing­to­ni­ans have not elect­ed a Repub­li­can to be gov­er­nor since John Spell­man in 1980. At that time, the land­mark Roe v. Wade deci­sion was only sev­en years old. Ever­green State Repub­li­cans own the longest cur­rent guber­na­to­r­i­al los­ing streak in the coun­try. It’s hard to see how they break it with Reichert. The par­ty dis­cov­ered last year with Tiffany Smi­ley that slick, non­stop tele­vi­sion ads and an attempt to down­play Smi­ley’s oppo­si­tion to repro­duc­tive rights did not move the nee­dle with the statewide electorate.

Reichert will prob­a­bly focus on crime and pub­lic safe­ty in his forth­com­ing cam­paign. He may not want to talk about repro­duc­tive rights. But try­ing to dodge the issue isn’t going to work. Vot­ers will want to hear what his posi­tion is.