James E. Bradford ran for Governor in 1916, Seattle Mayor in 1918, and later for Superior Court judge. He lost all three elections but remains a tantalizing "what if he had won?" character in Washington State history.

James was born in 1868 on a farm near Rochester, Minn., the son of William and Elizabeth (Comstock) Bradford. His father was from New York, his mother from Wisconsin. He was a Mayflower descendant, a fact used in later political campaigns. As a young man he was active in sports and particularly enjoyed boxing. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1891 or 1892, where he had been a member of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. James became, according to his obituary, "a student of the classics and a widely sought public speaker." With his new degree in hand, he set up practice in Austin, Minn.

In 1900, Bradford moved to Seattle and set up shop. At some point he found employment in the office of the City Attorney for Seattle as a clerk. He lived in a boarding house and some time after 1910 married Lavena Luther, the daughter of the couple who managed the dwelling. Eventually they would divide their residential life between the Claremont Hotel in the cold months and Bainbridge Island during the other half of the year.

He was appointed in 1911 to fill the unexpired term of Seattle Corporation Counsel Scott Calhoun, who had resigned. Most of Bradford's public service in this office was under the leadership of the progressive and controversial Mayor George F. Cotterill.

Bradford's term as Counsel came to an end in 1916, during the reign of colorful and corrupt Mayor Hiram Gill. It was during this year that James got into the realm of Washington State politics, starting with the Non-Partisan League. The NPL was started in 1915 by former Socialist Arthur Charles Townley. It was an agrarian-based attempt to smash private control of agricultural production and distribution. In 1916 they enjoyed great electoral success in North Dakota. In addition to former socialists, the NPL also attracted former members of Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party. In a scenario that seems weird today, the NPL at first infiltrated and gained power through the Republican Party, but eventually merged with the Democrats. Perhaps it was Bradford's Minnesota roots that drew him to the NPL. According to Harriet Ann Crawford, "Organization of the Non-partisan League in Washington appears to have been the work of 'intellectuals' largely. The first 'Call' to a convention for the purpose of taking 'steps toward securing a greater degree of political and industrial democracy in this state,' issued February, 1916, was signed by many well-known persons other than farm and labor leaders." Among these names were future ungovernors Bradford and Robert Bridges, as well as future U.S. Sen. Homer T. Bone. No doubt future ungovernor William Bouck was involved too.

Now it gets fun. In 1912 TR had carried the state as a candidate of the Progressive Party. They also took a big chunk of the offices in the State Legislature. But like the Populists of the 1890s, this party was quickly co-opted by the Big Two and by 1916 it was all but gone. Roosevelt himself endorsed the Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes (although he privately called him the "bearded lady") for President in 1916. Robert Tait Hodge, the Progressive 1912 Ungovernor, ran in the 1916 primaries as a Republican. Bremerton-based U.S. Congressman and Progressive James W. Bryan was not re-elected in 1914. Everett-based Progressive U.S. Congressman Jacob Falconer failed in his bid for the U.S. Senate in 1914. And Progressive U.S. Senator Miles Poindexter rejoined the Republican Party in 1915 and changed his political philosophy to match the right-wing tilt of public opinion. The Great War was on the horizon and people were frightened. The Party was over.

Well, not quite. After the Washington State Progressive Party held their convention in Seattle on July 29, 1916 they were "Repudiating the action of the national committee in endorsing the candidacy of Mr. Hughes, and re-affirming the principles which called the party into being in 1912 ..." In our corner of the country we were going to do things our own way. They cooked up a platform that supported Prohibition, endorsed taking away power from the courts to declare a law unconstitutional, championed women's right to vote, celebrated trust-busting, and promoted an open and blanket primary. And they talked James E. Bradford into running for Governor on their ticket.

Bradford ran unopposed in the primary. He was given a grand total of 325 votes statewide. Not a good sign when all the Dems and Repubs were in the thousands.

The Seattle newspaper Commonwealth (not to be confused with the Socialist newspaper from Everett with the same title) promoted Bradford thusly: "Mr. Bradford is a man who thinks clearly, feels keenly, speaks succinctly, and has the courage of his convictions. He has not been haled forth from the cloister of the office or the court precincts. As the corporation counsel of Seattle he has run up squarely against pretty much the whole rotten bunch which camps at Olympia at one time or another, particularly about legislature time. He knows the traction and the gas interests and they know him. He knows the power of the booze ring, and he probably wouldn't dissent from the view that these two with the kept press, constitute the unholy trinity with which democracy will have to deal before the people shall come to their own ... Mr. Bradford has a little home across the Sound to which he journeys at the close of every day's work, but we hope that from now on the state will be his home until the people in the cities and the hamlets have all heard his message of political freedomn wrested from the clutches of political and financial bosses."

In his public statements, Bradford echoed the Washington State Progressive party platform, but he added another issue which could reflect his NPL backing: "The independent vote is growing; the number who refuse to be chained to the wheels of the party chariot is increasing. The people of Washington believe so strongly in the non-partisan idea that they have already applied it to every school and port district, to our entire judicial system and to other cities and towns within our state. But why stop there? If sound in these parts of our government, why should the principle not be extended to the counties and to the state itself? I favor the open or blanket non-partisan primary system. I favor the adoption of a general non-partisan law for the nomination and election of all state, county and other municipal officers."

In a final campaign plea right before Election Day, the Commonwealth stated: "The election of Mr. Bradford as governor will mean a check upon the predatory and corrupt interests of every kind in the state while he is in office; it will mean the appointment of men and women on appointive boards who will have the modern view of life, with the common rights of all ahead of private interests. Mr. Bradford is the last man that Booze, Boodle and Big Business would want to see in the governor's chair, wherefore he should be the first man you should want in that office."

OK. Now first off, being Corporation Counsel for the City of Seattle might carry some weight in the Emerald City, but no one in the rest of the state really cares. Just ask Doug Jewett or Mark Sidran. Secondly, he was running under the banner of a phantom party. Third, the Progressive Era was coming to a close. People were getting worn out by change. A time of optimism, progress, and hope was in the process of surrending to fear, xenophobia, and regression under the guise of patriotism as war clouds grew darker. And finally, labor threatened to endorse Bradford if incumbent Gov. Lister did not change his policy on labor. Lister, a Democrat who was mentored by a master, Populist Gov. John Rogers, and who won in 1912 by a sliver, saw the light and changed his policy. And thus was the earnest, well-intentioned James E. Bradford buried in the polls.

In the final result he garnered a miserable 2,894 votes (0.77%), placing 5th out of 6 candidates, behind the Socialist and Prohibition parties. Statewide, he placed 4th in Grant, Jefferson, and King counties, and last in Clallam. In Garfield and Wahkiakum he tied for last (1 and 2 votes, respectively). Such a comedown for a party that had done so well in 1912. I suspect that if Bradford had been the 1912 candidate instead of Hodge, he might've been elected Governor. His timing was just off.

In early 1918 Bradford ran for the office of Seattle Mayor. By now our country was in the Great War. Washington's largest metropolis was polarized by pro-war/anti-war, pro-labor/anti-labor, right wing/left wing. In the primaries, Hiram Gill was rejected. The contest came down to Bradford and "Holy" Ole Hanson. Hanson had previously run (and lost) as a member of the Progressive Party for the U.S. Senate in 1914, and included among his opponents in that race were past Ungovernor Caton and future Ungovernor Black. Labor endorsed Bradford, business endorsed Hanson. Oddly, Ungovernor Hodge endorsed Bradford. So did the normally Republican Argus, which said: "Ole stands in about the same relation to Bradford as the hole does to the doughnut." But Hanson was the superior politician.

One of my UW teachers, archivist Richard C. Berner, wrote of this election: "Bradford [ran] on a solid Progressive platform that included respect for civil liberties, Hanson unfurled the flag, adopted a stance of a super-patriot and anti-radical ..." Bradford garnered 27,677 votes (46.16%). Hanson went on to have a colorful and controversial career. Bradford went under the radar weaving between private practice and being a bureaucrat.

Around 1928-1933 he served as the counsel for the Port of Seattle. This was during a time when former Mayor Cotterill was a Port Commissioner, and perhaps his position had something to do with the hiring of Bradford. One of the more interesting issues Bradford probably had to deal with was the existence of Hooverville on Port property. Seattle's Hooverville was home to hundreds of the unemployed during the Great Depression, an economic condition that took place under the watch of the very people Bradford had politically opposed. When Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932, Bradford must've felt some measure of vindication.

And FDR's elevation helped him out. Starting in Jan. 1934, Bradford started a path that led him to be state director of the National Emergency Council, the Federal Housing Authority, and the National Recovery Act. Four years later, in 1938, he left public service forever and returned to private practice.

He gained a reputation as a constitutional lawyer, and retired in 1956. James E. Bradford died Jan. 9, 1958 in a Seattle hospital after a brief illness at age 89 and was cremated.

James and Lavena had no children. Among his nephews and nieces was Rear Admiral and aviation pioneer, Bradford E. Grow (1900-1999).