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.