LD36

The Municipal League of King County released its ratings of candidates in King County legislative and judicial races Tuesday. The Municipal League is a nonpartisan volunteer group dedicated to keeping government open and effective.

Ratings ranged from "Not Qualified" to "Outstanding" with "Adequate", "Good", and "Very Good" between them. Most candidates received at least a "Good" rating, with just under ten percent of all 85 candidates reviewed achieving the level of "Outstanding".

The 36th District Democrats met in Ballard Thursday night in an attempt to sort out what their executive board could not do earlier this week - officially endorse a candidate for state House of Representatives.

But when all the votes were counted, the membership body ultimately came to the same deadlock.

After a motion to issue a dual endorsement failed in a vote of the member body, the 36th LD Democrats voted 107-61 in favor of John Burbank over Reuven Carlyle. Although the tally represented a clear majority of those in attendance, it did not meet the two-thirds majority necessary for an official endorsement.

The past few days have seen a slew of challengers step up for state House and Senate seats here In Washington.

Here is a quick rundown of what is the what.

Yesterday while most of the political news in the state was focused on John McCain's visit, two new candidates for state Representative emerged. Mulick's Olympia Dispatch has the word on a couple of entries in Western Washington.

In Seattle's 36th, where Democrats Reuven Carlyle and John Burbank are engaged in a high profile battle for retiring Rep. Helen Sommers' seat, Republican Leslie Bloss has joined the fray. She is a former Boeing employee and a real estate agent, not to mention one of the very few Republicans in the 36th LD.

Then in Pierce County's 25th LD Fife City Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Robert Cerqui, a Democrat, has filed to run for the seat of retiring Rep. Joyce McDonald (R-Puyallup). He joins Republican Bruce Dammeier and Progressive Laurence Pratt, both of Puyallup.

John BurbankSeattle's 36th Legislative District is one of the most reliably blue districts in the state, a place where constituents rarely disagree over the core issues, and if anything they will have differences over what constitutes the best form of democracy. That idea came about again recently when, at a Democratic debate in the 36th District Thursday night, candidates John Burbank and Reuven Carlyle differed on the implementation of spending caps for their state House race where State Party Chair Dwight Pelz recently named Burbank the official nominee when the District decided not to endorse any single nominee.

After a question was asked about public election financing where both candidates affirmed their support of the idea, Burbank turned to Carlyle and asked if he would agree to spending limits in this year's race. Carlye declined at the time, and later called the question nothing but a debate gimmick and an attempt at a "gotcha" moment.

As Legislative Districts around the state move to nominate candidates for local offices before their party conventions, many are running into a fresh problem. With the recent decision by the United States Supreme Court to uphold Initiative 872, better known as the "Top Two" Primary, the party nomination process has been turned on its ear, leading some local LDs to openly buck state party rules.

No longer is it up to party voters to decide who their candidate is in races like those for State Representative since the "Top Two" primary ballots do not allow for partisan sections and labels. Still, that ruling does not mean the Parties will just sit idly by and allow their candidates to be chosen for them.

Instead, they have been forced to come up with new nomination processes. Now, at least in the Democratic Party, is up to a small cadre of party activists at the LD level made of up Precinct Committee Officers (PCOs) who have been both elected and appointed to those pots.

But not all party officials have come on board. In the last week and a half, two Legislative Districts' Executive Boards have voted to eschew the party rules and are choosing not to officially nominate any candidates at the State Representative level.