How exactly local parties should live with the Top Two is the topic. In
Thurston County we have the very real possibility that we could end up
with two Dems or two Republicans in a county commission election in
November.
So, how should the Thurston County Dems live with this?
The Olympian:
Thurston
County Democratic chairman John Cusick said he hopes there is some way
the party's precinct committee officers could be allowed to nominate
more than one candidate in situations such as the race between Romero
and Halvorson.
"I want to hold out that possibility," Cusick said.
Failing
that, he said the party's precinct committee officers might nominate
one candidate, and the party might endorse two. Or, the party could
bypass all of the nomination problems by just letting the top two play
out the way its sponsors intended, letting candidates run regardless of
party support.
But Zack Smith, an Olympia resident who serves on
the Democrats' executive board from the 9th Congressional District,
predicted his party will do nominating conventions separate from the
ongoing presidential caucus process.
"As far as I can see it's
open and shut," Smith said of the nominating conventions. "What we need
to be able to do is let people know which candidate is the choice of
the party."
The Pierce County Democrats have already sort of dealt with this
by deciding how they're going to live in a post-IRV world.
They're going to allow up to three candidates for county offices to
advance with the bold "Dem" lable attached to their candidacies. This
move allows choice, but also avoids the "nomination" fight.
Rather,
it simply says that "these people are Democrats." The local Democratic
organization decides who carries the lable, but it doesn't limit the
label to just one candidate either.
