Musician Krist Novoselic is dropping out of the race for Wahkiakum County Clerk, putting an end to a political stunt aimed at exposing what he sees as a key flaw in the state elections system.

Novoselic, the former bassist for the wildly popular rock band Nirvana, announced on his Seattle Weekly blog Friday that he’s withdrawn his name from the ballot.

He had filed June 3 to run for election under the made-up Grange Party. Novoselic, who lives in Deep River, said his candidacy demonstrated how politicians can use the state’s top-2 primary system to mislead voters. Novoselic said his trick also demonstrated that candidates can latch onto an organization or political party without those groups’ consent.

“My protest is over,” he wrote in the blog post. “I’m just trying to make a point. And I think I made it crystal clear: It’s wrong for me to drag a private association unwittingly onto the public ballot. There, said it, done, no need to drag this on toward the November election.”

Novoselic, 44, said he had never been interested in holding the office. In fact, he said in an interview Monday evening that he’d planned all along to drop out of the race.

“I knew I was going to pull out. I just didn’t want to blow the stunt,” he said. “You know, it was a protest candidacy.”

The only Wahkiakum County Clerk candidate on November’s ballot will be incumbent Kay M. Holland, who was appointed in January.

Novoselic, who is the master of the Grays River Grange and the chairman of the Wahkiakum County Democratic Party, took issue with a provision of the state’s top-two primary system, which allows a candidate to list any political party, real or made-up, on the ballot. That, he said, violates the parties’ Constitutional right of free association.

He said earlier this month that he will propose a compromise at this week’s meeting of the state Grange in Longview. The Grange backed the 2004 voter-initiative that established the top-two primary.

Under the compromise, he said, the top two vote getters in a primary would still advance to the general election, regardless of their party affiliation. But candidates would be barred from listing a political party on the ballot without that party’s consent or from making up fake parties that could confuse voters.

“There’s a simple solution,” Novoselic wrote on the Seattle Weekly blog. “Let parties nominate their own candidates. If there’s a party label next to a candidate’s name on the ballot, I want to know that the party is backing the candidate.”

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Previous 'Breaking News' version of this article

Krist Novoselic's running for public office, but winning isn't his point  (June 4)

Novoselic stunt 'spot-on,' party leaders agree  (June 7)