Nick Harper, the Everett Democrat who quit the state Senate in 2013, has given away the last batch of money in his campaign coffers.
Harper emptied his political account earlier this month with donations of $13,147.40 to Dawson Place Child Advocacy Center in Everett and $13,147.41 to the state Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, according to records posted online by the state Public Disclosure Commission.
Harper resigned Nov. 9, 2013 citing a desire to spend more time with his wife and children. At that time there also were rumors he had had an affair with a lobbyist and when asked about them he declined to respond.
“Unfortunately my work in Olympia takes me away from my family far too much,” Harper said in an interview then.
“I ran because I believed I could do a better job representing the district,” he said. “But to be a full-time husband, to be a full-time father and to maintain my full-time law practice, I cannot continue to give this job the amount of dedication it deserves or the people of the district deserve.”
Harper unseated an incumbent Democratic senator, Jean Berkey, in a controversial election in 2010. He became one of the party’s rising stars in his first term and had been viewed as a potential leader for the Senate Democratic Caucus at the time of his departure.
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a former state senator, hired Harper to be his director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations.
While Harper has doled out the last of his campaign funds, he remains listed as a director of the Northwest Alliance for Progress Political Action Committee. The PAC reported $2,612.55 in contributions at the end of July.
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