I’ve been waiting for former GOP state senator Luke Esser to announce his candidacy for chair of the Washington State Republican Party. (Esser was ousted from his state senate seat by born-again Democrat/former GOP representative Rodney Tom in last November’s state house elections.)

I haven’t seen any formal announcement yet, but judging from this post over at Sound Politics it looks like Esser’s in.

The current chair, Diane Tebelius, is obviously reeling from the ‘06 elections (where the GOP got clobbered in the suburbs). Additionally, Tebelius didn’t have the support of GOP bigwigs like Rossi and AG McKenna when she took over last year.

Esser, who represented the suburbs himself (Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond), before losing to Tom 53-46, addresses the suburbs issue in the SP post I linked above. Here’s an excerpt:

5) How do you propose to help make GOP candidates relevant in the suburbs again?

It all starts with the vision. Just as it’ll be easier to recruit donors and activists, it’ll be easier to recruit candidates and gain the support of the independents populating the suburbs if we present a vision that’s relevant to suburban voters.
We’ve also got put more effort into electing and nurturing a farm team of local officeholders. The most successful candidates are often folks who’ve been involved in local government before running for state office. That experience teaches them about their community’s concerns and trains them to speak to the issues their neighbors care about.

Practically, that means the WSRP should work with county parties to offer support to promising local candidates. The key here is support, no micro-managing. Since we are the party that truly believes in local control, me must always remember that the WSRP exists to help the county and legislative district organizations, and not the other way around.