Good afternoon from Tacoma. Today is the third day of the 2016 Washington State Democratic Convention, the last event in the state party’s caucus and convention cycle for this year. Committee meetings and constituency caucuses were held on Friday along with the gala banquet; the general session was held yesterday along with the state leaders breakfast, and today, the legislative members of the Washington State Democratic Central Committee are completing the state’s national delegation by selecting the PLEO and at-large delegates.
The acronym PLEO stands for Party Leader and Elected Official. Individuals who serve in party leadership roles or are Democrats who hold elected positions of public responsibility (like mayors, state legislators, or tribal councilmembers) are eligible to run for PLEO delegate positions and be elected.
Washington State has a total of twelve PLEO positions this year. Based on the outcome of the May 21st congressional district caucuses (and the April 17th/May 1st legislative and March 26th precinct caucuses before that) nine of those positions go to Bernie Sanders, while three go to Hillary Clinton.
The ballot lists were supplied by the campaigns (who have, under party rules, a right of review) and the final selections were made by the legislative members Washington State Democratic Central Committee (of which I am a member).
Here a complete list of the winners, sorted by vote totals.
PLEOs for Hillary Clinton
- King County Executive Dow Constantine
- State Representative Laurie Jinkins (D‑27th District)
- King County Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles (4th District)
PLEOs for Bernie Sanders
- State Senator Bob Hasegawa (D‑11th District)
- State Representative Noel Frame (D‑36th District)
- Yakima County Democratic Chair Susan Palmer
- Dean McGrath, President of ILWU Local 23
- Thurston County Democratic Chair Katrin Nelson
- Nicole Willis, Native American Policy Adviser to Bernie Sanders
- Patsy Whitefoot, WSDCC (Committeemember for 14th LD)
- Sequim Precinct Committee Officer Andrew Shogren
- Nickolaus Lewis, Lummi Indian Business Council Member
Congratulations to the above twelve newly chosen members of Washington State’s Democratic National Convention delegation.
WSDCC legislative members must now choose the at-large delegates for Clinton and Sanders. Once these selections are made, the delegation will be complete.
One Comment
As someone who attended, I think the big story was the disenfranchised finding their voice. The wide open Bernie slate, which was about 3⁄4 of the delegates were almost all first timers.