Washblog

I am ending my candidacy for the House appointment, effective immediately,
having accomplished everything I set out to do by running in the first
place.

I'm not going to win, I don't have the numbers, too many people who would
have supported me will be unable to attend the November 1 meeting, and my
time is better spent mobilizing the District for the 2007 and 2008
elections, which is what you elected me to do.

The point was not to send Ivan to Olympia. The point was to send the best
possible state Representative to Olympia who also had the support of the
District organization.

When I first heard that Erik Poulsen had resigned from the Senate and that
Joe McDermott would fill his seat, the very first person I thought of to
fill Joe's House seat was Sharon Nelson.

At the time, Sharon was not well known in the District. Make no mistake,
that was a problem, and it is why I ran. It is not that much of a problem
today. I ran partly to send her and her team a message, and they have gotten
the message. Sharon has demonstrated to my satisfaction that she will be an
integral part of the organization in addition to being a hard-working,
conscientious, responsive state representative. I like to think that I set
that bar pretty high.

She is head and shoulders above the field. It's not even close. I support
her candidacy, and I urge you to support her also.

If she is a stranger to you, she is no stranger to me. I have watched Sharon
in action, up close and personal, and side by side in battle, on Vashon for
10 years, in the ongoing fight to keep Glacier from mining away a huge chunk
of Maury Island and destroying our Sound. I have seen her stand up to
managed news, smear attacks, and phony ethics charges. She has gone
head-to-head with one of the most ruthless corporate predators in the state
and its well-paid, conscienceless lobbyists, for all that time without ever
once backing down or even flinching.

She is throrough and meticulous, with a great talent for research. She is an
accomplished community organizer of considerable standing, and she is every
bit the get-in-your-face no-prisoners scrapper that people think I am. The
34th District should not be sending any shrinking violets to Olympia. After
Joe and Sharon are elected in 2008, we should have one of the state's
strongest delegations. Because Sharon is from Vashon, her presence helps
break the exclusively Seattle-centric cycle of representation. That can only
benefit the District.

There remains the issue of whether a party appointment should go solely, or
even primarily, to someone who has put in the time, month after month, year
after year, in the District organization, doing the scut work. I believe
that by and large, it should. I'm also not an absolutist about it.

There is also the issue of whether or not party appointments should be
determined by a District's elected officials and their anointed, chosen
ones, and not the District's PCOs, the rank and file of the organization. I
believe that by and large, the PCOs should decide. I'm also not an
absolutist about it.

In this case, the imperatives overlap, yet all the conditions are met.
Certainly Dow Constantine has paid his dues to the District organization
from Day One, up through the ranks, and he continues to pay them, in time,
in money, in hard work, in responsiveness, and in commitment. He is the very
model of how an elected official should interact with a District
organization. Arguably he has done more, over the years, to make the 34th
District Democrats a strong, growing organization than any other single
individual.

In supporting Sharon's candidacy, he played it strictly by the book. He
brought us 40-plus new PCOs. Those PCOs have a vote just like every other
PCO does, so in this case, yes, the PCOs will in fact decide. And they will
work with the rest of us to make the 34th even stronger. Oh, yes. They will
work.

Dow cared enough about  the District to build the party while he was
campaigning for his candidate, just as the rest of us did. It's not like
he's some "suit" who shows up twice a year, and we're the serfs. He is one
of us, and in this case, he's entitled.

And then there's me. We all know I'm not some "suit," and we all know that
whatever I am, I am not a slacker in the 34th District Democrats, either.
And Sharon was the first person I thought of, too.

So in that sense, Sharon does have the support of the District organization,
a lot more so than lot of appointed-and even elected-legislators in a lot of
other Districts have had, in my experience.

I didn't set out to be a "stalking horse." But that's the way it turned out.
Hey, that's politics. Roll with it and go on, because there always are
bigger battles ahead.

I am satisfied that everyone concerned has acted on the up-and-up throughout
this process. Any pettiness or negativity that has emerged should just be
ignored. If you don't feel like you know Sharon well enough to support her,
or not, maybe establishing that relationship is partly your responsibility.

To the people who supported me, thank you very much. I appreciate it more
than you know. Please believe me, we'll be getting a good one, and I'll
still be here for you.
--
Ivan Weiss        Chairman, 34th District Democrats