Today, the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate and the Wash­ing­ton State House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive each gained a new mem­ber from the 1st Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict as a result of the res­ig­na­tion of for­mer State Sen­a­tor Guy Palum­bo back in May.

In a joint meet­ing at Both­ell City Hall, the King and Sno­homish Coun­ty Coun­cils exer­cised their author­i­ty under the Con­sti­tu­tion to appoint State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Derek Stan­ford to take Palum­bo’s place in the Sen­ate. The Coun­cils then filled the vacan­cy cre­at­ed by Stan­ford’s move across the rotun­da by appoint­ing Both­ell City Coun­cilmem­ber Davina Duerr to the Wash­ing­ton State House of Representatives.

Stan­ford, first elect­ed to the House in 2010, said he’s ready to make the switch.

“I’m excit­ed to get to work in the Sen­ate, and I’m grate­ful to the 1st Dis­trict Democ­rats and to the Sno­homish and King Coun­ty coun­cils for their sup­port,” the new­ly appoint­ed Sen­a­tor said in a state­ment. “It has been an hon­or to serve the peo­ple of the 1st Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict as state rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the past nine years.”

“I’m proud to have played a part in pass­ing his­toric leg­is­la­tion dur­ing my tenure in the House, from increas­ing school fund­ing and expand­ing vot­ing rights to fight­ing cli­mate change and pro­tect­ing work­ers,” he said.

“I believe that every­one deserves an equi­table oppor­tu­ni­ty to pur­sue their dreams. Togeth­er, we can tack­le the great­est chal­lenges we face and leave our state in bet­ter shape for our chil­dren. I look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing this work in the Senate.”

Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Andy Bil­lig (D‑3rd Dis­trict) offered a warm welcome.

“It is my plea­sure to wel­come Sen­a­tor Stan­ford to our cau­cus,” said Bil­lig. “He brings with him a long, accom­plished record of serv­ing his con­stituents and a wealth of knowl­edge that will ben­e­fit the Sen­ate and our state.”

“This year, Stan­ford was the author of a major law that bans exces­sive non-com­pete agree­ments in Wash­ing­ton state, as well as leg­is­la­tion reg­u­lat­ing the cannabis indus­try and pre­vent­ing pets from being used as col­lat­er­al for loans,” not­ed Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic staff in their news release laud­ing the appointment.

Stan­ford received the unan­i­mous sup­port of all nine mem­bers of the King Coun­ty Coun­cil plus the five mem­bers of the Sno­homish Coun­ty Coun­cil for the Sen­ate vacan­cy. The oth­er two can­di­dates nom­i­nat­ed by the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty for the posi­tion were Sno­homish Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Chair Hillary Moralez and for­mer WSDCC mem­ber Lin­da Tosti-Lane. Both sup­port­ed Stanford.

Moralez was also nom­i­nat­ed for the House vacan­cy along­side Duerr and Nepali-Amer­i­can busi­ness leader Dar­shan Rau­ni­yar. After hear­ing from all three nom­i­nees, the Coun­cils chose Duerr to fill the House vacan­cy through Novem­ber of 2020.

The motion to select Duer­r’s name received the sup­port of Coun­cilmem­bers Rod Dem­bows­ki, Clau­dia Bal­duc­ci, Joe McDer­mott, Kathy Lam­bert, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Rea­gan Dunn, Ter­ry Ryan, Bri­an Sul­li­van, Sam Low, Stephanie Wright, and Nate Nehring (from King and Sno­homish coun­ties, respec­tive­ly), with Coun­cilmem­bers Lar­ry Gos­sett, Dave Upthe­grove, and Pete von Reich­bauer dissenting.

Duerr will rep­re­sent the 1st in the House along­side State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Shel­ley Klo­ba, who her­self was once a city coun­cilmem­ber pri­or to join­ing the Legislature.

The 1st Leg­isla­tive Dis­tric­t’s new del­e­ga­tion to Olympia, as of July 1st: Shelly Klo­ba, Davina Duerr, and Derek Stan­ford (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/Northwest Pro­gres­sive Institute)

An archi­tect and envi­ron­men­tal advo­cate, Duerr cur­rent­ly serves the City of Both­ell as coun­cilmem­ber and Deputy May­or (a posi­tion cho­sen from among the coun­cil). She is run­ning for reelec­tion this August/November, and is fac­ing two chal­lengers. For the time being, she plans to remain in office and con­tin­ue to cam­paign for reelec­tion despite hav­ing been appoint­ed to the State House.

The Leg­is­la­ture is cur­rent­ly not in ses­sion, but it will recon­vene in Jan­u­ary of 2020 for up to six­ty days. Leg­is­la­tors aren’t cur­rent­ly pro­hib­it­ed from hold­ing posi­tions in local gov­ern­ment in addi­tion to serv­ing at the state lev­el, but most new leg­is­la­tors com­ing from the city, coun­cil, port, or school board lev­el choose to relin­quish their pre­vi­ous posi­tions upon join­ing the House or Sen­ate to ensure they can devote their full ener­gies to leg­is­lat­ing and avoid con­flicts of interest.

As a new Demo­c­ra­t­ic mem­ber of the Wash­ing­ton State House, Duerr will be one of fifty-sev­en peo­ple who gets to decide who will serve as the next Speak­er in the wake of Frank Chop­p’s res­ig­na­tion. There are four can­di­dates seek­ing the posi­tion. All are women. They are: State Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Lau­rie Jink­ins, Mon­i­ca Jura­do Stonier, June Robin­son, and NPI’s Gael Tar­leton. The elec­tion for Speak­er-des­ig­nate will be held on July 31st in Olympia by the cau­cus. Vot­ing will be by secret ballot.

NPI con­grat­u­lates Derek Stan­ford on join­ing the Sen­ate and Davina Duerr on becom­ing a state rep­re­sen­ta­tive. We look for­ward to col­lab­o­rat­ing with both of them to advance wor­thy caus­es that will improve our region’s qual­i­ty of life.