State Sen. Emily Randall made major inroads with the environmentalist vote with an endorsement from a key conservation group in the race for Democratic Rep. Derek Kilmer’s U.S. House seat.
Randall’s campaign blasted out the news Monday that the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund is now among the Bremerton Democrat’s list of cheerleaders. The endorsement might be a watershed moment in the 6th District’s intra-party face-off between Randall and Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz.
The League of Conservation Voters has helped send lawmakers to statehouses and Congress for more than 50 years. Endorsements from the League can make or break candidates’ chances with environmentalists. The race for the 6th CD is drawing tons of cash and every green thumbs-up could decide who the 6th sends to the other Washington.
Randall’s ever-growing endorsement list includes U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, Planned Parenthood, Washington House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, whose Tacoma district is in the 6th, departing Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, and former Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark.
Meanwhile, Franz’s equally long list of endorsers includes 13 tribes around Washington State, a cohort of Democratic state lawmakers, Kilmer, and firefighter unions.1 Originally elected with strong support from wealthy environmentalists, her clout with the greens has waned amid criticisms of how she’s steered the Department of Natural Resources’ logging practices. Franz’s would-be successor, Dave Upthegrove, has promised to rewrite the rulebook on that front.
Both Randall and Franz are running on green jobs and curbing fossil fuels. Last summer, Franz ordered the Department of Natural Resources to abide by a project labor agreement—a quasi-pledge to use union labor—on any clean energy project on state lands.
Expect the 6th CD race to get more competitive and expensive between now and the August primary. (Tim Gruver)
Rising Hispanic Officeholders in the NW
Rafael Bernal of The Hill is out with a piece on the increasing number of Hispanic officeholders in the Pacific Northwest. He cites the 2022 election of U.S. Reps. Marie Glusenkamp Perez, in Washington’s 3rd District; Andrea Salinas (2), D-OR, and Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-OR. In the hunt this year are Gresham City Councilor Eddy Morales, who’s running to replace Congressman Earl Blumenauer in a solidly Democratic Portland-area district, and state Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, who, as mentioned above, is running in Washington’s 6th. The piece also notes the growing Latino caucus in the Washington Legislature. (Paul Queary)
Footnotes:
1. The Department of Natural Resources is the largest employer of wildland firefighters in WA.
2. Salinas was both an architect and a beneficiary of an epic gerrymandering effort in Oregon in 2021, when she was chair of the redistricting committee in the Oregon Legislature, drawing her home into the district she now holds. The effort partially backfired for Democrats when Chavez-DeRemer flipped the radically redrawn 5th District, which now stretches from the PDX suburbs all the way to Bend.
This article first appeared in the authors’ political newsletter, The Washington Observer.
That is rather odd to see Senator Murray bucking the establishment candidate. This looks like an interesting race between two quality candidates.