King County Council appoints Reuven Carlyle to State Senate, Noel Frame to State House

This after­noon, in its first meet­ing of 2016, the Met­ro­pol­i­tan King Coun­ty Coun­cil act­ed to fill two vacan­cies in the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture, both result­ing from Jeanne Kohl-Welles’ move from the Sen­ate to the King Coun­ty Council.

By a vote of nine to zero, the Coun­cil first appoint­ed State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Reuven Car­lyle (D‑36th Dis­trict: Bal­lard, Green­wood, Queen Anne) to take Kohl-Welles’ place in the Sen­ate, and then unan­i­mous­ly appoint­ed Noel Frame to take the place of Car­lyle in the Wash­ing­ton State House of Representatives.

Car­lyle and Frame were among three nom­i­nees put for­ward by the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty to fill each vacan­cy. Each was the respec­tive top choice of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic PCOs in the 36th, and they were expect­ed to be cho­sen by the Council.

Car­lyle and Frame were invit­ed to give remarks and then sworn in to their new posi­tions imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing the votes. Each will need to report for work in Olympia with­in a hun­dred hours. As required by the Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion, the 2016 leg­isla­tive ses­sion is sched­uled to begin this com­ing Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 11th. It will be a short ses­sion, last­ing up to six­ty days in duration.

It is com­mon for vacan­cies in the Sen­ate to be filled by mem­bers of the House from the same dis­trict. It’s hap­pened many, many times over the years.

Sharon Nel­son, David Frockt, Cyrus Habib, Mar­a­lyn Chase, Bob Hasegawa, and Dean Takko are among the mem­bers of the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus who used to serve in the House, but moved to the Sen­ate when a posi­tion came open. When such tran­si­tions occur, they open up posi­tions in the House for aspir­ing new leaders.

We at NPI extend our con­grat­u­la­tions to Reuven Car­lyle and Noel Frame on their new roles (and to Noel, wel­come to pub­lic ser­vice!) We’re con­fi­dent they will do their best to facil­i­tate a more robust dis­cus­sion about the need for struc­tur­al tax reform and full com­pli­ance with the Supreme Court’s McCleary orders.