46th District Democrats consider changes to handle endorsements

In the aftermath of political redistricting, the 46th District Democrats will be considering a major rules change in how endorsements are considered for their organization at their meeting on Feb 21, 2013, 7:30pm at Olympic View Elementary School, 504 NE 95th St. Seattle, WA 98115.

From their newsletter:

For the first time in over three decades, the 46th Legislative District covers jurisdictions other than Seattle. The Executive Board is proposing changes to the Bylaws and our endorsement rules to adapt our long-standing approach to endorsements to this new reality. 

With the addition of Kenmore and Lake Forest Park into our family, we have grown from ten to twenty-six local electoral categories. We have two new city governments, a new US Congressional District, two new school districts, a new District Court district, a fire district, four utility districts, a library district and two parks districts - most of which have elected officials. This better than doubles the number of candidates we need to hear from at Candidates and Issues Nights and decide upon at our endorsement meetings.

Our challenge is twofold: First, we have to figure out how to handle the growth in electoral categories without holding marathon 8-10 hour endorsement meetings. The second challenge is balancing the desire of residents in any given jurisdiction to have a primary voice on endorsements in that jurisdiction with the fact any endorsement comes from the entire 46th LD Membership.

The new rules propose a Caucus system to handle these challenges. The proposal allows the Executive Board to create geographically-based Caucuses for purposes of considering local races. For example, residents of Kenmore, Lake Forest Park, and Seattle could have their own Caucus to vote on endorsement for candidates and ballot measures in their individual cities.