OLYMPIA – Bob Ferguson could face Bob Ferguson and Bob Ferguson in the August primary.
That’s Bob Ferguson, the state attorney general; Bob Ferguson, retired public servant in Yakima; and Bob Ferguson, a military veteran in Graham.
All three are running for governor of Washington.
Conservative activist Glen Morgan has recruited two people who share the name of the Democratic candidate for governor to also run for the state’s highest office. They officially registered to run on Friday, at the end of candidate filing week in Washington.
“If I had started a little earlier, I would have gotten six Bob Fergusons,” Morgan said. “…I contacted about 12. I ran out of time.”
Morgan, who answered calls Friday at the numbers listed for both campaigns, declined to provide the Seattle Times with contact information for either of the two Bob Fergusons who filed the lawsuit.
This year, the governor’s seat is open for the first time since 2012. Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat who has led the state for more than a decade, is not running for a fourth term. Attorney General Ferguson has amassed a campaign fund of nearly $7 million, according to campaign finance reports.
Morgan says he believes “a lot of people” are upset that the attorney general “tries to pretend he cares about public safety when he has done everything he can to look the other way and avoid resolving any of the issues and almost all of the activities what he did as the attorney general actually made everything much worse.”
“These guys want to clear their names,” Morgan said of the other two Bob Fergusons. All three Bobs are running as Democrats, according to voter registration data.
On Friday, Bob Ferguson’s (the attorney general’s) campaign called on former governor Christine Gregoire to make a statement on behalf of the campaign.
“There is only one Bob Ferguson qualified to be governor – someone who has a long and distinguished career advocating for Washingtonians,” Gregoire said. “There is no doubt that this last-minute presentation by two unknown candidates is an attempt to deliberately confuse Washington voters. It is nothing short of an attack on our democracy. Washington voters are smart and will see through this highly deceptive – and potentially illegal – effort to deceive them.”
State statutes say it is a crime for a person to file a statement of candidacy with a “surname similar to someone who has previously run for the same office, and whose political reputation is widely known, with the intent to confuse and deceive voters by capitalizing on public reputation.” of the candidate who had already presented himself.”
Jim Walsh, chairman of the state Republican Party, said the multiple Bobs case pointed to pitfalls in the state’s open primary system. The top two candidates in the August 6 primary advance to the general election, regardless of party.
“The problem is we have two open jungle primaries where people don’t have to be active or, you know, genuine part of either party to run however they want,” Walsh said.
In total, 30 people ran for governor last week. The deadline for candidates to withdraw is Monday. The registration fee for governor is almost $2,000.
The Secretary of State had not determined how to handle the situation as of Friday evening and is still reviewing it. In situations where there are two or more candidates with names “so similar as to be confusing to voters,” state administrative rules dictate that the registrar – in this case, the secretary of state – must differentiate between the candidates by including additional information about the candidate’s name. voting, such as your occupation or your status as an incumbent or challenger.
On Friday, the Secretary of State asked Bob Ferguson’s three campaigns for information about each of the candidates’ occupations.
