A green thumbs-up in the 6th CD
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.
Here’s why you should care about this: 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.
TG
Recommended Reading
Banning pornographic deep fakes of minors
Washington joined a handful of states that banned the use of AI to produce sexually explicit photographs or videos of minors when it passed House Bill 1999. Natasha Singer of The New York Times dug deeper into the origin story of HB 1999, which came about after 15-year-old Caroline Mullet, daughter of Issaquah Democratic Senator Mark Mullet, told her father about an incident at her high school where teenage girls were targeted. The article chronicles how teenage girls like Caroline have taken the lead to protect themselves and others from the exploitive potential of deep fakes. It’s also a nice little piece of earned media2 for Mullet’s longshot bid for governor, featuring a charming father-daughter photograph.
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Hispanics rise in PNW politics
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 Salinas3, 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.
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Block off happy hour on May 7 for the Seattle Politicos Mixer
If you enjoy talking politics in person with an adult beverage in hand, you should join us in a couple of weeks for the return of the Seattle Politicos Mixer. We’re gathering at the South Lake Union Discovery Center (where the first version was held back in 2009) on Tuesday, May 7. The Observer has agreed to buy the beer and wine because that’s how we roll. More details are here. RSVP to Sierra Hansen at sierra@hansenpa.com.
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A tiny dog with a badass name
Pablo Escobar, the canine companion of Sierra Hansen, who does marketing and development for the Observer. Sierra boldly claims he’s the coolest dog alive. It’s hard to argue with naming your tiny dog after a notorious drug lord. Want to see your pet in this space?
The Department of Natural Resources is the largest employer of wildland firefighters in WA.
”Earned media” is a term of art in the PR world that means “getting reporters to write nice things about you,” either via an artful pitch or simply being newsworthy. In this case, we’re told the NYT did the reaching out.
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.