Democrats' hard choice: nominate Romero or Halvorson tonight

• Published April 28, 2008

Rank and file Democrats don’t really want to do it, but Democratic precinct committee officers have to make up their mind tonight in the Thurston County commissioner race between Jon Halvorson and Sandra Romero.

The county party is holding its monthly meeting at the County Courthouse, and the agenda includes a vote by PCOs from the county’s District 2, which is the eastern third of the county. It’s hard to say if they’ll choose to “nominate” Romero, the former state legislator and ex-Olympia councilwoman, or Halvorson, the party workhorse and former Lacey councilman.

Those in District 1 will presumably nominate Commissioner Cathy Wolfe for another term.

Both Halvorson and Romero told me at the Democrats' county convention on April 19 that it was too close to call. Halvorson thought he was ahead by three PCOs, and Romero said she thought she was ahead. That is, Romero thought she was ahead until one PCO learned she favored Hillary Clinton for president over Barack Obama, and the PCO switched to Halvorson, she said.

Both candidates are shrugging about the nomination process, though.

Under rules proffered by Secretary of State Sam Reed, candidates who formally file for office during filing week, June 2-6, will identify themselves by party affiliation by saying they prefer a party. So regardless of what PCOs decide, Romero and Halvorson will mark themselves as preferring the Democratic Party — and the ballot will not list which of them is the formal party “nominee.”

Halvorson and Romero both say they’ll abide by the results and do the best they can. And later, if both survive the primary to meet in the general election, both can seek the formal endorsement of the local party. If I understand this right, both could be endorsed.

Don’t feel bad if none of this makes sense. It all goes back to the state Democratic Party’s objection to the “top-two” primary system.

The state Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties all challenged Initiative 872 in court, believing that voters’ decision to go with a top-two would violate their rights to decide who their nominee would be on the November ballot. Voters went with the top-two because it in some ways most resembled the popular “blanket” primary that allowed ticket-splitting in primaries but was struck down by federal courts for interfering with a political party’s ability to decide who could help choose its nominees.