A spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus called by Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty Chair Tina Pod­lodows­ki has drawn up a list of three indi­vid­u­als to replace recent­ly depart­ed State Sen­a­tor Kevin Ranker in the 40th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict, encom­pass­ing San Juan Coun­ty and parts of What­com and Skag­it Coun­ties. The list con­sists of:

1. Kris Lyt­ton (who recent­ly retired from the Wash­ing­ton State House)
2. Liz Lovelett (a mem­ber of the Ana­cortes City Council)
3. Trevor Smith (Busi­ness Agent for Labor­ers Local 292 and Sec­re­tary-Trea­sur­er of the North­west Wash­ing­ton Cen­tral Labor Coun­cil)

The names on the list were cho­sen by the Demo­c­ra­t­ic precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers from the 40th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict, which Ranker for­mer­ly rep­re­sent­ed.

Dur­ing the meet­ing, in addi­tion to the three indi­vid­u­als who were cho­sen to be on the list, motions were made in sup­port of Mag­gie Han­son (who declined) and What­com Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Rud Browne (deemed inel­i­gi­ble for inclu­sion on the list due to a con­flict of inter­est; he is one of the peo­ple respon­si­ble for mak­ing the ulti­mate appoint­ment to fill the vacancy.)

The Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion stip­u­lates that in the event of a leg­isla­tive vacan­cy in a dis­trict span­ning mul­ti­ple coun­ties, the state cen­tral com­mit­tee of the polit­i­cal par­ty that leg­is­la­tor is from shall draw up a list of three names of pos­si­ble suc­ces­sors. The coun­ty leg­isla­tive author­i­ties must then joint­ly pick one of those indi­vid­u­als to fill the vacan­cy. If they can­not agree on a name after six­ty days, then the gov­er­nor shall fill the vacan­cy by select­ing an indi­vid­ual from the list.

The Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee, by adopt­ed rule, del­e­gates its list-writ­ing pow­ers to what are known as spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus­es.

This pro­ce­dure allows the selec­tion of nom­i­nees to be han­dled by the precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers from that leg­isla­tive dis­trict who know it well, instead of the statu­to­ry state cen­tral com­mit­tee, which con­sists of two rep­re­sen­ta­tives from each of the thir­ty-nine coun­ties. (The full Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee, which I serve on, is a much larg­er body con­sist­ing of an addi­tion­al two rep­re­sen­ta­tives from every leg­isla­tive dis­trict plus spe­cial members.)

The statu­to­ry state com­mit­tee or its exec­u­tive com­mit­tee still has the respon­si­bil­i­ty of approv­ing the work of the spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus, but that is a mere for­mal­i­ty. The exec­u­tive com­mit­tee is slat­ed to take that vote today.

For­mer State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kris­tine Lyt­ton, D‑40th District

As the first place choice of the PCOs and an expe­ri­enced law­mak­er, for­mer State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kris Lyt­ton would appear to be a lock for the appointment.

Lyt­ton is wide­ly respect­ed in the state­house and through­out North­west Washington.

She was the Chair of the House Finance Com­mit­tee pri­or to her retire­ment, a posi­tion now held by State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive and NPI board­mem­ber Gael Tar­leton. She ought to adjust to life in the Sen­ate very quickly.

Once a suc­ces­sor to Ranker is cho­sen, the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic major­i­ty will be back to its full strength of twen­ty-eight. Democ­rats flipped three Sen­ate seats in the recent Novem­ber midterms with the vic­to­ries of Claire Wil­son over Mark Milos­cia, Emi­ly Ran­dall over Mar­ty McClen­don, and Mona Das over Joe Fain.

How­ev­er, just before the ses­sion was to begin last month, Ranker resigned.

With the first few weeks of ses­sion most­ly tak­en up by com­mit­tee work, the vacan­cy in the 40th has­n’t caused any prob­lems for the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus. The cau­cus will sure­ly be glad to have Lyt­ton on board for the remain­der of ses­sion, how­ev­er. She brings expe­ri­ence and an excel­lent under­stand­ing of fis­cal mat­ters to the table. Under Lyt­ton’s lead­er­ship, the House Finance Com­mit­tee last year vot­ed to advance leg­is­la­tion to levy a cap­i­tal gains excise tax on high earners.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to Kris Lyt­ton, Liz Lovelett, and Trevor Smith on being nom­i­nat­ed to join the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate from the 40th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict. We’ll keep you post­ed on next steps for fill­ing this impor­tant Sen­ate vacancy.