State Reps. Jim Moeller and Sharon M.Wylie handily won re-election to represent the 49th Legislative District on Nov. 6 by 20-point margins. And Annette Cleveland won by nearly as large a margin in her first campaign to replace Sen. Craig Pridemore. We look forward to having this terrific delegation working for us in Olympia as the session, which started on Jan. 14, goes on
Our legislators held a town hall meeting on Saturday before the session in the Columbia Room at the new Vancouver Community Library at Evergreen Boulevard and C Street. The 49th Legislative District Democratic Central Committee met just prior to the town hall. At that meeting, Chair Mike Heywood resigned his position to take up duties as chair of the Clark COunty Democratic Central Committee. Vice Chair Catherine Rich moved up to head the LD committee. A new vice chair is to be elected at a subsequent meeting.
The Fighting Blue Forty-ninth is the Democratic redoubt that anchors the southwest corner of Washington. We are bounded on the south and west by the Columbia River, on the east by Interstate 205 and on the north by a ragged line from the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge to 99th Street then back north to the confluence of Interstate 5 and Interstate 205. The shape of the district has not changed much in the new maps drawn by the state Redistricting Commission and endorsed by the Legislature. To add the 3,000 voters needed to balance the size of the other districts in the county, the 49th picks up all or parts of four precincts north of 99th Street and west of Hazel Dell Avenue including the neighorhood around Columbia River High School. Three new precincts were created in neighborhods where population growth was particularly rapid over the past decade.
The district of Clark County governed by the Board of Clark County Commissioners generally coterminous with the 49th is represented by Democrat Steve Stuart.
We also are part of the 3rd Congressional District that sent U.S. Rep. Brian Baird to Congress for six successive terms. Unfortunately, the 49th did not vote for Denny Heck by a big enough margin to save his campaign from Republican majorities through the rest of the 3rd District. The redrawn 3rd District includes all the counties between the ocean and the Cascade Crest from Lewis County to the Columbia River.
Clark County has lately shown inclinations to move toward the right. We in the 49th need to push back. In particular we are looking for solid Democrats to represent their neighborhoods as Precinct Committee Officers. Candidates in nearly 70 percent of the 64 precincts filed for election at the August primary. Three races had more than one opponent and so appeared on the ballot. The rest were deemed elected when they drew no opposition. The 49th Legislative District Democratic Central Committee aims to fill seven remaining positions by appointment. Those include Fruit Valley and Lake Vancouver; the eastern half of Rose Village; Fort Vancouver High School campus to Fourth Plain Boulevard; the Truman Elementary School Neighborhood; Hazel Dell Towne Square and the 99th Street C-Tran station; the LaLonde Drive neighborhood at Northeast 50th Avenue; and south of Burton Road west of I-205 to Meadow Brook.
As noted above, the January meeting will be at 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 12 in the Columbia Room at the new Vancouver Community Library. The 49th Legislative District Democratic Central Committee usually meets at 10 a.m. the second Saturday of each month at the Teamsters/Labor Union Center, 2212 Andresen Road.
Officers through November 2014:
Chair: Catherine Rich
Secretary: Howard Leighty
Treasurer: Marian Joyce Bryce
State Committeewoman: Kathleen Lawrence
State Committeeman: Noland Hoshino
For additional information, please contact: David Michael Heywood by email at mikewrit@hotmail.com, by phone at 360-693-8809 or cell 360-771-0124