LIVE from Seattle: 46th District Democrats draw up list of names to succeed David Frockt

Tonight, the 46th Dis­trict Democ­rats and the King Coun­ty Democ­rats are hold­ing a joint meet­ing at Olympic View Ele­men­tary in Seat­tle to draw up a list of names to suc­ceed David Frockt as State Representative

There are a hun­dred and five Demo­c­ra­t­ic precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers present, out of one hun­dred and six­teen eli­gi­ble to vote. That’s over nine­ty per­cent turnout for this meet­ing, which is a strong show­ing by the par­ty’s grass­roots base.

King Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Chair Steve Zemke has gaveled the meet­ing to order and we’re about to get start­ed with the busi­ness of nom­i­nat­ing can­di­dates. I’ll con­tin­ue pub­lish­ing updates to this post as the meet­ing progresses.

UPDATE, 8:02 PM: In typ­i­cal Demo­c­ra­t­ic fash­ion, we’ve just spent the last twen­ty min­utes dis­cussing the rules for this evening. (There were sev­er­al ques­tions and some con­fu­sion about the process spelled out by our bylaws).

But it looks like we’re final­ly mov­ing on.

UPDATE, 8:07 PM: A total of eight can­di­dates have been nom­i­nat­ed to fill the vacan­cy left by for­mer State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive (now Sen­a­tor) David Frockt. They are Tony Provine, Ger­ry Pol­let, Sara­jane Siegfrei­dt, Rene Mur­ray, Sylvester Cann, Javier Valdez, Dusty Hoer­ler, Gabe Mey­er. Each is well known in the district.

UPDATE, 8:09 PM: Tony Provine is speak­ing now. “In recent years, I’ve become increas­ing­ly involved in com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions,” he told his fel­low PCOs. “Being con­nect­ed to my com­mu­ni­ty and rep­re­sent­ing their inter­ests is impor­tant to me.” “We need to deal with [our state’s] fis­cal emer­gency by find­ing new sources of rev­enue.” He endorsed the gov­er­nor’s pro­pos­al to raise the state sales tax by half a per­cent, which will be com­ing before the Leg­is­la­ture dur­ing the spe­cial session.

UPDATE, 8:15 PM: We’re now hear­ing from Janet Miller, who is intro­duc­ing her hus­band, Ger­ry Pol­let. Pol­let ran once before for this posi­tion in 2008, when he com­pet­ed against the late Scott White. More than a dozen Pol­let sup­port­ers are lined up behind Miller behind the podi­um. Pol­let says that if cho­sen, he will hold drop-in ses­sions for con­stituents every week in the dis­trict, so they can have easy access to him as a state representative.

UPDATE, 8:22 PM: Sara­jane Siegfrei­dt, chair of the Leg­isla­tive Action Com­mit­tee, is now mak­ing her pitch to PCOs, after hav­ing been intro­duced by King Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Plat­form, Bylaws, & Res­o­lu­tions co-chair Dean Fournier. “If you send me to Olympia, I will ask the dif­fi­cult ques­tions in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus,” she told the 46th’s PCOs. She made the most of her five minute win­dow to speak, out­lin­ing how she would push for pro­gres­sive tax reform in the state­house. (She favors rein­stat­ing the motor vehi­cle excise tax, for instance, which was repealed by the Leg­is­la­ture after the courts struck down Tim Eyman’s I‑695 in 2000.)

UPDATE, 8:26 PM: Rene Mur­ray is next. “I’m a per­son who is a ratio­nal opti­mist… I think we need to approach prob­lems by mak­ing choic­es that are true invest­ments in our future,” she said. “I am a very per­sis­tent per­son. My hus­band calls me water on gran­ite,” she said to smiles and chuck­les. “I will work hard for you. I will be there to rebuild the safe­ty net,” she said.

UPDATE, 8:32 PM: It’s Sylvester Can­n’s turn. He served as the late Sen­a­tor Scott White’s aide in Olympia, and nat­u­ral­ly, he’s empha­siz­ing that expe­ri­ence in his speech. “I don’t feel that lead­er­ship means wait­ing until the time is right,” he said. “My proven expe­ri­ence in Olympia will be an asset to this dis­trict. I’m for­tu­nate to be able to step direct­ly back into the leg­isla­tive process… I will work tire­less­ly for all of the peo­ple of this dis­trict, through lis­ten­ing, lead­ing, and learn­ing by example.”

UPDATE, 8:39 PM: King Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Com­mit­tee­man Javier Valdez is up now. He was intro­duced by Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee del­e­gate David McDon­ald, one of the par­ty’s most respect­ed lead­ers, and 46th State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Phyl­lis Gutier­rez Ken­ney (whose remarks took up the major­i­ty of his speak­ing time.) Javier made the most of the minute and the half that was left when they were fin­ished, speak­ing quick­ly and author­i­ta­tive­ly. “I’ve been a leader in this par­ty for twen­ty-three years,” he declared, going to to remind the dis­trict that he served as its chair dur­ing the con­tentious con­test between Ger­ry Pol­let and Scott White in 2008, and helped unite the orga­ni­za­tion in the after­math of that election.

UPDATE, 8:44 PM: Dusty Hoer­ler is speak­ing now. “There is a piv­otal role for high­er edu­ca­tion in our soci­ety,” he said. “Tonight, before you, you have a num­ber of can­di­dates that rep­re­sent the young, new gen­er­a­tion that can lead this coun­try. I urge you… please vote for me. But if you don’t vote for me, vote for the next gen­er­a­tion of lead­er­ship in this country.”

UPDATE, 8:51 PM: And last (but not least) is Gabe Mey­er. “I’ve real­ly enjoyed myself these last cou­ple of weeks,” he said as he began. “I’ve learned a lot about the dis­trict… I’ve learned that PCOs don’t ever call you back,” he said to laugh­ter. “The mod­ern Repub­li­can is the pro­tec­tor of the rich. And in the last twen­ty years, they’ve won the bat­tle in the mes­sag­ing,” he said. “The rea­son I’m run­ning… is to fight the sta­tus quo… I want to be an ambas­sador for your values.”

UPDATE, 8:54 PM: The first round of vot­ing has begun.

UPDATE, 9:25 PM: Results of the first round of vot­ing are in, at last. (The tal­ly com­mit­tee did an excep­tion­al job count­ing and recount­ing!) The top three can­di­dates are Javier Valdez with twen­ty votes, Sylvester Cann with thir­ty-three votes, and Ger­ry Pol­let with thir­ty-sev­en votes. They will be mov­ing on to the next round. No votes were disqualified.

UPDATE, 9:40 PM: Results of the sec­ond round of vot­ing are in. Javier Valdez received nine­teen votes, Sylvester Cann received thir­ty eight votes, and Ger­ry Pol­let remains the leader, with forty-eight votes.

We are now head­ed to a runoff between Sylvester and Gerry.

UPDATE, 9:53 PM: We have a win­ner! On the third runoff bal­lot, Ger­ry Pol­let received fifty-sev­en votes (gain­ing twen­ty from the last count), and Sylvester Cann received forty-sev­en (gain­ing ten from the last count).

UPDATE, 9:58 PM: The exec­u­tive board of the King Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee has vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to adopt the results of tonight’s cau­cus. So the list of names sent to the King Coun­ty Coun­cil will con­sist of Javier Valdez (at #3), Sylvester Cann (at #2) and Ger­ry Pol­let (at #1).

The King Coun­ty Coun­cil is expect­ed to hon­or the wish­es of the 46th Dis­trict Democ­rats and the King Coun­ty Democ­rats, and select Ger­ry Pol­let (who heads the list) as the next rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the 46th District.