25th LD Endorses Hong Tran

Apparently the Democrats in Pierce County practice “big D” Democracy. On Wednesday, August 2nd, the 25th LD Democrats became the second LD to award Democratic senate candidate Hong Tran a dual endorsement with Maria Cantwell for that position. According to LD member, Jim Konschuh, the endorsement came about when he offered a motion from the floor to add Tran’s name to the list of announced candidates and offer the option of a dual endorsement.

In an email, he says, ”…There were about three dozen people at the meeting including numerous candidates or their supporters. There were 24 voting members and the majority of those were obvious Cantwell supporters (you could tell by the buttons).

When I spoke, I talked a little bit about myself, Hong Tran's past, how she differed from Senator Cantwell about the war and about trade agreements and, finally, I stressed that the primary campaign was a campaign of options and that democratic candidates should be provided access to party resources equally.

We used paper ballots with the names of the candidates preprinted on them. When it came time to vote, I made a motion that a dual endorsement option for the senate race be added. Again, I stressed the fairness issue. That motion passed 14 to 10. “I can't tell you specifically how the leadership voted vs. the rank and file since we used paper ballots. I can tell you that I was elated when the chair announced that all candidates had been endorsed. I later asked her how the vote went and she told me that there were 12 votes for Cantwell and 12 votes for dual endorsement.”

The 25th LD, which runs from Milton on the King/Pierce line to South Hill and includes the city of Puyallup, joins the 26th LD in approving dual endorsements for the US Senate race; apparently suggesting that party unity might actually be accomplished by allowing all the members to have a voice. Or, as Jim puts it,

”In the final analysis, I think that it was the rank and file at the meeting that carried the vote. It was the right thing to do.”

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue