Southwest Washington candidates nab more endorsements
With about two weeks into election season, many legislative candidates from Clark County are celebrating their endorsements. This is in addition to endorsements many of them received heading into filing week, which began on May 14.
State Rep. Tim Probst, D-Vancouver — who is running to unseat incumbent state Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver – announced in a press release that he has the endorsement of the Washington State League of Education Voters. Meanwhile, Benton posted on his Facebook page that he had been endorsed by SAFE Trust, a small-business political action committee.
Clark County Republican Party chairman Brandon Vick filed on May 18 to run for Rep. Ann Rivers’ vacated 18th District representative seat. Since then, he said he has been endorsed by several state legislators, including: House minority leader Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis; Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama; Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver; Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver; Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger; and Rep. Cathy Dahlquist, R-Enumclaw.
State Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, was endorsed in his campaign for re-election by the Cascade Bicycle Club. The group noted in an announcement that “Moeller has been a consistent and dependable supporter of bicycling. In 2011, Rep. Moeller prime sponsored and helped pass legislation creating a complete streets grant program.”
Craig Pridemore, who is running for state auditor rather than running for re-election, has received endorsements from the King County Democratic Central Committee, Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, and the Washington Education Association. He also has union endorsements, including those from the Progressive Majority, the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 21, Teamsters Joint Council 28 and the Retired Public Employees Association.
Pridemore’s campaign said his endorsements make him stand out against the other Democratic options in the race. In the case of the King County Democrats, Pridemore was their only endorsement among state auditor candidates.
“I am honored and humbled by the widespread support for this campaign,” Pridemore said in a news release announcing his recent endorsements.
The Washington Education Association’s political action committee, in addition to throwing support behind Pridemore, also endorsed all three Democrats running in the 49th District legislative races: Moeller, incumbent state Rep. Sharon Wylie, and state senate candidate Annette Cleveland.
WEA is expected to make more legislative endorsement as election season continues.
This blog post doesn’t mention every endorsement all of the Clark County legislative candidates have received. They’re just the ones that I’ve come across lately. If you know of any others, send the information my way.
Stevie Mathieu: 360-735-4523 or stevie.mathieu@columbian.com or www.facebook.com/reportermathieu or www.twitter.com/col_politics
