"Phil Talmadge, a former state Supreme Court justice and ex-legislator, has dropped out of the running for chairman of the state Democratic Party, leaving former King County Councilman Dwight Pelz as the apparent front-runner.
His withdrawal leaves four candidates vying for the chairmanship from which Paul Berendt, the Democrats' chief since 1995, is resigning midway through his current two-year term. The 176-member Democratic State Committee will meet in Kent on Jan. 28 to elect a successor.
Talmadge, a liberal Democrat from West Seattle, said Friday that he quit his short-lived campaign mainly because he wanted to keep his law practice and be a part-time, unsalaried party chairman, but that most Democrats he talked to wanted it to remain a full-time job. Berendt is paid $77,500 a year.
Talmadge said he believes that the Democrats should have an executive director to administer party operations while the chairman functions as "the party spokesman and (to) articulate a vision for the party."
He said another factor in his decision was that he hadn't gotten a clear answer as to whether Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire would be comfortable with him as party chairman. She was the target of biting criticism by Talmadge when they ran for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2004 before he dropped out for medical reasons.
Talmadge said he was told that Gregoire didn't intend to take sides in the chairmanship race, "which didn't really answer the question I had posed. And frankly, I think governors have a right to have state party chairs that they feel comfortable with."
Talmadge said he only got into the race in late December at the urging of state Sen. Margarita Prentice of Seattle, an old friend of his and a personal enemy of Pelz, a former state Senate colleague.
Pelz, of Seattle, became unemployed Jan. 1 when the County Council was downsized from 13 members to nine and his council district was eliminated. He was an unsuccessful candidate for a Seattle City Council seat in the fall.
Other candidates for the party chairmanship are Laura Ruderman, a former state representative from Redmond and 2004 Democratic nominee for secretary of state; Snohomish County Democratic Chairman Mark Hintz; Pierce County Democratic Chairwoman Jean Brooks; and Bill Harrington, chairman of the 2nd District Democrats in Pierce County.
Like a number of other Democrats, Berendt believes the contest is Pelz's to lose. Berendt noted that Pelz has telephoned the entire state committee and is traveling the state to meet with its members.
Talmadge said he believes the party is in good shape from an operational standpoint, but that its leadership and its candidates frequently fail to articulate Democratic values effectively.
"The party's problem is not on the technical side of the ledger; the party's problem is on the values side of the ledger," he said."-from Saturday's P-I.
No comments:
Post a Comment