Mark Miloscia launches Senate campaign as a Republican — but he’s still a Democratic PCO

Last night, we report­ed here on the NPI Advo­cate that ex-Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mark Mlos­cia had filed paper­work to chal­lenge his  for­mer col­league Tracey Eide for state Sen­ate… as a Republican.

This morn­ing, Milos­cia offi­cial­ly launched his cam­paign and announced endorse­ments from State Repub­li­can Par­ty Chair Susan Hutchi­son, King Coun­ty Repub­li­can Chair Lori Soete­lo, unsuc­cess­ful guber­na­to­r­i­al and sen­a­to­r­i­al can­di­date Dino Rossi, and Repub­li­can leg­is­la­tors Lin­da Kochmar and Bruce Dammeier.

In his news release, he bor­rowed from the Repub­li­can play­book to attack Eide, who has rep­re­sent­ed the dis­trict since 1998, claim­ing, “Sen­a­tor Eide and I have very dif­fer­ent vot­ing records… I opposed reck­less spend­ing and tax increas­es while Sen­a­tor Eide sup­port­ed them. I sup­port­ed inno­v­a­tive approach­es to improv­ing our schools, while Sen­a­tor Eide opposed them and cut funding.”

(Milos­cia did not elab­o­rate, or cite any spe­cif­ic roll call votes).

Milos­cia also expressed con­fi­dence his defec­tion to the Repub­li­can Par­ty would not neg­a­tive­ly impact his rep­u­ta­tion in the dis­trict or harm his credibility.

“Our area votes for the best per­son, not the par­ty,” he argued. “They want some­one who will stand up for jobs, for schools, for work­ing peo­ple, and for the least among us, regard­less of party.”

That’s actu­al­ly a false dichoto­my. The truth is, Wash­ing­to­ni­ans from Neah Bay to Clark­ston cast their votes based on who they iden­ti­fy with. It isn’t about the best per­son or the par­ty. It is about authen­tic­i­ty. Authen­tic­i­ty mat­ters in politics.

A stel­lar Munic­i­pal League rat­ing and impres­sive qual­i­fi­ca­tions don’t guar­an­tee a win. Qual­i­fi­ca­tions and par­ty asso­ci­a­tion each mat­ter in a race, but in the end, when vot­ers are decid­ing who to sup­port, it comes down to authen­tic­i­ty and trust.

If Milos­cia real­ly believed that par­ty asso­ci­a­tion does­n’t mat­ter and that the peo­ple he is run­ning to rep­re­sent will sup­port him regard­less of which par­ty he iden­ti­fies with, he’d be run­ning as an inde­pen­dent, sans par­ty label.

But he’s run­ning as a Repub­li­can because he wants the sup­port of the Repub­li­can Par­ty… espe­cial­ly the mon­ey. And the Repub­li­cans want his vote so they can main­tain con­trol of the Wash­ing­ton State Senate.

Democ­rats say there’s noth­ing noble about what Milos­cia is doing.

“Today, Mark Milos­cia put his own needs above those of 30th Dis­trict res­i­dents by announc­ing that he will switch par­ties and run as a Repub­li­can for State Sen­ate,” said new Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty Chair Jax­on Ravens.

“With his last-place fin­ish in the race for State Audi­tor in 2012, Milos­cia is upset that the vot­ers of Wash­ing­ton State chose not to give him a promotion.”

“He saw that he wasn’t advanc­ing fast enough as a Demo­c­rat, and he also saw how Rod­ney Tom has been reward­ed for vot­ing with Repub­li­cans in the State Sen­ate. By switch­ing par­ties, Mark Milos­cia is hop­ing that he will gain a faster path to pow­er like Rod­ney Tom. We are proud to sup­port Sen­a­tor Tracey Eide, and we are con­fi­dent that 30th Dis­trict res­i­dents will return her to the State Senate.”

Milos­cia has evi­dent­ly been plot­ting his run against Eide for some time, as evi­denced by the endorse­ments that he announced today. Time­stamps show he began post­ing con­tent to his new cam­paign web­site sev­er­al days ago. It’s unclear when exact­ly Milos­cia reached a deal with Repub­li­cans to run against Eide, but today’s announce­ment was seem­ing­ly in the works for a while.

This much we do know: Milos­cia has yet to for­mal­ly resign from the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty as the precinct com­mit­tee offi­cer for FED 30–3056.

Though he fin­ished in last place for state audi­tor on the August 2012 bal­lot, he was cho­sen in the same elec­tion by his Demo­c­ra­t­ic neigh­bors to rep­re­sent them on the King Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee (KCDCC) as their PCO.

The 30th Dis­trict Democ­rats tell NPI they have not received a let­ter of res­ig­na­tion from Mark Milos­cia. Last night at its March gen­er­al meet­ing, after hav­ing learned that Milos­cia had filed paper­work to chal­lenge Tracey Eide as a Repub­li­can, the orga­ni­za­tion vot­ed to direct Chair Tim Burns to request Milos­ci­a’s resignation.

Until Milos­cia resigns, the par­ty can­not replace him; there is no legal avenue for a polit­i­cal par­ty to expel a precinct com­mit­tee officer.

The 30th’s action should not have been nec­es­sary. When Mark Milos­cia decid­ed to join the Repub­li­can Par­ty, he ought to have noti­fied all of his Demo­c­ra­t­ic friends — espe­cial­ly those who stuck their necks out for him when he ran for audi­tor — and resigned his posi­tion with­in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty. But he didn’t.

And when Demo­c­ra­t­ic activists in the 30th called to inquire about his plans, par­tic­u­lar­ly after the Fed­er­al Way Mir­ror ran a col­umn spec­u­lat­ing about his inten­tions, he left them hang­ing, choos­ing not to return calls or answer messages.

Duplic­i­ty is not becom­ing of a per­son who wish­es to serve the peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton as an elect­ed offi­cial. Mark Milos­cia should imme­di­ate­ly hand in his res­ig­na­tion as a Demo­c­ra­t­ic precinct com­mit­tee offi­cer and muster the courage to explain his defec­tion to his Demo­c­ra­t­ic friends.