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.

Saturday, January 28th, 2017

LIVE from Olympia: Washington State Democrats choose officers for 2017–2018

Good after­noon from Olympia, Washington.

I’m at the Red Lion here in our state’s cap­i­tal to chron­i­cle (and par­tic­i­pate in) the bien­ni­al win­ter reor­ga­ni­za­tion meet­ing of the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, one of two of the state’s major polit­i­cal parties.

As one of one hun­dred and sev­en­ty-six mem­bers of the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee (WSDCC), it is my respon­si­bil­i­ty to help select lead­ers for the com­ing two year cycle. The par­ty has four statewide offi­cers: Chair, Vice Chair, Sec­re­tary, and Trea­sur­er, who serve twen­ty-four month terms. The elec­tion of these indi­vid­u­als is the major item of busi­ness at today’s meeting.

I will be offer­ing live updates as this por­tion of the meet­ing progresses.

UPDATE, 2:17 PM: The job of Chair, the most impor­tant of the four offi­cer posi­tions, is being con­test­ed first. The Chair serves as the par­ty’s chief exec­u­tive and its spokesper­son. Three can­di­dates have been nominated:

  • Jax­on Ravens, the incum­bent par­ty Chair, who is seek­ing reelec­tion to anoth­er full term, hav­ing held the posi­tion since 2014;
  • Tina Pod­lodows­ki, a vet­er­an busi­ness and civic leader who has been the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty’s nom­i­nee for Sec­re­tary of State last year;
  • Roger Fly­gare, an activist in the 30th Dis­trict, who has unsuc­cess­ful­ly sought to be elect­ed or appoint­ed to the Wash­ing­ton State House sev­er­al times.

We are now hear­ing from the candidates.

UPDATE, 2:36 PM: Bal­lots are now being counted.

UPDATE, 2:50 PM: We have a new Chair: Tina Pod­lodows­ki is the new chief exec­u­tive of the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty! I was very proud to be a part of Tina’s cam­paign and warm­ly con­grat­u­late her on her victory.

Results:

  • Tina received 119 votes
  • Jax­on received 53 votes
  • Roger received 2 votes

UPDATE, 2:55 PM: I was proud to nom­i­nate Joe Pakootas for Vice Chair, and he was elect­ed by accla­ma­tion, suc­ceed­ing retir­ing Vice Chair Valerie Brady Rongey.

UPDATE, 2:58 PM: Found­ing NPI board­mem­ber Rob Dolin has been reelect­ed by accla­ma­tion as Sec­re­tary of the Wash­ing­ton State Democrats.

UPDATE, 3:05 PM: Incum­bent State Par­ty Trea­sur­er Habib Habib has been reelect­ed by acclamation.

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