NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Wednesday, September 16th, 2015

LIVE from Clyde Hill: Special Democratic nominating caucus underway in 48th District

Good evening from Clyde Hill Ele­men­tary in the heart of the 48th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict (Belle­vue, Kirk­land, Red­mond, Clyde Hill, Med­i­na, Hunts Point, Yarrow Point). Tonight, the Demo­c­ra­t­ic precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers of the 48th have assem­bled to draw up a list of can­di­dates to suc­ceed Ross Hunter in the Wash­ing­ton State House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, who recent­ly stepped down from his posi­tion in the Leg­is­la­ture to helm the state’s Depart­ment of Ear­ly Learning.

Due to Hunter’s depar­ture, a vacan­cy now exists for state rep­re­sen­ta­tive in the 48th. The Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion stip­u­lates that the process for fill­ing a Demo­c­ra­t­ic leg­isla­tive vacan­cy begins with the nam­ing of three can­di­dates from the same dis­trict and of the same par­ty by the King Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee (KCDCC), because the 48th falls entire­ly with­in King Coun­ty’s borders.

The WSDCC, of which I am a mem­ber, spec­i­fies in its bylaws that when a vacan­cy is declared, the coun­ty par­ty chair shall call a spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus of precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers from that dis­trict for the pur­pose of draw­ing up a list of three names for the KCDCC to rat­i­fy. That’s what’s hap­pen­ing tonight. I will be updat­ing this post at peri­od­ic inter­vals to sum­ma­rize the pro­ceed­ings that are tak­ing place.

7:07 PM: The meet­ing has been called to order by KCDCC State Com­mit­tee­man Javier Valdez, who is fill­ing in for KCDCC Chair Rich Erwin. Javier has wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing and is turn­ing the micro­phone over to DNC Com­mit­tee­man and par­lia­men­tar­i­an David McDon­ald to explain the rules.

7:20 PM: After hear­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion from David, the cau­cus has just decid­ed what method of vot­ing to use in draw­ing up the list of three names. The state par­ty offered two dif­fer­ent vot­ing meth­ods. The cau­cus opt­ed to use the first pro­posed method of vot­ing, which will con­sist of a set of three elec­tions… one for the first spot on the list, anoth­er for the sec­ond spot on the list, and still anoth­er for the third spot. PCOs may only vote for one can­di­date on each ballot.

7:25 PM: On to can­di­date nominations.

  • Becky Lewis nom­i­nat­ed Patri­cia (Pat­ty) Kudererer
  • Doug Dichar­ry nom­i­nat­ed Kim Allen
  • Sue Boone nom­i­nat­ed San­ti­a­go Ramos
  • Karen Ten­nyson nom­i­nat­ed Nick Pernisco

Act­ing Chair Javier Valdez has closed nominations.

7:50 PM: The speech­es have con­clud­ed. All thir­ty-nine precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers are present (which means we have turnout of one hun­dred per­cent!). The first bal­lots have been cast and are now being count­ed. We are in recess.

7:57 PM: Here are the results from the first round of voting:

  • Pat­ty Kud­er­er: 25 votes
  • Kim Allen: 8 votes
  • San­ti­a­go: 6 votes
  • Nick Pernisco: 0 votes

We don’t need a sec­ond bal­lot because Pat­ty Kud­er­er received an out­right majority.

On to the next round of vot­ing, for the sec­ond-ranked spot.

8:04 PM: Results from the sec­ond round of vot­ing are as follows:

  • Kim Allen: 20 votes
  • San­ti­a­go Ramos: 14 votes
  • Nick Pernisco: 5 votes

Kim received an out­right major­i­ty, so she will be list­ed sec­ond on the list.

On to the final vot­ing of vot­ing, for the third-ranked spot.

8:14 PM: Results from the third round of vot­ing are as follows:

  • San­ti­a­go Ramos: 32 votes
  • Nick Pernisco: 6 votes

San­ti­a­go received an out­right major­i­ty, so he will be list­ed third on the list.

And with that, we’re done with the spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing caucus!

8:16 PM: Javier Valdez just called to order a spe­cial meet­ing of the King Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee (KCDCC) exec­u­tive board. A quo­rum was present. The only item of busi­ness was the rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the results of the spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus. This was unan­i­mous­ly agreed to, and the meet­ing was sub­se­quent­ly adjourned. The names of Pat­ty Kud­er­er, Kim Allen, and San­ti­a­go Ramos will be trans­mit­ted for the King Coun­ty Coun­cil for consideration.

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One Ping

  1. […] The Coun­cil vot­ed to appoint Kud­er­er after inter­view­ing her and the oth­er two nom­i­nees select­ed by the Demo­c­ra­t­ic PCOs resid­ing in the 48th Dis­trict, Kim Allen and San­ti­a­go Ramos. Allen, the sec­ond choice, had pre­vi­ous­ly made clear that she wished for the Coun­cil to respect the first choice of the PCOs and appoint Kud­er­er, who won an out­right major­i­ty on the very first round of vot­ing on Sep­tem­ber 16th. […]

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