It's not just the 17th...

...that's having problems with this whole "nomination" business. David Postman picks up the story from PolitickerWA.com:

The 36th District Executive board met last Thursday and decided that the use of a handful of PCOs, some of whom were appointed, was too undemocratic a way to choose a party nominee when there were so many thousands of people interested in the political process this cycle.

After this decision was made, District Chair Peter House both mailed Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz a letter and sent him an e-mail notifying him of their decision not to nominate either of their candidates for State Representative, John Burbank or Reuven Carlyle.

Pelz then told the 36th LD almost immediately that if they do not change their mind and use the PCOs to choose a nominee, then John Burbank would be the one. Pelz affirmed that, in the absence of a choice by the LDs, the state party is in charge of the decision.

[...]

Furthermore, there was the issue of we didn't sign up for this.

"It was noted that the candidates currently running for the most part decided to run before these rules were in place. So a question of fairness was an issue to candidates, and PCOs who were not elected with the understanding that they would be nominating candidates. "

In Clark County, we've had very similar static from the PCO's of the 17th LD in selecting a nominee for the state senate position. One activist is not very happy with having to change the by-laws to accommodate the diktat of the state party, and has their own by-law change proposal:

Given that the people of the 17th Legislative District lack such basic intelligence as to allow them to differentiate between an Aardvark and an Artichoke.
- And further, that we disavow any pretense of participation in any democratic process.
- And further, that we have no faith in the democratic electorate.
- And further, we now realize that winning is the only objective and as a corollary, we thus relinquish any respect for our own integrity.

The only problem with this line of thinking is that the state party will simply impose a pick from above if the PCOs decide to balk at modifying their by-laws and holding the nomination vote. Rather than reject the process outright, PCOs may ultimately end up simply rejecting the candidate who has perception of official state party support. And that candidate right now is Martin Hash, simply based on his ability to self-fund.

The 17th LD State Senate primary is shaping up to be a grassroots supported candidate vs. a wealthy self-funded candidate battle. In a Democratic wave election year, and with the thousands of Obama supporters who turned out for the precinct caucuses, the grassroots candidate, David Carrier, has a far better chance than would normally be given.