Dwight Pelz, Chair of Washington State Democrats, recently released a memo answering several questions about the Party's process for nominating congressional candidates in 2010. Here is an excerpt of several interesting paragraphs; the complete document is at http://www.masoncountydemocrats.com/documents.

Why is the State Party "Nominating" Candidates for Congress in 2010?

We are nominating candidates for Congress, and other partisan offices, as part of the State Party's response to the Supreme Court decision upholding the Top Two Primary.

In 2008 the State Party nominated candidates for Congress, for the first time in history. In the past the State Party had never "nominated" or "endorsed" any candidate for office. We did not nominate nor endorse Maria Cantwell in 2000 or 2006; Patty Murray in 1998 or 2004; or Chris Gregoire for Governor in 2004. Prior to 2008 we had never nominated nor endorsed Brian Baird, Norm Dicks, Adam Smith, Jim McDermott, Rick Larsen, or Jay Inslee for Congress.

The voters had always nominated our candidate for Congress and other partisan offices through a "nominating primary". A "nominating primary" chooses the nominee for the Democratic Party and the nominee for the Republican Party. The Top Two Primary replaced the "nominating primary" with a "winnowing down primary" similar to the process in non-partisan city primaries which will winnow down the number of candidates for a given seat to two.

As a State Party we have maintained that the voters need to know who the "nominated Democrat" is in a race, so in 2008, for the first time, we "nominated" candidates for partisan office, including statewide offices (Governor, Attorney General, etc.) the Legislature, and Congress.

Why is the Central Committee the appropriate body to make our Congressional Nominations?

In 2008 we piggy backed Congressional District (CD) Nominating Conventions onto our Congressional Delegate Selection Caucuses. In 2008 those CD Caucuses were packed with about 250 people, each hoping to be chosen as a Delegate to the Denver Convention.

The Central Committee voted in September in Walla Walla that the power to nominate our candidate(s) for Congress will reside with the Central Committee. At a Central Committee meeting, the state committee men and women from each CD will caucus, then choose whether to send a name forward to the floor for approval by the Central Committee.

I favored this proposal. If we had repeated the same process this year of holding individual CD Nominating Conventions, then I believe only about 40 PCO's would travel one hour or more to such a Convention – many motivated by the sole purpose of voting against the incumbent. At stake is the Nominee of the Washington State Party, and I do not believe that 40 PCO's, voting say 25 to 15, should have the power to choose the Nominee of the State Party. I believe that power more correctly lies with the State Central Committee.

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