Secretary of State Sam Reed has been honored by Governing magazine as one of the country’s best public officials.

Reed, a three-term statewide official who also spent more than 20 years as Thurston County’s Auditor, was lauded at a dinner in Washington, D.C., Thursday night for his even-handed role in the nation’s closest gubernatorial election in 2004 and for forcefully following up with an election reform package.  Reed and Maryland’s Gov. Martin O’Malley were the only two statewide elected officials on the panel of eight leaders who were tapped for the “public official of the year” honor.

In prepared comments, Reed said the 2004 experience and the praise that has followed are “a powerful reminder of how hungry people are for post-partisanship, leaving party politics at water’s edge when it comes to even-handed treatment of everyone, and adherence to fair play and the rule of law.  He added:

“One big lesson from that watershed moment was that people crave transparency and integrity in their government and in their leaders. They want a little humility and a lot of openness.”