No sooner did longtime 6th District Congressman Norm Dicks announce Friday that he wasn’t running for re-election than potential candidates interested in taking his place started lining up — including Port Angeles native Derek Kilmer.
Kilmer, 38, a two-term 26th District Democratic state senator and Princeton University and University of Oxford alumnus, said Saturday that he is “seriously considering” running for Dicks’ seat.
“It’s a conversation I am having with my family,” the Gig Harbor resident and 1992 Port Angeles High School graduate said, a conversation that started this weekend but which he had wanted to start Friday night with his wife, Jennifer.
“I had planned to have dinner with my wife to sit down and have that discussion more thoroughly, but I ended up on the Senate floor until 2 in the morning,” said Kilmer, who is vice president of the nonprofit Economic Development Board of Tacoma-Pierce County.
“We’ll be talking about it. This is something I’m seriously considering.”
Dicks’ 6th Congressional District, which he has represented for 18 terms, has included the North Olympic Peninsula since 1993.
Dicks on Friday mentioned Kilmer as a potential candidate, as well as Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland and Kitsap County Commissioner Josh Brown, according to The Associated Press.
Strickland said Friday she is considering running for the position, and Brown could not be reached for comment.
“The Democrats have made no secret they love [Kilmer],” Washington state Republican Party Executive Director Peter Graves said Friday.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Regional Press Secretary Stephen Carter would not go on the record on which Democrats have the most potential.
But Graves said Kilmer is creating a good amount of buzz on social media sites.
“That’s humbling,” Kilmer said of the top-tier attention he’s getting.
No matter who runs, Carter said, party leaders are “very confident” the seat will remain in Democratic Party hands, noting President Barack Obama and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry both carried Washington state.
“The numbers say this is a safe Democratic seat,” Carter said.
Clallam County Democratic Party Chairman Matthew Randazzo echoed Carter’s assessment.
“We’re going to elect another Democrat,” he said.
“We have a deep bench. I am very confident we are going to win the seat and hold it indefinitely.”
But Clallam County Republican Party Chairman Dick Pilling said Republican Jesse Young of Gig Harbor, who ran unsuccessfully for Dicks’ seat in 2010 and is running for Dicks’ seat this year, would have had a good chance of beating Dicks.
“I think Norm Dicks sensed that, and that’s why he is retiring,” Pilling said.
Jefferson County Republican Chairman Ron Gregory said county Republicans also will probably throw their support to Young.
“He has a real chance,” Gregory said.
“I think he can win.”
Gregory expects that the national GOP Congressional Committee will get involved in the race, contributing money and resources in order to put the seat into Republican hands.
Jefferson County Democratic Chairwoman Teri Nomura said “no one comes to mind” as a strong candidate from the Olympic Peninsula but thinks someone from county or municipal government could be a good candidate.
“We can find someone who is ready to step up and represent the entire district,” she said.
Nomura said Dicks’ timing was good “because he has given people a chance to plan a campaign before the [May] filing deadline.”
Potential candidates also include Democratic state Sen. Jim Hargrove of the 24th District, which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and the northern half of Grays Harbor County.
“I hope to do some soul-searching and talk to my family,” the Hoquiam Democrat, who is the second highest-ranking senior member of the state Senate, said Friday.
The fifth-term state senator, with eight years before that in the House, was circumspect about acting on a larger political stage.
“I’ve never been too excited about the stage part of it,” he said.
“I concentrate on policy, on problem-solving and fixing things.”
As a freshman congressman, Hargrove said he would not have the influence he has in the state Senate.
“I’ll evaluate whether I can do that better here or there and make a decision,” he said.
“It’s likely to be a crowded race,” Hargrove added.
“There’s no way that being the first one out of the gate will make any difference. I need to consider my options and make a decision.”
The field will include some familiar faces from Dicks’ past campaigns: Young and Gig Harbor Republican Doug Cloud, who lost to Dicks in the past four elections.
“It’s a good day for me,” Cloud said Friday, adding he will try again for Dicks’ position.
“I think that it demonstrates that our efforts to expose some of the negative characteristics of Norm’s tenure have borne fruit,” he said.
“I don’t think he wanted to face any more scrutiny.”
Cloud has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in federal district court in the Western District of Washington against the federal Department of Justice, trying to force the agency to release records of its investigation into Dicks’ alleged ties to the PMA group lobbying firm.
No charges resulted from the investigation, and a House Ethics Committee investigation into earmarks connected to the firm cleared Dicks and other members of Congress of any wrongdoing.
Cloud’s assertion that Dicks was running away from scrutiny is “ridiculous,” Dicks said.
Graves suggested Friday that Cloud and Young might have some company now that Dicks is not running for re-election.
“I have a feeling there may be one or two other Republicans, knowing it’s an open seat,” Graves said.
“That’s the way things go. That’s a district without an identity without Congressman Norm Dicks.”
Graves suggested former Congressman Rick White, R-Seattle, might be interested in running for the position.
“I’ll probably give it a little thought over the weekend and then decide if it’s something I’m interested in or not,” White said in an interview, adding it’s not a “high possibility” he would seek Dicks’ seat.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
