Filling our vacant seat

This page will attempt to distill the information about the events of late 2011 in order to make it understandable by our PCOs, our members, any potential candidates, and the general public. If any question you have is not answered on this page, please let Chad know so he can add the question and answer to the page.

What happened?

State Senator Scott White died on October 21st. This opened up a vacancy in the State Senate. Because of the upcoming Special Session which starts on November 28th, the gears started turning immediately in order to fill this vacancy. This is one of the primary functions of the political parties as articulated in the Washington State Constitution, the RCW and our bylaws.

Senate Vacancy

On November 10th, the PCOs in the 46th LD met in Special Caucus to elect names to be submitted to the King County Council. The result of the meeting was a list of three names:

• David Frockt - 69 votes
• David Miller - 10 votes
• Tony Provine - 6 votes

On November 14th the King County Council voted to appoint David Frockt as the new State Senator from the 46th LD. David faxed his resignation letter for his House position to the Governor, and was sworn in as the Senator by the King County Clerk.

House Vacancy

We now had a vacancy in the House of Representatives. The KCDCC called for another Special Caucus of the PCOs in the 46th in order to have them create another list of three names to be presented to the King County Council.

The Special Caucus was held on December 1st, 2011 at Olympic View Elementary School, starting at 7:30pm.

The 46th LD is home to a LOT of very active and engaged citizens and political leaders. In a heavily Democratic district like ours, many people are constantly watching for opportunitites to run for elected office. As sad as the death of Scott White is for all of us, this is one of those opportunities. That's simply the reality of the situation.

Information for potential candidates:

The first thing to say is "Thank you for being willing to go into public service!"

The second is that it is important that all candidates comply with the procedures and rules established by the KCDCC, which has jurisdiction over the process of filling vacancies. All candidates must complete the KCDCC Candidates Questionnaire and send it in to the Chair of King County, Steve Zemke. Click here to send him an email with your questionnaire attached. Please ALSO send it to the Chair of the 46th LD, Chad Lupkes. Chad manages both the 46dems.com and existing King County Democrats website.

The next thing is that we have responsibilities. Candidates for office must comply with the laws of the State of Washington. Here is some useful information:

PDC Requirements for Candidates

research done by David Miller

At the request of the 46th District Executive Board, I spoke with Jennifer Hansen at the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (jennifer.hansen@pdc.wa.gov 360-586-4560) to gather information on PDC requirements for individuals participating in the caucus/appointment process. Jennifer is an excellent, excellent resource.

Individuals seeking appointment to the Senate and/or House seat do not have to register as a campaign UNLESS they have made up their minds to run in the primary election for the seat regardless of the outcome of the caucus/appointment process. If an individual has decided to run for either the House or the Senate seat in 2012 regardless of the outcome of the caucus/appointment process, then they have to register within two weeks of making that decision. Generally, when you transition from seeking the appointment into campaigning for an office a PDC filing is required.

To clarify this, prospective appointees to the House seat should answer the following question (you can substitute "Senate" for "House" in the following discussion):

Do you plan to run for the House seat in 2012 even if you are not appointed?

If the answer is "YES", then you need to file with the PDC within two weeks of answering that question "YES"

If the answer is "NO", then you do not qualify as a campaign and you do not need to register with the PDC as a campaign (but continue reading, please).

If the answer is "MAYBE", then you will need to file with the PDC within two weeks of answering that question "YES".

If you do not qualify to register as a campaign, there is no requirement for reporting any funds raised or money spent on the effort to win the appointment.

If you win an appointment to the House or Senate, you will have to register as a campaign within two weeks of your decision to run in 2012 to retain your appointed seat. If you do not decide to run in 2012 to retain your appointed seat, you will not have to register as a campaign.

If you win the appointment to the House or Senate, you must file a F1 form within two weeks after being confirmed by the King County Council. This form can take some time to put together, so I would recommend prospective appointees start now. Anyone who already has a current F1 on file with the PDC does not have to refile. The F1 form is available here: http://www.pdc.wa.gov/filers/page.aspx?c1=0&c2=146&c3=145

Sitting Legislators are required to follow the regular session freeze rules for fundraising. Transferring from the House to the Senate does not change the timing of the fundraising freeze.

Newcomers (i.e. not in the Legislature currently) appointed during a session have their fundraising ability frozen at the time of appointment by the King County Council. Newcomers appointed when the Legislature is out of session have their freeze happen 30 days before the start of the session. For the 2012 regular session, that date is December 10, 2011. Given likely timelines for our appointment process, this effectively means no fundraising will be allowed for new appointees until after the 2012 regular session adjourns.

Finally, there are no monetary contribution limits for individuals seeking the appointment. The moment you transition from seeking the appointment to a campaign (see questions above), the regular PDC limits apply.

Candidates

The following candidates have sent in their questionnaire for this appointment process, interested in either the Senate appointment or a potential House appointment.

Questionnaires from potential House Nominees

Anyone who submits a questionnaire on or before November 26th is qualified to be nominated for the House appointment even if they are not seeking that position. The questionnaires are posted in the order received, so the earlier they are received, the more time our PCOs have to review them.

• Sarajane Siegfriedt, received Saturday, October 29th
• Chad Lupkes, received Monday, October 31st - Withdrawn
• David Miller, received Tuesday, Nov 1st - Withdrawn
• Tony Provine, received Thursday, Nov 3rd
• Gerry Pollet, received Saturday, November 5th
  • Senate Appointment
  • House Appointment
• Tatsuko Go Hollo, received Monday, November 14th - Withdrawn
• Javier Valdez, received Tuesday, November 15th
• Gabe Meyer, received Wednesday, November 16th
• Rene T. Murry, received Wednesday, November 16th
• Sylvester Cann, received Wednesday, November 16th
• Chris Truppner, received Sunday, November 20th
• Dusty Hoerler, received Monday, November 21st

How did we learn about these candidates?

The 46th District Democrats has a long tradition of trying to provide as much information as possible to our members about candidates for public office, while taking into account the fact that we are all volunteers. The best way that we have found to accomplish this balance is by conducting candidate forums where we ask questions and get answers.

For the expected House Appointment

We changed the agenda of our meeting on November 17th to include a full Candidate forum for anyone who is qualified to ask for the nomination. The qualifications for this forum were:

• Resident of the 46th LD
• KCDCC Questionnaire filled out and submitted 5 days prior to the Special Caucus (exact date to be determined)

  Special note: It would be unfair for us to invite anyone to participate in the candidate forum on the 17th without knowing that you are serious. It would be a very good idea for all candidates to have the questionnaire filled out by the 17th. We will be asking that question.

• See the above PDC requirements

The forum turned out to be a great success, and we recorded it so everyone had a chance to watch it even if they could not attend in person. The video is posted on this page.

Special Caucus, December 1st, 2011

The PCOs met and voted after hearing from all candidates who were nominated.

Candidates Nominated

• Tony Provine, Nominated by: Chad Lupkes, Seconded by: Philip Shack
• Gerry Pollet, N: Patricia Gouge, S: Jacqueline Sorgen
• Sarajane Siegfreidt, N: Dean Fournier, S: Diane Lewis
• Rene Murry, N: Pat McCoy, S: Janet Miller
• Sylvester Cann, N: Skip Knox, S: Jim Fridley
• Javier Valdez, N: Brent McFarlane, S: Angela Henry
• Dusty Hoeler, N: Thomas Veatch, S: Joshua Newman
• Gabe Meyer, N: Peter Shapiro, S: Janet Miller

First Vote

• Gerry Pollet - 37
• Sylvester Cann - 33
• Javier Valdez - 20
• Sarajane Siegfreidt - 10
• Rene Murry - 2
• Dusty Hoerler - 2
• Gabe Meyer - 1
• Tony Provine - 0

Second vote

Per the rules, the field was narrowed to the top three candidates, and a second vote was taken.

• Gerry Pollet - 48
• Sylvester Cann - 38
• Javier Valdez - 19

Third vote

With the goal of identifying a single candidate at the top of the list with the support of a majority of PCOs, a third vote was taken between the top two candidates.

• Gerry Pollet - 57
• Sylvester Cann - 47

Final result

Given the results of these votes, these three names were presented to the King County Council, with a recommendation that they appoint Gerry Pollet as the State Reprsentative from the 46th Legislative District.

• Gerry Pollet
• Sylvester Cann
• Javier Valdez

More questions?

If you have any further questions about the process, please don't hesitate to contact us.