Bob Greive

Greive first ran for the Washington State Senate in 1946. He was diligent about his campaign, designing his own campaign advertisements and campaigning door to door. Aged 27, he campaigned on the argument that his incumbent was out of touch and that he would bring "the vigor and energy of youth".[3] After his election, he earned the nickname "Rule Book Greive" for memorizing Robert's Rules of Order. He was still a law student at the time, although he ultimately failed out, an event that he blamed on the university’s opposition to his proposed legislation to shorten the length of the law school course from four years to three. He received his law degree in 1951 after briefly attending classes at the University of Idaho before ultimately graduating from the University of Miami. He worked as a lawyer throughout his life, primarily focused on personal injury work.[3]

During Greive's first year in the Senate, Representative Albert F. Canwell introduced a resolution to create the Joint Legislative Fact-finding Committee on Un-American Activities in the State of Washington, which would investigate Communism in the state government. Greive was one of twelve senators to oppose the resolution. Throughout his time in the legislature, he supported organized labor and environmental issues, helping to create the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle in 1958 and the Washington State Department of Ecology.[3] He was also focused on affordable housing and supported laws to limit air pollution.[4][5]

In 1956, Greive was chosen by the Democratic caucus to replace Albert D. Rosellini as the Senate majority leader, a position that he would hold for the next 12 years.[3] He used this position to fundraise for various other politicians by soliciting donations from lobbyists and adding them to what was called the "Greive Fund".[3][4] Shortly after he became the majority leader, the legislature was forced by the League of Women Voters and the courts to redistrict for the first time since 1930. He was involved in three rounds of restricting, between 1956 and 1957, 1962 and 1964 and 1971 and 1974, when he used the process to protect his allies. Martin Durkan claimed that Greive redistricted him away from his district on each occasion.[3]

Greive was removed as majority leader on November 2, 1972, being replaced with August Mardesich, following conflict over his approach to redistricting.[3][4] He subsequently alleged that Mardesich had accepted a $20,000 bribe and although his fellow legislator was ultimately acquitted, he had to resign his position as majority leader. Two years later, Greive faced his own investigation following a complaint filed by his former aid, which alleged that Greive had asked him to do private legal work and collect information on his political enemies while on the Senate payroll. The Senate Ethics Committee did not find a violation of any rules of conduct but in the 1974 election, Republican Nancy Buffington beat Greive by 542 votes.[3]

Greive ran for a position on the King County Council for the 8th district in 1975, challenging Democratic incumbent Ed Heavey.[3][6] He was focused on his district, working with Ron Sims to fill potholes, create bus stops and obtain funding for the West Seattle Bridge.[3][4] During his time on the council, it was split with five Democrats and four Republicans and Greive was often the swing vote, sometimes siding with Republicans and other times with Democrats. He was re-elected twice with no challengers but in the 1987 Democratic primary, he lost to Greg Nickels.[3]