Reuven Carlyle announces he will seek appointment to State Senate in 36th District

State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive and House Finance Com­mit­tee Chair Reuven Car­lyle announced today in a Face­book post­ing that he will be a can­di­date to suc­ceed Jeanne Kohl-Welles as State Sen­a­tor from the 36th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict lat­er this year if Kohl-Welles is suc­cess­ful in win­ning elec­tion to Lar­ry Phillips’ coun­ty coun­cil seat.

“As we move clos­er to the gen­er­al elec­tion, it is increas­ing­ly like­ly the wise vot­ers will send my gra­cious, inde­fati­ga­ble seat mate Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles to serve on the King Coun­ty Coun­cil,” Car­lyle not­ed. (Kohl-Welles only has one oppo­nent, who she is expect­ed to trounce in November).

“This would leave a vacan­cy for Sen. Kohl-Welles’ Sen­ate seat pri­or to the 2016 ses­sion. I’ve reflect­ed on the options and decid­ed that change, on a per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al lev­el, can be healthy and con­struc­tive. After sev­en years in the House, I plan to seek appoint­ment to the prob­a­ble Sen­ate vacancy.”

“If you are a PCO in the 36th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict, I will reach out direct­ly at the appro­pri­ate time to respect­ful­ly ask for the hon­or of your sup­port. There are no less than six high­ly qual­i­fied, pas­sion­ate, engaged com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers in our dis­trict who have expressed a for­mal inter­est in being appoint­ed to my seat in the House. Serv­ing as a cit­i­zen leg­is­la­tor and rep­re­sent­ing the good peo­ple of our dis­trict and state is a pro­found­ly mov­ing hon­or. Thank you!”

Car­lyle’s announce­ment imme­di­ate­ly drew accolades.

“I wish to offer my seat­mate, State Rep. Reuven Car­lyle, a pub­lic and pro­found thanks for all your work on behalf of the peo­ple of the 36th Dis­trict and Wash­ing­ton State as our Rep­re­sen­ta­tive,” said Car­lyle’s seat­mate Gael Tar­leton, who serves as Vice Pres­i­dent-Sec­re­tary of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Institute.

“Your devo­tion to fos­ter chil­dren, pub­lic edu­ca­tion, fair and trans­par­ent tax policy,and treat­ment for those suf­fer­ing from men­tal ill­ness­es has changed our com­mu­ni­ties for the bet­ter. Thank you for being will­ing to keep up the fight for all of us by seek­ing the appoint­ment to the State Sen­ate in the very like­ly event that the vot­ers choose the thought­ful, unstop­pable Sen­a­tor Jeanne Kohl-Welles to be our voice on the King Coun­ty Coun­cil this November.”

“I am so hon­ored to rep­re­sent the 36th Dis­trict in the State House and will look for­ward to serv­ing in the House with whomev­er is appoint­ed as representative.”

Six can­di­dates have emerged as pos­si­ble replace­ments for Car­lyle, who, as men­tioned, will be vacat­ing his House seat to move over to the Senate.

They are:

• Eco­nom­ic Oppor­tu­ni­ty Insti­tute exec­u­tive direc­tor John Bur­bank, who ran for the seat Car­lyle now holds in 2008 and lost;
• For­mer Pro­gres­sive Major­i­ty Wash­ing­ton exec­u­tive direc­tor Noel Frame, who ran for state House in 2012 and lost to Gael Tarleton;
• Attor­ney and NO on I‑1366 offi­cer Randy Gor­don, who suc­ceed­ed Fred Jar­rett in 2010 fol­low­ing Fred’s appoint­ment as Deputy King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive, but was unsuc­cess­ful in his fall cam­paign to hold the seat;
• Admin­is­tra­tive law judge Jeff Man­son, who has served for sev­er­al years as the chair of the 36th Dis­trict Democrats;
• Activist Rene Mur­ry, the chair of the Chil­dren’s Cam­paign Fund and own­er of Piece by Piece, a firm that helps peo­ple relocate;
• Assis­tant Attor­ney Gen­er­al Sarah Reyn­eveld, who has worked for the Attor­ney Gen­er­al’s office since 2012, and pre­vi­ous­ly as a law clerk.

As the 36th is whol­ly with­in the bound­aries of King Coun­ty, the King Coun­ty Coun­cil has the pre­rog­a­tive to make appoint­ments to fill any vacan­cies in its leg­isla­tive posi­tions. This means that Kohl-Welles will have a say in who suc­ceeds her, as well as who suc­ceeds Reuven Car­lyle in the state House.

In each case, the Coun­cil will be select­ing from a list of three names drawn up by the King Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee (KCDCC).

Although the Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion gives the respon­si­bil­i­ty of draw­ing up the list of names to the cen­tral com­mit­tee, in prac­tice, it will be actu­al­ly done by a sub­set of the KCDCC, because state par­ty rules require that the whole KCDCC defer to those of its mem­bers who actu­al­ly live in the district.

A nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus will there­fore be called at the appro­pri­ate time by King Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Chair Rich Erwin. At the present time, there are two hun­dred and five Demo­c­ra­t­ic PCOs who are eli­gi­ble to par­tic­i­pate in that cau­cus. Addi­tion­al PCOs may be appoint­ed by the time the cau­cus is called. Only elect­ed and appoint­ed PCOs will have a vote; “act­ing” PCOs who have adopt­ed a precinct will not have a vote.

Car­lyle is a slam dunk for the Sen­ate vacan­cy. The 36th’s PCOs will need to choose two indi­vid­u­als to appear on the list along with him, but they will most like­ly be peo­ple who have no inten­tion of serv­ing in the Legislature.

The real con­test will be for Car­lyle’s seat. The can­di­date who receives the most votes from the PCOs will be list­ed at the top of the list of three and will be a heavy favorite to get the appoint­ment. How­ev­er, the list must include mul­ti­ple names, so three can­di­dates will make it onto the final list to be pre­sent­ed to the Council.

The 36th is one of the most Demo­c­ra­t­ic dis­tricts in the state, so who­ev­er gets appoint­ed will in all like­li­hood become a safe incumbent.

Cam­paign­ing for an appoint­ment is not as resource inten­sive as run­ning for office, so it would­n’t sur­prise me if we see addi­tion­al con­tenders beyond the six indi­vid­u­als men­tioned above step for­ward and throw their hats into the ring.