Jaxon Ravens, Tina Podlodowski Appear In Snoqualmie

Washington State Committee Chair Jaxon Ravens and his opponent Tina Podlodowski spoke at the 5th District Democrats executive board meeting yesterday at the Snoqualmie Public Library.  Ravens has been under fire for what many considered a poor Democratic showing in this election cycle. 
Ravens said that lack of leadership in the Democratic National Committee was partly to blame although the party was able to keep it ground.  Podlodowski said that state Democrats had been steadily losing ground since 2010. 
The Washington State Central Committee will pick one of these two candidates at it's reorganization meeting on January 28th in Olympia.

Tina Podlodowski Seeking Top State Democratic Post

Tina Podlodowski, a former Seattle City Councilwoman who ran for Secretary Of State this year, has announced she is running for chair of the Washington State Democrats.
  Designated as the Democrat's candidate of the year, she fared poorly in the general election against incumbent Kim Wyman.  She reportedly was angered at what she felt was lack of support from the state party organization.
Podlodowski is a former Microsoft manager. Her platform is to reorganize the party at the grassroots level.  She will be challenging incumbent State Party Chair Jaxon Ravens, who has come under fire for a disappointing Democratic showing in this year's general election. 
The election for chair will be at the state party reorganization meeting in January.

Looking At The Hills From The Yakima Convention Center

 

Democrats from throughout the state met in Yakima last weekend for the last state committee meeting of the year. It was the final one for me, at least for a while as I am not going to run for another term.   I snapped this picture from the convention center of the surrounding hills.

Walla Walla Democrat Elected To DNC

Nancy Monacelli, from Conservative leaning Walla Walla, has be chosen by her peers to help represent the State Of Washington on the Democratic National Committee. Monacelli had earlier won a Maggie Award for being State Committee Woman Of The Year.  Monacelli takes the place of Lona Wilbur, who had chosen not to run in this cycle.  3 remaining DNC reps were reelected to their positions.  They were Sharon Mast, Dave McDonald, and Ed Cote.   The meeting was held at the Convention Center in Lynnwood.

State Democratic Central Committee Meets In Wenatchee

The Washington State Democratic Central Committee met in Wenatchee this past weekend.  The area was recovering after a summer of near by wildfires.    Top picture was takenat  from the Coast Hotel sky bridge which leads to the Convention Center.  
The Yakima County Democrats raffled off a piñata of Donald Trump (center), unlike the real guy, this one had sweets inside.
Washington Commissioner Of Public Lands Peter Goldmark (bottom picture) addressed the issues of protecting the states from wildfires.  Goldmark is also a volunteer fireman.
The Maggie Dinner, the annual state Democratic fundraiser honoring the late Senator Warren Magnuson was held later in the evening.

Jaxon Ravens Will Lead Washington Dems

State Democratic Executive Director Jaxon Ravens will now be Chair of the Washington State Democrats. Dana Laurent, a successful fundraiser for Democratic causes was runner up.  Ravens was chosen by the Democratic State Committee, which consists of a combinations of two representatives, from each county in the state as well as 2 reps from each of the state's legislative districts.  The committee meets quarterly at different venues throughout the state, this time it was at the Hilton in Vancouver.
Ravens had a commanding lead after the first ballot, but with 3 other contenders, failed to amass a majority.  Bottom two candidates Jay Clough, an Eastern Washington former congressional candidate and Jim Kainber, a former party executive director, were dropped and a second ballot was taken. 
The excitement of the Seattle Seahawks advancing to the Super Bowl was not lost on the group as committee members were clad in blue and green, and many answer the role call with "Go Hawks!"

Washington State Democrats Meet In Lake Chelan

Deb and I went to Lake Chelan this weekend so I could attend the Washington State Democratic Central Committee meeting.  While many may associate politics with "hot air", it could not compete with the 50 mile per hour wind gusts that blew through on Saturday.  On a serious note, State Democratic Chair led the delegation in a moment of silence to honor late state committewoman Barb Gellar, Seattle political consultant Blair  Butterworth, and former Governor Booth Gardiner.  Pictured above, Todd Nichols leads the Rules Committee meeting. 
  Although the meetings were held at the Campbell Resort, we stayed at the nearby Lakeside Lodge.  The Lakeside is by a beautiful park (pictured below).  We also visited the Mill Bay Casino, the Tsillan Wine Cellars and finished by driving up to Wenatchee for the Apple Blossom Festival.  After leaving the festival, we went to Walla Walla Point Park by the Wenatchee River to let Dasher take a swim.  I did not know there were any other landmarks named Walla Walla that were not in the actual city.

Washington Democrats Reelect Pelz

The Washington State Democratic Party held it's reorganization meeting this weekend in Olympia. Party Chair Dwight Pelz (sitting to the right of the speaker in picture) was reelected by acclamation.  Also reelected were Vice Chair Valerie Rongey, Rob Dolin (speaking in above picture) as Secretary, and Habib Habib as Treasurer. 
The luncheon at the Olympia Red Lion, featured speaker Randy Dorn, Washington's Superintendent of Public Instruction, who lead a panel on the challenges of funding the state's public educations in light of limits put on the Legislature and the passage of an initiative allowing the creation of charter schools.
Pelz expressed his concern about Republican attempts to changing the way the President of The United States is elected.  House Bill 1091 which is currently debated in our legislature would have the electors alloted by totals in individual congressional district rather than state totals, if that proposal would have been in effect in 2012, Romney would have won the election by some 30 electoral votes.
Proving that the party was indeed a big tent, a couple of committee people came to the mike to show opposition to firearms legislation and defense cuts.

State Democrats Honor Late Former Chair

Secretary Rob Dolin (above) reads the role call as the Washington State Democratic Central Committee met in Yakima this weekend.  With representatives from every county and legislative district in the state, business was completed quickly.  The committee passed a resolution paying tribute to former state chair Charles Rolland who passed away earlier this year.  Rolland held the chair position from 1993-1995.  He was the first African-American to hold that position.
In other business, the committee formally nominated Suzan Del Bene for 1st District US House and Troy Kelley for State Auditor.
Smoke from nearby wilderfires was prevalent in the air on what otherwise would have been a perfect sunny day.
Thank you to Al Garman for the picture.

State Convention Part II

On Sunday, members of the State Central Committee picked "at large" delegates to the National Convention.With over 200 people vying for just 41 positions, many of the candidates used gimmicks, like the gentleman above who dressed like Uncle Sam.  This session took about 6 plus hours, but fulfilled the dreams of people like the 5th Districts Jennifer Sutton and Erin Cheuvront.  Other delegates chosen were Karen Russell, the daughter of NBA legend Bill Russell and Griffyn Clay, the nephew of Senator Maria Cantwell.  The Democratic National Convention will take place in Charlotte North Carolina in early September.   President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are the presumed nominees.

Democrats Meet In Harmony

The Washington State Democrats met in Shelton at the Little Creek Casino last weekend and did something you seldom hear Democrats doing, they agreed to agree.   There was very little or no debate as the meeting streamed along.  All four representatives to the Democratic Central Committee were reelected by acclamation after being nominated (in one case from a former opponent) and seconded from the floor. One time Congressional candidate, George Fearing, spoke on how the state's Democrats were the finest in the nation.  An impassioned Roger Erskine,  spoke of  Washington AG and Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Rob McKenna attending a meeting of ALEC, a right wing PAC.  No doubt reelecting the President was at the top of everyone's agenda.
Aziem "The Dream" Underwood defeated Jennifer Sutton for 8th Congressional District e-board rep.  The newly realigned 8th district now stretches across the Cascades into the more conservative Eastern Washington, making it a real challenge to defeat sitting Congressman Dave Reichert.

Di Irons For DNC Rep

This weekend, the Washington State Democratic Central Committee will be asked to do the impossible. We will have to find a replacement for the Late Karen Marchioro. Di Irons, my fellow 5th legislative district state committee person is seeking that post.
The DNC (Democratic National Committee) is charged with "working with national, state, and local party organizations, framing the national platform, and planning the national quadrennial presidential nominating convention. Our state sends 2 male and 2 female reps to meet with other reps from across the United States.
Di Irons has been a friend, mentor and consultant to me for many years. She serves on the State Finance Committee as well as the Rural and Agricultural Caucus. She has served as treasurer on several campaigns and a three time candidate for public office. Whenever a political event takes place in our corner of the county, you can bet that Di has made to major contribution to it in some way.
Di Irons deserves the position on the DNC and I would urge the committee to join me and vote for her.

Farewell To Karen Marchioro

Washington state politics are a little duller today, as Karen Marchioro died of cancer today. Marchioro was best known as chair of the Washington State Democrats during the 1980s. The Republicans also had a woman state chair named Jennifer Dunn. The two women reflected their parties well. Dunn was demure and stylish, Marchioro was outspoken and hardscrabble.

She was active with anti-Vietnam protests when she first got involved in politics. She most recently was our representative to the Democratic National Committee. I rubbed elbow with Karen many times at Democratic meetings and I was always a little wide-eyed running into her. I mean she had such a history. She was very cordial and always had time to share her opinion. We exchanged many e-mails discussing the issues of the time.

Thank you to washblog for the picture. (Karen with Senator Warren Magnuson)

Washington State Democrats Meet In Tri-Cities

Last weekend I headed to Richland Washington to meet with fellow members of the Washington State Democratic Central Committee. Most of us stayed at the Richland Red Lion on the main drag named George Washington Way.
The Tri Cities bring back plenty of memories. When I grew up in Walla Walla, the Tri Cities of Richland, Pasco, And Kennewick were the closest ties thing to civilization. They had TV stations, rock radio, a huge mall, and all the national chains of restaurants. That was considered good back then.
On Friday nights at a political event, there are usually "Hospitality Suites" hosted by various interest groups. This one was no exception although there were only 4 that I know of.
George Fearing For Congress hosted one which was far from all of the others. That actually was a suite the opened up to the courtyard. Also hosting suites were Stonewall Democrats, Primary Democrats, and Black Caucus. My favorite was Black Caucus, even though it did not serve alcohol. The food was good and the discussion was lively.
Many Seattle area Democrats do not really care to travel to Eastern Washington. The attendance was less than spectacular and some of the smaller meetings were cancelled. I travelled down to Walla Walla and saw my brother Steve and his girlfriend, and still made it back to Pasco in time for lunch.
The meeting was called to order shortly after 1:00 that afternoon. It was short and I was able to make it back to Maple Valley by late evening.

Spokane Chosen For '08 Democratic State Convention

Delegates attending the Washington Democratic State Central Committee meeting in Bellingham have chosen Spokane for their state convention over King County. I believe that this is a smart move, the party has been pushing lately to win voters from across the "Cascade Curtain". To turn down Spokane's bid in favor of Seattle would work against everything in that plan. To King County, quit picking on the little Spokane and go after the National Convention.
Incidentally, Spokane has a brand new convention center, the National Figure Skating Championship has already been held there.