Given the importance of Sen. Maria Cantwell's re-election, some Dems are wondering why she wasn't at the State convention, along with Rep. Jay Inslee and other prospective candidates.
February 2, 2011 at 12:42 AM
Congratulations are in order to one of NPI's boardmembers, Rob Dolin, who I've just learned was elected as Secretary of the Washington State Democratic Party at the party's quarterly meeting at the Red Lion Hotel in Olympia.
Initially, there were several other folks seeking the Secretary position, but by the time the state committee had assembled in Olympia, Rob had no rivals left.
Rob succeeds Luis Moscosco, who himself was elected to the state Legislature in November, defeating Republican Heidi Munson in a come-from-behind victory.
The Secretary's official duties, according to the party bylaws, are to prepare the minutes of all meetings of the state central committee or its executive committee, plus the state convention, as well as keeping "all records" of the state central committee. That's about it. The bylaws also stipulate that the Secretary may perform "other duties" delegated by the state committee or the chair.
Speaking of the chair, the state central committee has chosen to keep Dwight Pelz on in that position, to nobody's surprise. He faced only token opposition from Whatcom County's Natalie McClendon, who serves as county party chair there.
Pelz can say that the party accomplished its primary objective for 2010 — reelecting Patty Murray to the U.S. Senate — but on his watch the party also lost a congressional seat (WA-03) and Republicans significantly narrowed Democratic majorities in the state Legislature. The party has an arguably more difficult challenge awaiting it this cycle: Keeping the governor's mansion in Democratic hands. No Republican has held the position since John Spellman in the 1980s, but Republicans will be fielding their most formidable candidate in years: Rob McKenna, who has already been elected statewide twice (as attorney general).
Besides that, Maria Cantwell's seat needs to be defended, and there will be a new congressional seat up for grabs. Complicating matters is that nobody presently knows what the political map is going to look like, not even the Redistricting Commission (because it hasn't drawn up any boundaries yet).
In other reorganization activity, the state committee elected Valerie Rongey as Vice Chair and reelected Habib Habib as Treasurer.
Neither of those positions were contested.
Once again, congratulations to Rob on his election as Secretary. We're proud of him for running and we're glad his campaign was successful.
"NPI's Rob Dolin elected as Secretary of the Washington State Democratic Party"
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Given the importance of Sen. Maria Cantwell's re-election, some Dems are wondering why she wasn't at the State convention, along with Rep. Jay Inslee and other prospective candidates.
February 2, 2011 at 12:42 AM