BELLINGHAM, Washington — Rather than allowing party-specific primaries, Washington state has one general statewide primary in August. The top two finishers of every race, regardless of party, are placed on the ballot in November. The hopefuls that political handicappers are expecting in the general election for governor are Democratic state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and former congressman Dave Reichert, a Republican.

Reichert is also a former King County elected sheriff and author of the true-crime bestseller Chasing the Devil: My Twenty-Year Quest to Capture the Green River Killer. Spoiler alert: they got him, though not as fast as Reichert would have liked.