State Democrats looking at caucus system for 2016 presidential nominating process

By Evan Smith

Washington state Democrats expect to use a system of caucuses and conventions to choose delegates to the 2016 national presidential nominating convention.

The Democratic State Central Committee will decide Saturday in Pasco on following the recommendation of the state party rules committee to start the process with precinct caucuses March 26, 2016, caucuses that would send delegates to legislative district, county, congressional district and state conventions. The congressional district and state conventions would send delegates to the national nominating convention.

The rules committee made the recommendations at a March meeting in Seattle. Shoreline City Councilman Chris Roberts from the 32nd Legislative District is a member of the committee. The 32nd District includes the City of Shoreline part of northwest Seattle, all of Lynnwood, Woodway and nearby unincorporated areas of southwest Snohomish County, and parts of Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace.

Proponents of the caucus system say that caucuses are a Washington tradition, that caucuses save the state the cost of a primary and that caucuses encourage active participation in the nominating process.

Washington Democrats will get 103 delegates to the 2016 national convention, 47 chosen at large at the state convention and 56 sent from the 10 congressional district conventions. The state’s total includes a “cluster bonus” of 11 extra delegates that the state would get by holding its caucuses at the same time as Alaska and Hawaii, considered regional partners, and by holding the caucuses after March 22.

The 7th Congressional District convention will choose 10 national-convention delegates. The 7th District is the district that voted for Democrat Barack Obama in 2012 more than any district in the state. By contrast, the heavily Republican 4th Congressional District in Central Washington gets only three.

The 7th Congressional District, represented by Democrat Jim McDermott, includes Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Edmonds, Woodway and nearby unincorporated areas of southwest Snohomish County, most of Seattle and some of Seattle’s southwest suburbs.

Caucus participants must not have participated in another party’s presidential selection process and must sign this statement: “I consider myself to be a Democrat, and I agree that my attendance at this caucus is a matter of public record.”

Caucus participants in the King County part of the 32nd Legislative District will send delegates to legislative district caucuses with delegates from the Snohomish County part of their district and to the King County convention.

Participants in 46th Legislative District caucuses will send delegates to legislative district caucuses and to the county convention. The district includes Lake Forest Park, Kenmore and northeast Seattle.

Legislative district caucuses send delegates to congressional district and state conventions. County conventions write local party platforms.

King County Democrats and party organizations in several legislative districts have passed resolutions “supporting the right of the Democratic Party to select its presidential nominee and opposing “efforts by the State of Washington to infringe on the rights of the Democratic Party to select its presidential delegates by the method the Party chooses.

The resolution came in response to a bill in the legislative proposal to change and strengthen the state presidential primary.

King County Democrats said that they passed the resolution 

• because the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of association and the right of individuals to choose whether to join or leave groups, and 
• the right of a group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members; 
• that the right to select its party nominees is an inherent right of a political party; 
• that the state doesn't have the power to interfere with the internal affairs of a political party;
• that the state of Washington does not allow for voter registration by party; 
• that the Democratic Party believes that only voters who choose to affiliate with the Democratic Party should select its nominees for elective office; and 
• the rules of the Democratic National Committee require state Democratic parties to select their delegates to the national Democratic Party convention by a single method: 
• either the results of a presidential primary, 
• or a presidential caucus; 
• and that the Washington State Democratic Party has historically used only the precinct caucus method for selecting its delegates to the national Democratic Party convention; and 
• that the Washington State Democratic Party Central Committee will this year decide whether all its delegates to the national convention will be determined through the results of either a primary caucuses; and 
• Democrat national rules preclude the state party from choosing to split its delegation between those chosen by primary and those chosen by caucus; and that 
• State Senate Bill 5978 would require that the State Democratic Party use the results of a presidential primary held on the second Tuesday in March to select a portion of its national convention delegates, in violation of DNC rules, thereby precluding the State Party from using the caucus method to choose any of its delegates.

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.