Senator Eric Poulsen (D-34, Seattle) has announced that he is leaving the State Senate to be the government-relations director for the Washington Public Utility Districts Association. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003869118_poulsen05m.html. Sen. Poulsen’s seat is up for election in 2008. Whoever gets the appointment will serve the remainder of the term and run in 2008 to serve a full four-year term. It is disappointing to see Poulsen leave the senate. He has been a key ally for the AIA on sustainability and environmental issues. He was the lead Senate sponsor on the high performance public buildings law that passed in 2005. He also led the charge for laws passed this year addressing global warming issues. Representative Joe McDermott is the early favorite to get the appointment for his seat. Rep. McDermott’s partner is an architect at a Seattle firm.
State Representative Brian Sullivan (D-21, Mukilteo) won a tough primary race for Snohomish County Council over Senator Jean Berkey (D-21, Everett). It is expected that Sullivan will win the race in November. http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20070822/NEWS01/108220050. He has been a good ally for AIA/WA and was working with us on the licensing law revisions.
State Representative John Lovick (D-44, Mill Creek) won his primary in the race for Snohomish County Sherriff. http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20070830/NEWS01/108300039. He has a good chance of wining this race in November. Lovick has served as speaker pro-tem for the last several years. He frequently ran the floor sessions in the House.
State Representative Jim McIntire (D-46, Seattle) has announced that he will run for State Treasurer in 2008. Mike Murphy (D), the current treasurer, is not running again. http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/208151.html. McIntire will serve the remainder of his term.
State Senator Rodney Tom (D-, Bellevue) was running for the 8th US Congressional Seat. He announced yesterday that he had dropped out of that race. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003871067_tom06m.html. This leaves Darcy Burner as the lone Democrat in the race against incumbent Rep. Dave Reichert (R-8, East King, North Pierce Counties). You will recall that Burner lost a narrow race to Reichert last year.
State Representative David Buri (R-9, Colfax) has resigned his seat to become the head lobbyist for Eastern Washington University.
State Representative Joe McDermott (D-34, Seattle) has been appointed to fill the vacated seat of Senator Eric Poulsen. Poulsen resigned to take a lobbying job for the Washington ports association. There is a contest right now for the appointment to McDermott’s seat.
Appointment Process for Replacing a Legislator. The appointment process for replacing a legislator who resigns is as follows. The partisan precinct committee officers in the district affected (in these cases Democrat PCOs) nominate and rank three candidates in order of preference. The nominations are reviewed by the state party’s executive committee and forwarded to the county government in the affected county or counties. If more than one county is affected than the county commissioners/councilors of each affected county vote on the replacement. That person would then serve until the next regularly scheduled election at which point he or she would run for the remainder of the term. In these districts, the appointees would be running for full terms in 2008. While county commissioners/councilors may appoint any of the three nominees, they typically appoint the highest ranked person.
