Democrats look to elections

NEWPORT – In this mid-term election year, the Pend Oreille County Democratic Party is becoming more active, soliciting Precinct Committee Officer candidates and holding a candidate forum for the 5th Congressional District seat currently held by Republican Michael Baumgartner. The huge 12-county 5th District includes Pend Oreille County.

Pend Oreille County Democratic Party chair Andrew Feldman is interested in the General Election that is just six months way, the mid-term elections Nov. 3. That’s when Baumgartner, a first term Congressman, faces reelection, along with most county elected officials, who are all Republicans.

Feldman is also interested in the upcoming Primary Election in August. That’s when Precinct Committee Officers are elected for the Democratic Party, as well as the Republican Party. Each party can elect 27 PCOs. Democrats have only filled eight.

“Clearly we need a few more,” Feldman wrote in an April email to Democratic Party members. “The Pend Oreille County Democrats would like to encourage you to run for Precinct Committee Officer in your area or neighborhood.”

PCO candidates must register during election filing week, which ends Friday, May 8.

PCOs are important positions that are on the front line for winning elections from school boards to the Senate, he wrote. They are the main point of information and contact for the Democratic Party, they elect local, county and state party leadership and nominate candidates to fill vacancies in the state House of Representative and Senate.

The only requirements to run are to be 18 years of age or older before the Aug. 4 Primary Election and a registered voter. Washington state has the future voter program in which people can register to vote when they’re 16 or 17. People can vote in the Primary Election at age 17 as long as they’ll be 18 by the General Election, according to RCW 29A.08.170.

Not only are the PCOs points of contact locally, they are often delegates for the state convention, which will be held in June in Spokane this year, Feldman says.

The Democrats have held one candidate forum for Democratic candidates who are running for U.S. Representative Sunday, April 19 at the Sacheen Lake Fire station.

“I made an attempt to reach all the Democrat and Independent candidates to try to invite them,” Feldman said. “Some of them I couldn’t get ahold of but Bajun Mavalawalla, Carmela Conroy and David Womack showed up and it was a good lively discussion.”

Several candidates have filed to challenge Baumgartner. See separate story.

“I think it’s critical for the 5th Congressional District that we have a Representative there that will actually be voting in the interest of the constituency,” Feldman said. “We want to see affordable housing, healthcare, reasonable prices on groceries, forward thinking, planning that leads to a better future for everybody, not just for a few.”

Former county Democratic Party chair Kat Schutte resigned in February. Feldman became vice chair, then FROM PAGE 1

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chairman, when the vice chair who replaced Schutte resigned as well.

Feldman, 64, moved to Pend Oreille County about five years ago from Spokane, where he had been vice president of Spokane Falls Community College.

He has a PhD in geology and has worked in higher education for years. Feldman grew up in the Detroit area and was active politically from a young age. He also served as an elected city council member in Las Vegas, New Mexico. He moved to Florida then to New Mexico, then to Oregon, where he worked at Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon.

From there he moved to Spokane in 2017. Feldman said the times call for political involvement.

“Politics has always been an action sport,” he said. “My aim here is to get a younger crowd involved. To get younger families whose livelihoods and well-being in the future depends on what happens locally, statewide and federally. And in the world, too.”