Westneat: Unicorns attempt the impossible

“If I were to win, I would be the first nonpartisan secretary of state elected anywhere in America since 1914,” says Julie Anderson of Tacoma.

Anderson is one of eight secretary of state candidates in the Aug. 2 primary, most of whom are Democrats or Republicans. Even the ballot setup isn’t designed for her. She wanted it to say she’s “nonpartisan,” but because of our strict ballot rules it will end up reading, oxymoronically, that she’s running under the banner of the “Nonpartisan Party.”

She’s the Pierce County auditor, in charge of that county’s election systems. Her pitch is simple: The person who oversees counting the votes shouldn’t be on any team. Not after we all just saw a U.S. president pressuring secretaries of state to “find votes” to undermine a national election.

“We’re one of the only democracies in the world that lets partisan politicians oversee the elections,” Anderson said. “I think we’re seeing around the country how these institutions can be cannibalized, and compromised, by partisan allegiances.”

But even if it sounds good in theory to have an independent secretary of state, could one get elected?

A new Seattle Times poll found that the number of Washington voters who self-identify as “independent” has risen to 29 percent — up from 20 percent in a similar poll, from the same pollster, at this same time in 2020. That means this amorphous group is larger than the base of the Republicans (who came in at 25 percent of voters in the poll — the Democrats are at 38 percent).

The glitch: Voters who don’t identify with either party often don’t vote.

California just had a race for attorney general in which a high-profile candidate ran as an independent. In that state, voters declare a party allegiance, and the proportion rejecting both major parties has soared. So the time seemed ripe.

But in the June primary, only 18 percent of these “no party preference” voters actually cast ballots. The independent candidate got trounced. Political consultants say these voters are almost impossible to rally to a cause.

“They don’t believe anything you tell them,” one Democratic consultant, Andrew Acosta, told McClatchy. “You tell them, ‘The sky is blue today.’ They’re like, ‘Really? I don’t know.’ They’re grumpy … many of them are independent for a reason.”

Still, there’s a boomlet of independent candidates.

One, Al Gross, made it through the primary for Alaska’s congressional race this summer. But everyone was furious at him — Democrats because he said he might not caucus with them, and Republicans because they see him as a closet liberal (a “fake independent.”) So despite qualifying for the general election, Gross dropped out. “It is just too hard to run as a nonpartisan candidate in this race,” he said.

History says these candidates have no chance — even as political tribalism, or full-on partisan cultism, deepens. But history hasn’t exactly been moving in a straight line lately, either.

“It is hard,” Anderson said, after I read her that quote from Alaska’s Gross. She gets doubts all the time because she lacks the D or R badge. People side-eye her and say “but what are you really?”

“This hyperpolarization has infected everything,” she says. “We’ve got to pull back from it at least a bit to allow more space for basic professionalism in government. Or it’s going to totally consume us.”