Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman is the only Republican holding an elected statewide position on the West Coast.
And Wyman, in her first term as the state’s top elections officer, is fighting to keep the title.
Democratic challenger Tina Podlodowski characterized Wyman’s handling of the job as “status quo and everything is fine.”
“Mine is, ‘Change must happen,’ ” Podlodowski told The Columbian Editorial Board on Friday.
Wyman countered, saying she’s earned a “reputation for impartiality but also for … innovation.”
“The essential question in this election is, ‘Who do you trust to instill public confidence in our elections?’ ” said Wyman, who said she’s been an elections administrator and has demonstrated impartiality, and then pointed to her opponent’s partisan background.
Podlodowski served on the Seattle City Council for a four-year term, worked in Seattle Mayor Ed Murray’s office and was also a manager at Microsoft.
Podlodowski criticized Wyman for a litany of issues from low voter turnout in the state, to lax cybersecurity risking voters’ information, to using Twitter inappropriately. Podlodowski accused Wyman of using social media to “amplify partisan candidates” by tweeting an article out about Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Bryant that was published in The Seattle Times.
“That’s not OK,” Podlodowski said.
Wyman said the social media platform, run by her communications staff, disseminates relevant state news about both parties.
“It’s another false narrative that we’re using the office for political gain,” Wyman said.
Wyman said Podlodowski cherry-picks issues, talking about them in a narrow fashion to manipulate the storyline.
“It’s a layered, nuanced job,” Wyman said.
When it comes to voter turnout, Podlodowski vowed that if she were elected, voter turnout would improve.
“We will work on voter turnout, and the buck has to stop somewhere,” she said.
Wyman noted that Washington continues to lead the country in voter turnout.
“Let’s talk about voter turnout — it peaks in a presidential year, it goes down in a midterm. … It’s not only a trend in our state, you see it nationally,” said Wyman, who has championed the idea of some form of automatic voter registration.
Wyman also said that if re-elected she plans to work with the Legislature in 2017 to get the Voting Rights Act passed.
