NPI's Cascadia Advocate

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

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2015

LIVE from Seattle: 36th’s Democratic PCOs choose nominees to succeed Reuven Carlyle

Tonight, the King Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee (KCDCC) is hold­ing a spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus con­sist­ing of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic PCOs in the 36th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict to draw up a list of names to suc­ceed Reuven Car­lyle as State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, in the event that he is cho­sen by the King Coun­ty Coun­cil to take the place of Jeanne Kohl-Welles in the Wash­ing­ton State Senate.

There are two hun­dred and nine­teen Demo­c­ra­t­ic PCOs eli­gi­ble to vote tonight, and most of them are here at the Swedish Club in Seat­tle, ready to dis­charge their con­sti­tu­tion­al duty. (The process of select­ing nom­i­nees to fill a leg­isla­tive vacan­cy is a process gov­erned by the Wash­ing­ton State Constitution).

One hun­dred and nine­ty-two Demo­c­ra­t­ic PCOs have been cre­den­tialed to vote tonight so far. That’s over nine­ty per­cent turnout for this meet­ing, which is a very strong show­ing by the party’s grass­roots base. This is a major decision.

King Coun­ty State Com­mit­tee­man Javier Valdez has gaveled the meet­ing to order and we’re about to get start­ed with the busi­ness of nom­i­nat­ing can­di­dates. But first, the PCOs present here tonight must decide what method they will use to draw up the list of can­di­dates (state par­ty rules pro­vide for two dif­fer­ent meth­ods). I’ll con­tin­ue pub­lish­ing updates to this post as the meet­ing progresses.

UPDATE, 7:10 PM: By a vote of thir­ty-six to one hun­dred and forty-one, the precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers have cho­sen Method #2. Under this method, there will be a sin­gle elec­tion held to choose the three names on the par­ty’s list, as opposed to three sets of elec­tions (as pro­vid­ed for in Method #1).

UPDATE, 7:12 PM: Reuven Car­lyle, David Kaplan, and Liz Camp­bell have been nom­i­nat­ed for the Sen­ate vacan­cy. David and Liz are stand­ing for the posi­tion because the par­ty must send a total of three names to the coun­ty coun­cil, but nei­ther plans to active­ly seek the appointment.

UPDATE, 7:17 PM: We have now heard accep­tance speech­es by Reuven, David, and Liz (in that order). Reuven gave a short but pow­er­ful speech thank­ing precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers for their past sup­port and pledg­ing to work hard for the dis­trict as its Sen­a­tor. David and Liz talked about their work as activists and thanked the PCOs for the hon­or of being nominated.

UPDATE, 7:34 PM: Results of the first elec­tion, for the Sen­ate vacan­cy to replace Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber-elect Jeanne Kohl-Welles, were as follows:

  • Reuven Car­lyle: 172
  • Liz Camp­bell: 9
  • David Kaplan: 4

There were two invalid ballots.

UPDATE, 7:38 PM: On to can­di­date nom­i­na­tions for the expect­ed House vacancy!

  • Joseph Peha nom­i­nat­ed Jeff Manson.
  • Tina Pod­lows­ki nom­i­nat­ed Noel Frame.
  • Nicole Gomez nom­i­nat­ed John Burbank.
  • Sum­mer Stin­son nom­i­nat­ed Sarah Reyneveld.
  • Howard Fox nom­i­nat­ed Rene Murry.

We are now mov­ing to can­di­date speeches.

UPDATE, 8 PM: We have fin­ished with the can­di­date speeches.

UPDATE, 8:24 PM: Results of the sec­ond elec­tion, for the House vacan­cy to suc­ceed Reuven Car­lyle in the event he is appoint­ed to the Sen­ate, were as follows:

  • Noel Frame: 55
  • Jeff Man­son: 48
  • Sarah Reyn­eveld: 44
  • John Bur­bank: 31
  • Rene Mur­ry: 14

The top three vote-get­ters (Noel, Jeff, and Sarah) will move on to the next round.

UPDATE, 8:45 PM: Results of the sec­ond round of the sec­ond elec­tion, for the House vacan­cy, were as follows:

  • Noel Frame: 71
  • Jeff Man­son: 64
  • Sarah Reyn­eveld: 54

Sarah Reyn­eveld came in third place, so she will appear third on the list. We now move to one last runoff between Jeff and Noel.

UPDATE, 9:00 PM: Results of the third round of the sec­ond elec­tion, for the House vacan­cy, were as follows:

  • Noel Frame: 99 votes
  • Jeff Man­son: 91 votes

Jeff came in sec­ond place, so he will appear sec­ond on the list. Noel is the win­ner of the runoff and will be ranked first.

UPDATE, 9:03 PM: Noel Frame just gave a short and mov­ing vic­to­ry speech.

UPDATE, 9:04 PM: Javier Valdez has adjourned the spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing caucus.

UPDATE, 9:10 PM: King Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Chair Rich Erwin has called to order a spe­cial meet­ing of the King Coun­ty Democ­rats exec­u­tive board. In a mat­ter of sec­onds, the thir­ty-one assem­bled mem­bers of the board rat­i­fied the two lists (Reuven Car­lyle, Liz Camp­bell, David Kaplan; Noel Frame, Jeff Man­son, Sarah Reyn­eveld) and prompt­ly adjourned moments later.

POSTSCRIPT: Noel tells NPI she hopes her vic­to­ry will inspire oth­ers to learn from their defeats, pick them­selves back up, and give it anoth­er shot. “Let this be a strong mes­sage to pro­gres­sive can­di­dates across the state: If you run for office and you lose, run again! Our state needs you!” she said.

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