Washington State Dems held their annual holiday party last night at the Washington Athletic Club. The talk of the evening: Is State Chair Paul Berendt leaving his post?

As I reported on the SLOG last Friday, when I asked Berendt about this, he said the rumors: “are not without substance.”

However, at last night’s shindig several Ds insisted that Paul is definitely leaving in January.

So, I went back to Berendt today. He told me again, no change is “imminent.”

Asked to define “imminent,” Berendt said imminent would mean “I’d be planning to make an announcement about a specific date, and I have no plans to do that right now.”

He added: “I don’t just want to turn this over to any joker that wants to be the state party chair. I want to make sure that when the time comes there are quality candidates to choose from.”

Berendt boasts that Washington is the only state in the West that has 2 D Senators, a D Governor and both state house chambers under Dem control.