Should state's top election official run under party banner?
If you struggle to name both candidates for secretary of state in next month’s election, you’ve got plenty of company. Even those who know Steve Hobbs and Julie Anderson are competing for the job are largely undecided on who will get their vote come Nov. 8.
Nearly half those surveyed in a recent statewide poll didn’t recognize one or both candidates. And a second poll found the two in a statistical dead heat, with a greater number, 40%, undecided.
Hobbs, a moderate Democrat from Lake Stevens, is in the post now by way of appointment. He was in his fourth term in the state Senate when Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee tapped him last November to take over when Kim Wyman, a Republican, left to work in the Biden administration. She had been the fifth consecutive Republican to hold the office in Washington dating back to 1965.
Anderson, of Tacoma, is the Pierce County auditor, which is a nonpartisan position. She was elected to a partial term in 2009, won a full four-year term in 2010, and then got re-elected twice without opposition. She’s also a former Tacoma City Council member. In this campaign she’s running as a nonpartisan.
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/should-states-top-election-official-run-under-party-banner/