Top Two Primary

First it was the 36th and 10th Legislative Districts. Now, a county in Eastern Washington has added themselves to the list of Democratic jurisdictions refusing to follow state party rules of nominating candidates. Hillary Hamm at the Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports that Whitman County Democrats have decided not to nominate candidates by way of a Precinct Committee Officer vote.

"It's not a democratic process," said Whitman County state committeeman Nathan Horter, who sponsored the resolution to buck the rules. "We don't think someone who sits in an office on the west side should make decisions for people in Whitman County."

SEATTLE -

Politicker PhotoTen hours after the meeting ended, the 46th District Democrats still do not have a clear nominee for State Representative in position 1.

At the end of a long Legislative District meeting that saw a passionate exchange of ideas, and nearly a last minute change of procedure to take the nomination power away from the Precinct Committee Officers, Gerry Pollet was announced the winner of the PCO vote just before 10PM.

However, the apparent victory would only last a few hours. Early the next morning, White contacted PolitickerWA.com with news that a third recount had been completed showing White ahead of Pollet 334-329, but the vailidity of the recount remains in question.

UPDATE: The 46th LD Chair confirms that no official recount has taken place. That news suggests that Pollet is, in fact, the nominee. More to come.

Now that we have the same top-two primary system that put Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in the gubernatorial race in Louisiana, the King County Council is hoping to impose the same "clean elections" system that allowed a candidate to fake signatures and go on a spending spree in Portland. Democracy is alive and well.

In response to the news that some Legislative Districts have decided not to hold candidate nominating sessions as state Democratic Party rules stipulate by the vote of Precinct Committee Officers (PCOs), first reported here at PolitickerWA.com, State Party Chair Dwight Pelz has urged party leaders not to waver any further. The Times' Postman has details.

Pelz wrote an e-mail over the weekend to party leaders reminding them of the tough hand they were dealt by the Supreme Court decision upholding the "Top Two" primary, and urged them to follow the lead of some of the LDs and counties who have made nomination endorsements already.

As Legislative Districts around the state move to nominate candidates for local offices before their party conventions, many are running into a fresh problem. With the recent decision by the United States Supreme Court to uphold Initiative 872, better known as the "Top Two" Primary, the party nomination process has been turned on its ear, leading some local LDs to openly buck state party rules.

No longer is it up to party voters to decide who their candidate is in races like those for State Representative since the "Top Two" primary ballots do not allow for partisan sections and labels. Still, that ruling does not mean the Parties will just sit idly by and allow their candidates to be chosen for them.

Instead, they have been forced to come up with new nomination processes. Now, at least in the Democratic Party, is up to a small cadre of party activists at the LD level made of up Precinct Committee Officers (PCOs) who have been both elected and appointed to those pots.

But not all party officials have come on board. In the last week and a half, two Legislative Districts' Executive Boards have voted to eschew the party rules and are choosing not to officially nominate any candidates at the State Representative level.

Thurston County will get an early look at the hurt feelings and potential lawsuit claimants that may come from the early Democratic Party nomination process and the "Top Two" primary tonight. It is the Thurston County Democrats' monthly meeting, and the local PCOs will have to do their duty of selecting who will be the official Party nominee since the primary has no bearing on partisan politics.

The Olympian's Brad Shannon has the story on his politics blog, where he reports that the Thurston County Commissioner's race between former Lacey City Councilman Jon Halvorson and ex-state Representative Sandra Romero of Olympia could come down to just a couple of votes.

Neither will be able to claim that they are the official nominee on the "Top Two" ballot, but in the event that the party's chosen nominee comes in third this summer, the Democrats will almost certainly be angry.

UPDATED: Halvorson edges out Romero, 77-63.

Darcy Burner's impressive fundraising may have deterred State Rep. Rodney Tom from running, and Rep. Dave Reichert's incumbent status is keeping out the Republican challengers, but neither barrier is daunting enough to keep two new candidates from coming forward to join the race for Congress in the 8th District.

C. Mark GreeneRunning under the banner of the Party of Commons is C. Mark Greene, a veteran of the USMC and of three past Congressional campaigns, and the self-styled "fighting Democrat" from Orting, James Vaughn, has decided to put his hat in the ring, as well.

Attorneys for the state Republican and Democratic Parties are expectedly unhappy with the Secretary of State's guidelines for this summer's "Top Two" primary ballots. The Everett Herald's Jerry Cornfield has obtained letters from party lawyers to the Secretary of State spelling out some of their gripes. They both say the rules are hasty and as such carry with them a risk of election problems.

Washington's "Top Two" primary, the result of Initiative 872 and its recent Supreme Court victory, continues to take shape with the release of the ballot rules by Secretary of State Sam Reed.

State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz reacts to Sam Reed's release on the "Top Two" primary ballot by, of all things, sticking up for other parties.

Here is the statement, via Cornfield.  read more »