Rocker and election reform activist Krist Novoselic says he won’t be on the ballot in Washington state after all. 

The former Nirvana bassist (see his oral history here) has dropped his bid for county clerk of tiny Wahkiakum County on the lower Columbia River, saying it was a political stunt to draw attention to his views on how the state’s Top 2 Primary allows candidates to designate their own party preference. Novoselic, who filed for office as a Grange Party (not Grunge Party!) to make his point, says parties should be able to nominate candidates and no candidate should be allowed to file under that party preference without permission. Here is the Longview Daily News account of his decision and K-No’s own blog post.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, who tried unsuccessfully to get the 2009 Legislature to require candidates to use real party names, and not made up names, says the voter-approved, Grange-sponsored Top 2 initiative means the state no longer has a party nominating election, but a winnowing election that sends the two favored candidates forward to the finals.

Reed notes that parties still may “nominate” their favored candidates — and that information can be widely publicized in brochures, yardsigns and Voters’ Pamphlets. But state law doesn’t allow parties to decide who gets to file and who doesn’t. And no party is guaranteed a runoff spot.

Footnote: Novoselic is the Secretary’s next speaker in a free monthly lecture series at the Capitol. It’s at noon, July 2, in the Columbia Room on the ground floor of the Capitol. TVW is taping.