An anonymous online petition began circulating this week seeking to draft 2016 Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Bryant to run for Seattle mayor.
The website calling to recruit Bryant encourages Seattle voters to sign the petition.
“Seattle is in disarray,” text on the site says. “Scandals and partisan politics have crippled our city. Enough is enough.”
Bryant, who lost by 10 points to Governor Jay Inslee in last year’s governor's race, said he’s not interested.
“I get asked several times a day to run for mayor. People call, email, text, come up to me when I'm working out; it's all very flattering, I mean that and I really do appreciate the support, but I couldn't get elected mayor,” Bryant wrote to KING 5 on Thursday.
If he did enter the race, Bryant would be a long shot, as he captured only 17 percent of the votes cast in Seattle last November.
Inslee won 307,130 votes in Seattle to Bryant’s 64,012, according to numbers from King County Elections.
“A lot of people in Seattle seem to care more about ideological symbolism than the mundane basics of governing,” Bryant said, taking a jab at the city’s liberal reputation.
While Bryant has ruled out a run for mayor, there are reports he’s eyeing another run for governor in 2020.
Meanwhile, the filing deadline for the 2017 Seattle mayoral race is May 19.
Ten candidates are officially challenging incumbent Mayor Ed Murray in the August 1 open primary. Murray was considered a shoe-in for reelection until last month, when a civil lawsuit alleging sexual abuse in the 1980s was filed against him.
Candidates already in the race include former mayor Mike McGinn, defeated by Murray in 2013, urban planner Cary Moon, and attorney and organizer Nikkita Oliver, who is running under the People's Party.
