Liz Lovelett chosen to succeed Kevin Ranker as Senator for Washington’s 40th District

Ana­cortes City Coun­cilmem­ber Liz Lovelett became the newest mem­ber of the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate today when she was cho­sen by the Whatom Coun­ty Coun­cil, San Juan Coun­ty Com­mis­sion, and Skag­it Coun­ty Com­mis­sion to fill the vacan­cy cre­at­ed by the res­ig­na­tion of for­mer Sen­a­tor Kevin Ranker.

“Liz Lovelett will be a great addi­tion to our team,” Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Andy Bil­lig said in a state­ment. “She brings a lot of local gov­ern­ment expe­ri­ence and a pas­sion for pub­lic ser­vice. I am very excit­ed to wel­come her to the Senate.”

Liz Lovelett has served the peo­ple of Ana­cortes as one of their rep­re­sen­ta­tives since 2014. Her cur­rent term of ser­vice ends Decem­ber 31st, 2021.

“A fifth-gen­er­a­tion Fidal­go Island res­i­dent, Lovelett has a track record of ser­vice to her com­mu­ni­ty,” the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus said in a news release. “She has worked on water man­age­ment and local water rights, school bond and oil train safe­ty, and haz­ardous mate­r­i­al trans­port. On the city coun­cil she has cham­pi­oned afford­able hous­ing, water man­age­ment, and oth­er com­mu­ni­ty improve­ments. She was the pri­ma­ry author of Ana­cortes’ afford­able hous­ing strate­gic plan.”

Lovelett was one of three indi­vid­u­als nom­i­nat­ed by the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty to suc­ceed Ranker. The oth­er nom­i­nees were for­mer State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kris Lyt­ton and Trevor Smith of the Laborers.

Lyt­ton was the par­ty’s first ranked nom­i­nee, but the State Con­sti­tu­tion gives the coun­ty leg­isla­tive author­i­ties the actu­al appoint­ing pow­er, and they can choose from among any of the names on the list sub­mit­ted by the party.

After inter­view­ing Lyt­ton, Lovelett, and Smith, the eleven coun­ty lead­ers present (with two more on the phone) dis­cussed their options.

Com­mis­sion­er Ken Dahlst­edt of Skag­it Coun­ty moved to appoint Lovelett. Fel­low Skag­it Com­mis­sion­er Ron Wesen sec­ond­ed the motion.

Most of the What­com Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­bers vot­ed against the motion, with two abstain­ing. All three of the San Juan Coun­ty Com­mis­sion­ers vot­ed in favor of Lovelett, as did two of the three Skag­it Coun­ty Commissioners.

Lovelett, thir­ty-nine, empha­sized her work on issues like water use and end­ing home­less­ness dur­ing her inter­view at the joint meeting.

She cit­ed equi­ty as one of her core prin­ci­ples and explained that she would be a strong sup­port­er of caus­es like envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice and LGBT rights.

And she argued that the Leg­is­la­ture could ben­e­fit from hav­ing a new leg­is­la­tor with deep famil­iar­i­ty of issues fac­ing local governments.

“One of the things that I bring [to the table] is munic­i­pal gov­ern­ment expe­ri­ence,” she said. “I think that that view­point is crit­i­cal to have in Olympia as we fig­ure out how to deal with these unfund­ed man­dates that come from the State Legislature.”

This state­ment was well received by the assem­bled coun­ty leaders.

Dur­ing the Q&A por­tion of the inter­view, Lovelett was asked if she plans to run in the com­ing spe­cial elec­tion in August and Novem­ber of 2019. She con­firmed that if she is appoint­ed, she would seek to be retained in the posi­tion by the voters.

Lovelett will serve as Sen­a­tor for the 40th until at least the end of Novem­ber 2019.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to her and best wish­es as she assumes her new responsibilities!