Dwight Pelz

DENVER -

Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz kicked off the Washington state delegation's official business at the Democratic National Convention this morning.  The main news centered around floor business, logistics, and the decision to split the state's guest passes into two time groups to allow more friends and family members the chance to experience the convention center floor.

Pelz also predicted that security at the convention could take up to an hour, and once inside the delegates should be pleased with their seats. State Party Executive Director Jaxon Ravens said that the Washington state seats report card grade would be "about a B", and favorably compared to Oregon, who has "D-" seats.

The state's two major party chairmen both painted a rosy picture of their respective factions' outlooks heading into the general election once all of the primary votes are counted.

Democrat Dwight Pelz felt particularly strong about the state's two most hotly contested reaces and Republican Luke Esser had high hopes for the slate of Republican statewide hopefuls.

The 36th District Democrats met in Ballard Thursday night in an attempt to sort out what their executive board could not do earlier this week - officially endorse a candidate for state House of Representatives.

But when all the votes were counted, the membership body ultimately came to the same deadlock.

After a motion to issue a dual endorsement failed in a vote of the member body, the 36th LD Democrats voted 107-61 in favor of John Burbank over Reuven Carlyle. Although the tally represented a clear majority of those in attendance, it did not meet the two-thirds majority necessary for an official endorsement.

One could say the Democrats' latest web video has gone viral since its release; but not the good kind of viral, more like the flu kind of viral. The video, which juxtaposes a black and white image of Dino Rossi with a series of local news reports about the BIAW's "mud-slinging" on Rossi's behalf followed by news clips talking about the BIAW's agenda.

No problem there.  

But it also plays the theme song to "The Sopranos" in the background, a move that is being harshly criticized by both the state Republican Party and the Italian Club of Seattle.

Washington's "top two" primary was in the national limelight Monday when FOX News did a story on the recent fuss over exactly which party many state Republicans prefer when they call themselves GOP.

The story includes cameos by Washington's own Democratic Party Chari Dwight Pelz, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, Republican U.S. House candidates Steven Beren (R-Seattle) and Larry Ishmael (R-Kirkland) and Spokane Party Republican Party chair Curt Fackler (R-Spokane).

Check it out below:

Kicking off the Convention Gala Bankquet, Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz continues to hit Rossi for filing as preferring "GOP" party. He is reading off a laundry list of things that the Republican Party has done in the past eight years and asserts that Rossi is ashamed of them.

Introducing the night's first speaker, he called Sen. Patty Murray the state's "favorite" elected official, and said she was the third most powerful senator in the United States Senate.

SPOKANE -

Rep. Sam Hunt (D-Olympia) just introduced state Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz in a discussion about the "top two" primary, how it came about, and where it might lead. He enumerated the differences between Washington's current setup and the Louisiana process after which it was modeled. Hunt, like Pelz, is not a fan of the system.

Pelz read from the Supreme Court's decision that upheld I-872, notably the passage that created wiggle room by stating that voter confusion in the ballots could reverse the decision.

The party chair maintains that "it is our opinion that the courts did not uphold the constitutionality" of top two when they upheld it earlier this year, but rather they declined to rule on it.

"We think Democrats should pick Democratic candidates," he reiterated, "and Republicans should pick Republican candidates."

Washington State Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz, a superdelegate at the Democratic National Convention this summer, has just announced that he will support Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.

On the day that Republican Presidential candidate John McCain comes to Washington for the first time since becoming the GOP's presumptive nominee, the State Democratic Party is doing its best to run interference on his visit. Today they released a video highlighting Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi's reference to McCain as "my guy" in an Aberdeen Daily World article earlier this year along with the Air Force tanker contract that McCain helped guide to a foreign competitor of Boeing.

"Republican Dino Rossi has demonstrated that his partisan GOP allies in Washington DC are more important than standing up for thousands of jobs here in Washington state," said Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz in a press release. "While Gov. Gregoire has sharply criticized the contract that shipped our jobs overseas and supported an appeal of the decision, Rossi stands by his man - further evidence that Washingtonians simply can't trust Rossi with our future."

Washington's superdelegate count stands at five for Obama, five for Clinton and seven undecided. State Republican deciders may know something the Democrats don't know, since they've been campaigning against Obama, without a single mention on Clinton in recent letters. The Republican decidee is coming to town, and you can meet him for dinner for only $33,100.