Washblog

In 2006 Maria Cantwell was re-elected with 57% of the vote, while her Republican opponent was held to under 40%.

This year Barack Obama won Washington with 57.4% of the vote.  We re-elected our fantastic Governor Chris Gregoire in one of the most hard-fought battles in the history of our state.  The State Party donated around $3 million to her effort.  We elected Peter Goldmark as Lands Commissioner.  We maintain one of the strongest Democratic legislatures in the nation with 62 Democrats in the House and and 31 in the Senate.

This year we opened 20 offices, hired 80 staff, recruited 10,000 volunteers, made 1.5 million phone calls, registered 37,000 new voters,  knocked on 500,000 doors, and sent out 1.6 million pieces of GOTV mail.

In 2008 we expanded our Latino Vote Project to five staff working in Franklin, Yakima, and King counties.  In Yakima County the LVP reduced the gap in turnout between Hispanics and non-Hispanics from 29 points to 16.9%.  We ran our strongest ever Native Vote Project; while mobilizing thousands of African American and Asian American voters behind the candidacy of Barack Obama.  In Denver we fielded the most diverse delegation to a DNC convention in the history of our State Party.

In 2008 we ran the most successful precinct caucuses of any state in the nation.  We had 98% of our results in by 7:00 PM on the evening of the precinct caucuses.  These were followed up by a well organized State Convention in Spokane, and a highly professional presence in Denver.

When I took office in 2006 we were $500,000 in debt over the Governor' recount.  Ten months later we had $300,000 in the bank, and today we are $200,000 in the black.  In 2007 we had the most successful Maggies event in our party history when Hillary Clinton addressed 1200 Democrats at Benaroya Hall.

We have built an impressive website, and an e-mail list of over 100,000 Democrats.  Our voter file has become far more accessible and efficient through the application of Vote Builder.  Today the staff of our state party has a solid reputation as professional and accessible.  The staff of the Coordinated Campaign earned universal praise from party leaders across the state in 2008.

These are the highlights of my three years in office.  Through it all I have strived to be accessible to you through e-mail, returned phone calls, and personal visits to Democratic party events across the state.  I promise to you that I will seek to build the party over the next two years as we expand our majorities and re-elect our fantastic US Senator Patty Murray.  I ask for your vote in January, and for your personal endorsement now.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve as Chair of the Washington State Democratic Party.

Sincerely,

Dwight Pelz

When candidates run for elected office, we usually base our vote on the future, not the past.  I'm looking forward to having Dwight answer this question:  What do you plan to do over the next two years?

What other questions should be asked?

Chad