U.S. Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash., is seeking to return to the state capitol where he was a fixture and insider for 40 years. Heck announced Thursday he is running for Lieutenant Governor.
The position, opened up last month when incumbent Cyrus Habib announced that he is leaving to become a Jesuit priest. Heck joins a field of three candidates for a job often nicknamed “lite governor”, but is a path to the top spot were Gov. Jay Inslee to take a post in any new Democratic administration.
Two candidates already in the race are State Sens. Marko Liias and Steve Hobbs, both Democrats from Snohomish County, both of whom ran for statewide office in 2016 and didn’t make it past the primary. Habib has endorsed Liias.
The Republicans are fielding an ex-Democrat, attorney/community activist Ann Davison Sattler, who ran for the Seattle City Council last year. Sattler has argued that the Seattle-based Democratic Party has become a closed shop, ideologically rigid and unwilling to listen.
Heck has spent much of his adult life in Olympia. He was a young legislator in the 1970’s, who rose to House Majority Leader. He later served as chief-of-staff to Gov. Booth Gardner, dealing with policy as well as Gardner’s many male mid-life crises. He co-founded and was CEO of the TVW television channel.
Elected to Congress in 2012, Heck has been an influential member of the House Financial Services Committee, and was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s pick for a coveted seat on the Intelligence Committee. He was a key 2018 recruiter of the moderate Democrats who captured suburban House seats and gave Democrats control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Heck was also moving force in getting Congress to rename the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in honor of his longtime friend, Native American leader Billy Frank, Jr.
While he ran for Congress on the slogan, “Give ’em Heck,” Denny is stressing collegiality. The chief duty of the Lieutenant Governor is to preside over the Washington State Senate and chair its rules committee.
“Especially in times like these, we need civility and decency in our political discourse and bold economic leadership to ewbuild economic prosperity to every community,” he said in announcing.
Heck is following a path successfully trod in the past. When “Lieutenant Governor for Life” John Cherberg retired in 1988, after 32 years at the post, former U.S. Rep. Joel Pritchard came home from Washington, D.C., to run for the job. The popular, collegial Pritchard, a Republican, was elected, served two terms, and retired while fighting cancer.
What is the attraction of coming home? One photo says it all. Pritchard won his first battle with cancer. He celebrated by taking to the mountains. A mid-1990s photo shows Pritchard atop Icy Peak in the North Cascades, with the great north face of Mt. Shuksan in the background, bald from chemo but joyous.