Last week, when Rod­ney Tom announced his deci­sion to retire from the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate, we observed that Tom’s depar­ture would like­ly result in a major shake­up in the race, with either State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ross Hunter or Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cyrus Habib get­ting in, and cur­rent sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date Joan McBride swap­ping places with one of them. As I wrote at the time:

In retir­ing, Tom has dealt the Repub­li­can Par­ty a major blow and bol­stered Democ­rats’ hopes of retak­ing the state Sen­ate. The 48th LD is per­haps the most Demo­c­ra­t­ic of the state’s sub­ur­ban leg­isla­tive dis­tricts. And since the redis­trict­ing of 2011, it has become bluer still, vot­ing almost exclu­sive­ly for Democrats.

In 2012, this became very evi­dent when Ross Hunter and Cyrus Habib won their state House races by dou­ble-dig­it spreads. Habib, a first time can­di­date, dis­patched Repub­li­can Hank Myers – a Red­mond City Coun­cilmem­ber! – with aston­ish­ing ease. His mas­sive blowout vic­to­ry shows that the 48th is now a solid­ly Demo­c­ra­t­ic district.

With Tom gone, the way is now clear for either Hunter or Habib to run. One of them like­ly will declare for state Sen­ate, and Joan McBride will then be well posi­tioned to run for whichev­er House seat then opens up. The Wash­ing­ton Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cam­paign (WSDC) would undoubt­ed­ly pre­fer to have a proven win­ner as its can­di­date, so it can direct mon­ey and resources into oth­er districts.

Turns out that is exact­ly what’s hap­pen­ing.

This morn­ing, in a pair of press releas­es, Habib and McBride offi­cial­ly announced their new plans for 2014. Habib is run­ning for Sen­ate and endors­ing McBride for his House seat. McBride is now seek­ing Habib’s posi­tion in the House, with the addi­tion­al bless­ing of the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cau­cus. They’re switch­ing places.

“I am proud to rep­re­sent a dis­trict that leads the coun­try in inno­va­tion and inven­tion,” Habib said in a state­ment. “It is crit­i­cal that we make the need­ed invest­ments in human and phys­i­cal cap­i­tal to secure our con­tin­ued pros­per­i­ty and com­pet­i­tive­ness. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the Repub­li­can lead­ers in the State Sen­ate have punt­ed on the most press­ing issues of the day: edu­ca­tion fund­ing, trans­porta­tion invest­ments, and job growth. I am run­ning to bring both my leg­isla­tive expe­ri­ence and our dis­tric­t’s social­ly pro­gres­sive yet pro eco­nom­ic growth val­ues to the State Sen­ate, where I know I can make an even greater difference.”

“I am excit­ed to work with Joan as a col­league who shares my pas­sion for strong com­mu­ni­ties, good schools and a trans­porta­tion sys­tem that works,” he added. “I appre­ci­ate the oppor­tu­ni­ty to join–and improve the effec­tive­ness — of the State Sen­ate, and look for­ward to the cam­paign ahead.”

McBride, for her part, said she’s ready to join the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus and announced sup­port from sev­er­al East­side lead­ers for her new campaign.

“I orig­i­nal­ly ran for two rea­sons: to defeat Rod­ney Tom and bring my per­spec­tive and expe­ri­ence as a long­time East­side Civic leader to Olympia and con­tin­ue my record of ser­vice,” said McBride. “With Tom out, my pri­or­i­ty is to do what’s need­ed to make a dif­fer­ence on issues that mat­ter — fix­ing trans­porta­tion and tran­sit, invest­ing in our schools and fam­i­lies, and pro­tect­ing our envi­ron­ment.  I think I can make the most imme­di­ate impact as part of a dynam­ic team in the state House.”

“I’m proud of the pres­sure we put on Tom, and will con­tin­ue cam­paign­ing with the same excite­ment and focus for the House,” she said.  “For me, it’s always been about serv­ing the peo­ple in the best way I know how, not the par­tic­u­lar office.”

“I’m excit­ed for Joan to join our cau­cus and efforts to com­plete 520, fund our schools and pro­tect the char­ac­ter and qual­i­ty of our east­side com­mu­ni­ties,” said senior Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lar­ry Springer, who has rep­re­sent­ed the neigh­bor­ing 45th LD since 2005. “She is a strong, prin­ci­pled voice for our region and will make an imme­di­ate, pos­i­tive impact in the House.”

McBride is also run­ning for House with the sup­port of Ross Hunter, Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine, and the may­ors of Red­mond, Kirk­land, and Belle­vue (John Mar­chione, Amy Walen, and Clau­dia Balducci).

“I know I speak for many when I say that I am thrilled Joan is going to cam­paign for the House, and we will see her in action next year in Olympia — where we des­per­ate­ly need her pas­sion and com­mit­ment to our fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties,” said Bal­duc­ci, who has been on the Belle­vue City Coun­cil for many years. (Belle­vue has a coun­cil-man­ag­er form of gov­ern­ment, as does Kirkland).

So, that’s that. The musi­cal chairs have stopped for the time being: Cyrus Habib is now the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty’s can­di­date for Sen­ate in the 48th, and Joan McBride is the can­di­date for the House seat he is vacat­ing. Habib is a proven win­ner and well liked in his dis­trict; he will be favored to win in Novem­ber against who­ev­er the Repub­li­cans send up against him. McBride will be very well posi­tioned to win as well, since the Repub­li­cans had­n’t found any­one cred­i­ble to chal­lenge Habib.

What a dif­fer­ence a week makes. The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty is now in excel­lent shape in the 48th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict, and poised for a sweep of leg­isla­tive races there this fall. That will free up resources to go to races in the 45th and 28th.

I know from talk­ing to activists in the 48th that Cyrus Habib was always at the top of the list of who they want­ed to see take on Rod­ney Tom. He is uni­ver­sal­ly admired and respect­ed with­in the 48th Dis­trict Democ­rats. Thanks to Rod­ney Tom’s deci­sion to retire — the best thing he ever did for his dis­trict — the 48th Dis­trict Democ­rats are get­ting the Sen­ate can­di­date many of them always wanted.

Joan McBride, mean­while, is step­ping into a race that she has an even bet­ter chance of win­ning. As a new mem­ber of the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus from the East­side, she will have plen­ty of influ­ence in the cau­cus room, and she will have quite a few col­leagues that she can count on for advice and coun­sel, includ­ing Lar­ry Springer, Ross Hunter, Roger Good­man, Judy Clib­born, and Tana Senn.