E pluribus unum: Many candidates, one endorsement for 40th LD Dems

MOUNT VERNON -

One of the most crowded fields in the state started early. But now, just a week after the filing deadline, one stands alone as the party nominee with the district's sole endorsement.

Up in the Northwest corner of Washington, encompassing all of San Juan County and portions of Whatcom and Skagit Counties, the 40th Legislative District has long been a Democratic stronghold, with a full delegation of Democrats and a retiring state Senator, Harriet Spanel, who has held the seat for sixteen years.

Early on, six Democrats entered the race. San Juan County Councilman Kevin Ranker, Whatcom for Obama organizer Stephanie Kontouros, former State Trooper Paul Gonzales, Democratic activist Hue Beattie, Port of Anacortes Commissioner Steve Hopley and former Whatcom County Councilman Ken Henderson all filed with the Public Disclosure Commission, but once the field became so large, Hopley changed his affiliation to independent and then a few weeks later dropped his bid and endorsed Henderson.

Still, with a field stacked five high with credible candidates, the Democrats worried that the "top two" primary might split their votes evenly, and if two Republicans entered the fray, they might somehow sneak into the general election without any competition from the left.

After a state party required nomination vote of Precinct Committee Officers that saw Kevin Ranker chosen as the nominee, the 40th LD decided to try to self-winnow the candidate by holding a series of endorsement meetings open to dues-paying members, after which the top two candidates would be endorsed by the party and the other three encouraged to end their races and support the endorsed candidates.

40th LD Democratic Senate candidates meet/Politicker Photo

But then during filing week something unexpected happened, and no other Republican joined former Eastside state Rep. Steve Van Luven, leaving one Democrat almost assured of a spot on the general election ballot, provided that Salmon Yoga Party candidate Tim Stoddard, whose platform consists of saving the salmon, installing yoga as an elective in the public schools and making policy decisions on a karmic level, didn't breach fifteen percent of a close vote.

So the Democrats changed their mind at the last moment and allowed the nomination meetings to be an up or down vote on all the candidates, with each member having the opportunity to cast up to five affirmative votes if they wished.

Most of the candidates approved of this change of heart, and all fully expected the entire slate of candidates to be endorsed, and let the voters sort them out in August.

But then something unexpected happened. Blame it on the weather, which was colder than Siberia over the weekend, or the confusing and last-minute rules change, but only 182 Democrats showed up over the course of the four endorsement meetings, around eighty in San Juan County, seventy-five in Whatcom County, and fewer than thirty on a nasty Monday evening in Skagit County. Those voters, numbering just over a hundred more than the fifty-three that chose Kevin Ranker as the party's nominee, voted to give Ranker the district's sole endorsement.

Perhaps the most telling things was said by Kevin Ranker in an interview that afternoon with PolitickerWA.com, who ironically has the sole nomination and endorsement of the party, as he recalled being significantly outspent in his successful election to the San Juan County Council.

"You can have all the endorsements and all the money you want," Ranker said, "and it won't make that much of a difference if you don't turn out the vote."

After all, the full slate of candidates acknowledged, more or less, the same priorities for the district, with only minor differences in specific policy priorities, and the breadth and depth of their experiences separating them.

"All the people running are good Democrats," Ken Henderson admitted, "but each of us have a different slant on what we do. From the early 1980s I have been in community affairs the entire time, so that gives you a breadth of exp that other people here haven't had."

Kevin Ranker counters that statement with the idea that he is the best connected candidate to get things done in the current legislative environment.

"My relationships in Olympia are very strong and current," Ranker said of his public accomplishments, including acting as chair of the Washington Coastal Counties Caucus and the Washington Counties Transportation Committee. "None of the other candidates have that sort of experience or background. Some of them have held some similar positions to me, but not in the last decade."

While he says he will stick by the priorities of education, the environment and, uniquely among the candidates, public safety, Paul Gonzales also wants to make sure voters know about his heritage.

"We've been breaking ceilings, especially with the presidential race," Gonzales said. "I am a person of color. I want to be the first Hispanic senator from the 40th Legislative District and I hope the people can help me do that. "

Stephanie Kontouros, who highlights her work on the state platform committee and her success in organizing Obama supporters for the past year, also differentiates herself by focusing on affordability in San Juan County, where she used to live before she was priced out, and even immigration.

"As somebody who has worked consistently on the local and now the state platform committee," she said, "I have a deep understanding of what we have articulated as Dem values and I think that I am somebody who can bring that."

Hue Beattie, meanwhile, touted himself as the oldest candidate at the endorsement meeting, and is looking to position himself as a traditional Democrat.

"I put on my filing statement I'm the true Democrat," Beattie said, "and that's what I'm trying to say."

Where things go from here will ultimately depend on voters, since the 40th LD leaders did not release the endorsement count until moments before Thursday's deadline to remove names from the ballot.

Some of the candidates may yet suspend their campaigns in the face of no party endorsement, and the increasing amount of money and wide ranging party support falling in behind Ranker in the last few weeks, but still they expressed interest in giving a broader range of voters a chance to send one of the five on to the general against Van Luven.

Gonzales summed it up well, though it was under the assumption that the full slate would be endorsed.

"From there," he said, "I think everybody will have a level playing field and everybody's going to have to roll up their sleeves, and I think the one who works the hardest is going to have an advantage."

After this week the field may not be entirely level, but if they all stay in, and voters in the 40th Legislative District ignore the endorsements of fewer than 200 party members, he may just be right.