— from Cindy Wolf —
Last Tuesday [Feb. 5] our representatives threw away a golden chance. The San Juan County Council voted unanimously to appoint a State Senator who was not their constituents’ first choice nor the local Democratic party’s first choice. Those votes tipped the balance for Liz Lovelett.
I congratulate Councilor Lovelett and wish her the best of luck. She certainly seems to be a capable person. She will not be the strategic and dynamic advocate Kris Lytton could have been. Unfortunately, the way the final vote was made has sparked concern that the Open Meetings Act was violated by a number of councilors. Because our county councilmen were the deciding votes, we will need to take this very seriously.
Lovelett seems to have her policy priorities pretty straight for a
pro-refineries (she has to think about the jobs base in Anacortes)
politician. Unfortunately she has neither power nor influence in Olympia
and not much time left in the session. She was not a good appointment
choice for San Juan County and she herself would have been better off
building a base and getting elected to the position.
At the 40th Legislative District Democratic Precinct Committee Officers
meeting February 2, Kris Lytton was voted first on a mandatory list of
three names. Of 46 votes cast 29 went to her, 16 to Lovelett and one to
Trevor Smith.
What was the motivation for this? Why would our County Council turn on a staunch advocate with eight years of experience? Since the answers have been spurious, I am left to piece together the story. It starts 32 years ago when the Attorney General of Washington opined that even in a legislative district composed of multiple counties, county council members were not allowed to stand for the appointments to vacant legislative seats they ultimately get to vote on, unless they resigned before the selection process began with no expectation of appointment. This makes a certain amount of sense because the combined council’s vote is public and there is obviously a great deal of pressure to vote for a colleague you must continue to run a county with, whether they win or lose.
Also, it is legal to double-dip in this state. You can hold two offices simultaneously, which Jamie [Stephens] expressed to me he thought he might do if appointed. Having the same person paid to do two simultaneous jobs as a public representative is, perhaps, permission that ought to be granted in a public election, not by an appointment of one’s peers.
Based on the Attorney General’s opinion, the state party told Jamie
Stephens and Whatcom County Commissioner Rud Browne they couldn’t stand for the appointment to Kevin Ranker’s senate seat. To do otherwise would have opened the validity of the appointment to a court challenge in which the AG’s opinion is given great weight. At that point, the counsels for each county or a state legislator were the only ones with standing to
question the AG’s opinion. It is my understanding from the AG’s website Jeff Morris, who has complained publicly but not officially about the opinion, could have submitted the question on behalf of the 40th Legislative District appointment process.
Commissioner Browne then requested the counsel for Whatcom County to
challenge the AG’s opinion. Council refused on the grounds that since the challenge only affected Browne, it could be understood as a gift of public funds to an individual. The matter was brought to the attention of the Washington State Association of Councils, the Director of which commissioned a private law firm to review the Attorney General’s opinion. The WSAC is a non-profit funded 50% by dues from member counties (public funds) and 50% by commissions from projects it is retained to complete. It is unclear whether public funds were spent on this review, but Rud Browne denies having commissioned it and Jamie Stephens has said nothing, so unless the Public Records Requesta (PRR) show differently, we must assume they were.
The opinion of that law firm, Pacifica Law Group, differed with the Attorney General opinion, but since it had no standing, would still have left the appointment open to legal challenge. With the precinct committee offers selection process looming in the near future, Washington State Democratic Central Committee (WSDCC) gave the Councils 24 hrs to produce counsel opinions on what grounds the AGO should be challenged. Since Whatcom had already refused to produce such an opinion, the deadline was, predictably, not met.
Because there was no solid legal backing for disregarding the opinion of the Attorney General, the WSDCC made the decision to keep its ruling in place.
Aside from the complete disregard for constituent preferences, for recommendation by the PCOs and for the wisdom of choosing a powerful ally demonstrated by all three [San Juan County] councilmen, there are several other things that need to be called out:
Rick Hughes and Jamie Stephens both told the story to different people that Kris Lytton somehow knew Kevin Ranker was in trouble and would be forced to resign, so she stepped down to let Debra Lekanoff run and kept money in her campaign coffers planning to “come to the rescue” when Kevin Ranker got in trouble. Bear in mind that Kris announced her retirement in February 2018 and Debra Lekanoff declared in March (ish?) 2018. The rules allowing for the complaint were not in place until July 2018 and [complainant] Ann Larson did not even begin to consider lodging the complaint until after the Kavanaugh hearing.
During the comments section of the agenda at the Combined County Council Meeting, Rick and Jamie both cited Lytton’s vote on Public Records
Disclosure as a reason to doubt her commitment to transparency. Rick, at
least, knew straight from Lytton that she would not vote for the [Public Records Request (PRR) Disclosure] bill because it was not thought through. She had recently had a constituent seek help from her office after being raped.
The constituent was afraid to go straight to the police because there were citizenship issues in her family. The new law would have compelled Lytton to release all of that constituent’s information to anyone making a PRR, even a convicted criminal or someone wishing to hand the information over to ICE. Lytton’s record also shows that she championed financial disclosure. Because Rick knew this story, [his] willingness to throw this particular mud ball leaves more dirt on him.
Rick and Jamie told a few people that they suspected Kris of calling
Learner [Limbach] and talking him into withdrawing from the race by promising to support him in a future County Council run. They predicated this on knowing that the date Kris and Learner talked was just before his
announcement of withdrawal. Learner emailed me about that call, which he initiated, the day after it happened. It was a courtesy call in which he informed Lytton of his intention to withdraw his name. They discussed
Learner’s policy issue concerns and Kris was impressed with his knowledge and asked to keep in touch for agricultural policy and food security advice.
Bill Watson expressed irritation that the Democratic Party expressed a preference for one of the three candidates and took it into his head that he was choosing a Senator for the future. Dicey logic considering his remit was to choose a Senator for the session and Rud Browne will likely make a well-financed run at the seat in November. I guess he showed the grassroots party they are not the boss of him.
Jamie Stephens was incensed at having to follow rules which denied him a shot at the appointment. He wanted a chance to swat back at the WSDCC and excuses to disrespect Kris Lytton because he had decided the AGO was brought to light to thwart her strong opponents and otherwise no one would have objected. The problem with this thinking is he would have had to get past the PCOs, as would Browne, and most were disinclined to put sitting Councilors on the list precisely because it represents undue influence.
Rick Hughes went along for the ride because it gave him a great platform to perform the role of independent moral thinker, practice his small “r”
republican philosophy of government with disregard for post-election public input, and deny power to a person he had decided was out to get
him.
A thoroughly fulfilled PRR ought to go some way towards painting a more
complete picture of what looks from here like a lot of egging-on, but even
the publicly available facts show yet another facet of our political culture in this County and this [Legislative District] LD in a damning light.
Our tiny part of the world keeps ending up in the Big City papers for all the wrong reasons. We lost a State Senator to scandal, and now we have
Representative Morris under review, our Sheriff being investigated, and
our County Council acting erratic enough to arouse the suspicions of good
people all over the legislative district. Is it really so aggravating to follow the rules?
Interesting perspective. I wasn’t at the meeting, but everyone I know who was there commented on how Lovelett came across as thoughtful, articulate, energetic, inspiring, and forward thinking. Meanwhile Ms. Lytton spoke only about herself and her past, and made no mention of her vision for the future or of any particular agendas that she was especially passionate or concerned about. She came across as someone simply expecting to be anointed, not as someone who put time or effort into wanting to win support.
Clearly this surprising outcome has ruffled the well worn feathers of the Democratic Party establishment and power holders. It’s ironic that Ms. Wolf seems so upset, given that the somewhat mysterious and arbitrary process used to choose a candidate was the same process that the Democratic Party fought tooth and nail to force on the counties of NW WA.
Senator Lovelett is young and inexperienced, it’s true- but that doesn’t have to be a negative. Indeed, it’s often a great thing.
So congratulations to her! And enough sour grapes from the old guard!
Thank you, Cindy, for having the courage to write publicly about these issues, and thank you, Orcas Issues editors, for having the wisdom to publish them. These are not easy matters to discuss on a small island.
What you home in on is one of the major problems of representative democracy, in which our elected representatives think they know better than the people who elected them. Or they are influenced by other considerations I don’t want to delve into.
We got a small sampling of this political behavior last year when the great number (over 400) of Orcas Islanders signed petitions objecting to a concrete sidewalk being imposed on Haven Road by the County, and the vast majority of speakers at a public hearing echoed these objections. Even the Eastsound Planning Review Commission urged the Council members to take another 30 days to involve public input in alternative designs for a pedestrian walkway. But prodded by Jamie Stephens, they voted unanimously to proceed with the plans. So now we have the concrete Sidewalk to Nowhere That Nobody Uses.
As one who is familiar with probability and statistics, it strikes me as curious indeed that ALL THREE of our Council members voted for Liz Lovelett in what SHOULD have been independent votes — thereby making up the bulk of the votes in her favor and putting her in office. Was her presentation so overwhelming that they could justify turning their backs on a far more experienced candidate who was the clear choice of the County Democratic Party and the broader electorate?
This is a question well worth answering.
I just want to confirm that the part about me is accurate. “Learner emailed me about that call, which he initiated, the day after it happened. It was a courtesy call in which he informed Lytton of his intention to withdraw his name. They discussed
Learner’s policy issue concerns and Kris was impressed with his knowledge and asked to keep in touch for agricultural policy and food security advice.” It is notable that neither Rick or Jamie reached out to me to inquire about my phone call with Kris (which I initiated and I have the phone records to prove it). Instead of starting a rumor that Kris called me and pressured me to withdraw they could have easily picked up the phone and given me a ring to discuss, and if they had they would have learned that it was not politically motivated but for personal reasons that I withdrew. As I stated in my withdrawal letter (https://theorcasonian.com/letter-to-editor-im-withdrawing-from-consideration-in-40th-district-senate-appointment/) my primary reasons for withdrawal were “wanting to be here for my family during some difficult times and my desire to continue leading the Orcas Food Co-op through its next stage of growth and development.” Without getting too much into the details, my mom was recently diagnosed with cancer and in the days leading up to withdrawing we had received news about the cancer that was not favorable. The fact that Jamie and Rick told people they suspected my withdrawal and support for Kris was politically motivated in order to position myself for a County Council run is hurtful and wrong. Not only that, but if that suspicion was in Rick and Jamie’s mind at the time they voted then I fear that it may have clouded their judgement in their ultimate vote. Right now I am focused on family and work, and in fulfilling my duty as a Democratic Precinct Committee Officer and State Committee Member. I wish Liz the best and I will support her any way I can as our State Senator. When she won the appointment I immediately emailed her to congratulate her and offer my support. She responded and sounded eager to work with me on food and ag policy, which I appreciate. It is important that people know that my philosophy as a Precinct Committee Officer is that I represent the wishes of my precinct, which is essentially the greater Eastsound area. As a PCO I received a lot of input over the couple of weeks leading up to the appointment. The input I received was split pretty evenly between people supporting my candidacy and those asking me to support Kris. Once I decided to withdraw, supporting Kris was an easy choice for me, not because there was anything particularly wrong with Liz Lovelett, but because I believe fundamentally that as a representative of my precinct and community I should vote in accordance with the will of my constituents. I wish that was the case for all our elected representatives.
Mitchell – In the interests of full disclosure, I got involved with Democratic Party Politics during the caucus of 2016. I did not take an office in the local party or indeed attend their meetings until the January Reorganization of 2017. With the exception of Bill Watson, I believe every one of the County Councilors has been in office far longer. You may need to rethink who is the Old Guard in the county.
I think the parting words of recently deceased Democrat John Dingell, the longest-serving Congressman in US history, are relevant here:
“In democratic government, elected officials do not HAVE power, they HOLD power — in trust for the people who elected them. If they misuse or abuse that public trust, it is quite properly revoked (the quicker the better).”
Our County Councilors need to pay special heed.
I could understand the concern, if the process/law to deal with this unique situation was, for a single party’s Precinct Committee Officers to identify and recommend a single candidate. However if I am not mistaken, the law/process is for the PCO’s to identify 3 qualified representatives of that party and the County Council to make the final appointment. Yes the Democratic Party was entitled to ensure the replacement was a Democrat because we are replacing a Democrat, but a single party is not entitled to have the final say on that appointment. That job was left to those who had been elected by the majority of all voters (Democrats, Republicans, Independents, etc.), the County Council,a nonpartisan position. Seems to me that the process worked. If you don’t think the process makes sense, I suggest that you exert your energy toward changing it rather than looking for malice by Jamie, Rick, and Bill who have a more difficult task, trying to represent all citizens, regardless of party politics.
If Lovelett is pro-refineries, that may be the biggest concern here.