Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 12:00 AM
Ferguson gets party's 1st District nomination
By Eric Pryne
Seattle Times staff reporter
Reverting to a candidate-selection method they haven't used in more than a century, King County Democratic activists last night chose Metropolitan King County Councilman Bob Ferguson over fellow Councilwoman Carolyn Edmonds to be the party's "nominee" in the new 1st Council District this fall.
The vote, limited to party-precinct-committee officers from the heavily Democratic district, was 381-288. Incumbents Edmonds of Shoreline and Ferguson of Seattle were pitted against each other after the council was downsized last fall from 13 members to nine and the districts redrawn.
The significance of last night's back-to-the-future "nominating convention" in Bellevue won't be decided until next month, when a federal judge hears the major parties' challenge to the "top two" primary that state voters approved in November.
For now, Democrats and Republicans contend that only candidates chosen at party conventions are entitled to appear on the ballot with the party label. The two state party chairmen have urged losing candidates to not file in late July.
Secretary of State Sam Reed, a defender of the "top two" system, has said the conventions have no legal significance. He also has indicated that elections officials will allow other candidates besides the parties' choices to label themselves Democrats or Republicans on the September primary ballot.
Before last night's convention, neither Ferguson nor Edmonds would say what they would do if they didn't win. After the vote, however, Edmonds said she would almost certainly file — as a Democrat.
"I'm running," she said. "I've raised more than $100,000, and I've got an endorsement list that is so Democratic."
Ferguson didn't criticize Edmonds for not accepting the convention's outcome.
Edmonds had the backing of most big-name Democrats, including King County Executive Ron Sims. Ferguson benefited from a long-standing intra-party rift in the legislative district Edmonds once represented in Olympia.
He attributed his victory to extensive doorbelling. "People are less interested in who's endorsed you and more interested in what you have to say on their front porch and in their living room."
Democrats also chose "nominees" for county executive and six other County Council seats. Only the Edmonds-Ferguson race was contested.
King County Republicans held a similar convention earlier this month. The gatherings are a big part of the parties' challenge to the constitutionality of the new primary.
For 65 years, party nominees were chosen in a "blanket primary" that allowed people to vote for candidates from more than one party. After federal judges struck down that system in 2003, legislators replaced it with a "Montana" primary, favored by the parties, that required voters to pick one party on their ballots and vote only for that party's candidates.
Its replacement, the top-two primary, was approved by initiative. It again allows primary voters to pick candidates from any party — only now the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, move on to the general election.
The parties are attacking the top-two system on two fronts in U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly's court. They argue that the primary is unconstitutional because it violates their freedom to associate. And if it is constitutional, they add, it isn't really a "nominating" primary, so they should be entitled to pick their standard-bearers at conventions like the one last night.
Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231
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