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Friday, September 7, 2007

Rep. Joe McDermott’s Open Seat

posted by on September 7 at 14:25 PM

Earlier this week, I posted a list of potential candidates for the state house seat vacancy that’s opening up in the likelihood that Rep. Joe McDermott (D-34, West Seattle) takes over Sen. Erik Poulsen’s (D-34, West Seattle) state senate seat.

Poulsen announced earlier this week that he’s going to leave the state senate to lobby on behalf of Washington’s public utilities.

One name I wasn’t aware of was Ivan Weiss, the chair of the 34th District Democrats. Washblog reports that Weiss is in.

Again, replacing Sen. Poulsen and Rep. McDermott happens through an appointment process. The approximately 113 Democratic precinct committee officers in the 34th are courted by candidates. Then the PCOs vote on nominees and winnow it down to the 3 top names. Those names are forwarded to the KC Council and the Council chooses. The pick is limited to a Democrat—not because McDermott is a Democrat, but because the turf is controlled by a D—Dow Constantine—at the County Council level.

RSS icon Comments

1

Good luck, Ivan!

Posted by Aexia | September 7, 2007 2:43 PM
2

And you forgot that Sharon Maeda (sp?) was openly campaigning for it last week at a funeral and there's some government functionary from the City's Department of Finance that might be interested. Research, damnit!

Posted by Corliss | September 7, 2007 2:55 PM
3

Tania Maria would be great for this. She has been active on everything from immigration, and labor to local city issues.

Posted by SeMe | September 7, 2007 2:56 PM
4

I'd throw in for Ivan.

Posted by switzerblog | September 7, 2007 3:21 PM
5

WA Constitution, Section 15

... the person appointed to fill the vacancy must be from the same legislative district, county, or county commissioner or council district and the same political party as the legislator or partisan county elective officer whose office has been vacated ...

I don't see anything in there about Dow Constantine. :)

Posted by RonK, Seattle | September 7, 2007 3:33 PM
6

@5: Yeah, I was wondering about that one myself. Point goes to RonK.

Posted by J.R. | September 7, 2007 3:35 PM
7

Oh, hell no!

Ivan may make a great District Democrats Chair, and he can stir up support for candidates and political causes... but he pisses everyone off at one time or another.

He's extremely arrogant (not necessarily a bad thing), quick to judgment, and stubborn as an old mule.

These make for a great activist, but I'm not sure they'd be good down in Olympia. On the other hand, maybe by appointment is the only way to get someone like him into office.

Posted by Mickymse | September 7, 2007 3:36 PM
8

Yeah Josh is wrong about Dow Constantine. Because Poulsen is a Democrat, the 34th District Democrats get to nominate possible replacements, and because McDermott is a Democrat, they will also get to nominate his replacement (assuming he moves up, which is up to nobody but the 34th District PCOs and the King County Council).

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