He dedicated his career to public service, and burnished a reputation as a moderate Republican in the mold of Governor Dan Evans. As Washington secretary of state from 2001-2013, he oversaw recounts in the closest governor’s race in U.S. history, Christine Gregoire versus Dino Rossi. He fought, ultimately successfully, for Washington’s “Top Two” primary election.
Now he’s the subject of a new book: “Mr. Mainstream: Sam Reed’s Half Century of Public Service and Civility.” Host Austin Jenkins sits down with Sam Reed and the author of the book, historian John Hughes of the Legacy Washington program within the Washington Secretary of State’s office.
On overseeing Gregoire-Rossi recounts: “I was fortunate in that I previously was Thurston County Auditor, and as Thurston County auditor I had two congressional district recounts, I had a really contentious state senate recount and then a number of other races and so, I really knew what I was doing … I knew the laws, I knew the rules, I knew the previous uh, you know, decisions that had been made in courts. Uh, you know, now of course you have to review all of this, but I always felt that, you know, I had to do the right thing, and that I had a pretty clear sense of what was the right thing.”
On presiding over the more-than-a-decade-long fight over the Washington primary: “Austin, the day that I was sworn in as Secretary of State the first time, January 10, 2001, we were having a nice lunch and everybody celebratory and all, and a guy walks in and serve me papers. The Washington State Democratic Party, Washington State Republican Party, Washington State Libertarian Party, versus Sam Reed. And I said, what? Welcome to Office! And this was a lawsuit over our blanket primary. I dealt with that issue in one way or another through all 12 years of my service.”
