Washblog

As written in the organization's by-laws, endorsement by the 43rd District Democrats requires a 60% vote of the membership at the meeting.  Even though members were allowed to vote for multiple candidates in the first round of voting, it's all but impossible to achieve that benchmark in a six-way race.  In fact, reaching 40% -- and thereby being eligible for a second round, in which the vote is to endorse all or none of the eligible candidates -- is quite a tall order in such a crowded (and capable) field.

That high barrier for endorsement makes the results achieved by candidate Dick Kelley all the more impressive.  No, he didn't win the LD organization's endorsement, but he far outstripped the rest of the field.  Not only was he the only candidate to make it to a second round of voting ... no one else came close.  In fact, Dick received more votes than any two of his opponents.

Shown below is the tally for the first round of voting at the endorsement meeting.  There were 225 ballots cast by members, so it would have taken support from 135 voters (60%) to attain the endorsement.  To reach the second round took 90 votes, or 40% of the total.

• Dick Kelley  --  111 votes, 49.3%
• Jamie Pedersen  --  48 votes, 21.3%
• Bill Sherman  --  44 votes, 19.6%
• Jim Street  --  42 votes, 18.7%
• Lynne Dodson  --  35 votes, 15.6%
• Stephanie Pure  --  11 votes, 4.9%

As noted above, Dick Kelley's tally was far, far better than any other candidate in the race.  Despite concerted efforts to recruit their supporters to enroll as members of the organization, carried out by all of the candidates, Dick's vote total was overwhelmingly ahead of all of his opponents.  In fact, Dick nearly reached the 40% plateau on solo votes by the membership; 81 of his voters placed his name, and only his name, on their ballots.  In contrast, several of the other candidates received very few solo votes ... on the order of five to ten.

In the second "reconsideration" vote, in which the only question was whether to make a solo endorsement of Dick, the final tally was 101 "yes" and 95 "no" votes, 51.5% (endorsement again required a 60% positive vote).  A not-insignificant number of members left the building after the first round of voting, and adherents of all of the other candidates should have found it not in the interest of their favorite to permit Dick to be endorsed.  Still, even if all of Dick's sole voters stuck around for the second vote, a minimum of 21 people who had voted for someone else (perhaps in conjunction with Dick) on the first round decided that Dick deserved a solo endorsement by the 43rd District Democrats.

With no candidate endorsed by the organization, PCOs will not be obligated to carry anyone's Position #1 campaign literature prior to the September 19 primary.  On the other hand, nothing precludes PCOs from getting Dick's brochures directly from his campaign office and distributing it along with literature from candidates endorsed by the District Democrats.  That's what I'll be doing, and that may well be what a majority (or, at the very least, a very, very hefty plurality) of the Democratic PCOs in the 43rd will do as well.

All in all, a very, very strong performance by Dick Kelley, a demonstration of solid organizing and broad support among the most committed and most active Democrats in the 43rd Legislative District.