U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert not running for governor

Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert is not running for governor, he announced Friday.

The former King County Sheriff was considering a run for governor, but said Friday he intends to run for reelection instead. His is now serving his sixth term in the House representing the 8th Congressional District.

“I really, really struggled over this one, because I do see myself as the top Republican candidate,” Reichert told KIRO 7.

Reichert was first elected to Congress in 2004 and has long been rumored to be a potential challenger to Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee. Inslee is seeing reelection for a second term.

Washington hasn’t had a Republican governor in three decades. The last, John Spellman, left office in January 1985.

Republican Port of Seattle Commissioner Bill Bryant announced earlier this year his entry into the race, and he was recently endorsed by two prominent Republicans, former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton and former Gov. Dan Evans.

Before running for Congressional office, Reichert was King County Sheriff from 1997-2004. He started as a deputy in 1972.  For a time he led the Green River Task Force that worked for years to catch Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer who confessed to 71 homicides.

Reichert said when he was asked to run for office then, “I said, ‘I’m not leaving until that case is solved.’”

He said he feels the same way now about his work in Washington D.C. Reichert is currently on the ways and means committee, the trade subcommittee, and the chair of the tax subcommittee.

Reichert also said he was recently appointed to lead a task force to address the widening gap between police and community.

“I think it’s even more critical that with the chaos that’s happening back there right now, to have a calm, even, steady, logical cop voice,” Reichert said.

He expressed outrage last month, when it was revealed that Ridgway was moved to a federal prison in Colorado, where he could have been held under more lenient conditions than the state prison at Walla Walla.

After Reichert and the victims’ families complained, Ridgway was returned to Washington.

Marco Lowe, an adjunct professor at Seattle University, once ran a campaign against Reichert.

“They looked at polling. There’s no question that they saw something showing where Governor Inslee is,” Lowe said.

The most recent Elway poll on the gubernatorial race was conducted in July.

Of the 500 voters polled, 30 percent said they would re-elect Gov. Inslee. Another 17 percent said they would vote for another Democrat. A quarter of them said they would vote for a Republican, and the rest were undecided.

“Based on my polling, and the history of Washington state, it’s just such a difficult task for a Republican to win statewide,” Elway told KIRO 7.

Both Lowe and Elway said Reichert was likely the Republicans’ best chance at winning, though Port of Seattle Commissioner Bill Bryant, is also a strong candidate.

Elway said Inslee now needs to shore up support from those who feel they would want to vote for a different Democrat.

“It’s always one thing a year before an election to tell a pollster I’m going to vote this way or that way. It’s another thing to actually vote,” Elway said.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.

KIRO