Thurston County auditor Wyman enters race for Secretary of State

Kim Wyman is looking to fill the shoes of Sam Reed, again.

In 2001, after Reed left his job as Thurston County auditor to begin his first term as Secretary of State, Wyman was appointed to fill the position.

Now, with Reed planning to retire next year, Wyman, a Republican, is entering the 2012 race to succeed him in the statewide office. She formally announced her candidacy today.

Wyman is running on her experience in the elections business. She began work in the Thurston County Auditor’s office in 1991 and served as county elections manager for eight years before getting her appointment in 2001.

On her campaign web site she writes:

We need a leader in the Secretary of State’s Office with the real world elections experience to maintain the integrity of our election system with significantly less money. It is not a time for on the job training. I am running for Secretary of State to use my executive elections experience to continue improving our statewide elections process.

Right now, her chief Democratic opponent is state Sen. Jim Kastama of Puyallup. While he’s not overseen the conducting of an election, he is stressing his work as a legislator to snuff out fraud and bring in reforms of the voting system.

On his campaign web site , he writes:

This campaign will be about fairness in our elections, respect for the voters and growing Washington’s economy. We need a Secretary of State who will look at both parties objectively. When there is fraud or cause for concern, we need someone willing to buck party allegiance to uphold the integrity of our system. That’s me.

I believe that no special interest group should be allowed to manipulate our elections. That’s why, at the beginning of this year I moved to unseat a Senator from my own party who had benefited from deceptive campaign tactics.

Kastama, you may recall, sought to keep Sen. Nick Harper, D-Everett, from taking his seat until completion of an investigation into the tactics of Moxie Media. That firm has been accused by Attorney General Rob McKenna of deliberately concealing the identity of donors of campaign materials distributed in August primary in 2010.