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.