Not much drama in Wednesday night’s 34th District Democrats‘ endorsements-focused meeting, with five weeks to go until ballots are mailed for the August 6 primary, Someone observed toward the meeting’s end that it was likely one of the shortest ever, less than two hours. Holding it online no doubt increased the efficiency, compared to paper ballots and counting tables. Also, endorsements for some key state/federal offices – most notably governor (they’re supporting Bob Ferguson) – were made in a block vote at a meeting earlier this spring.

Last night’s meeting also featured a block vote, in which the organization endorsed candidates including the incumbents for lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and superintendent of public instruction.

Two votes were contested – City Council citywide Position 8 and state Attorney General. The council race is for the final year of the unexpired term to which Teresa Mosqueda was elected (she decided to leave the city council to run for County Council, successfully). Councilmembers appointed Tanya Woo to fill the seat until the upcoming election. She is one of four people who filed to run for the unexpired year (after which the position will go back to voters for a full four-year term). All four candidates – Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Saunatina Sanchez, Tariq Yusuf, and Woo – were nominated for consideration, and all four made short pitches to the group. None is a West Seattleite, though Woo said she had attended Schmitz Park Elementary. The 34th DDs’ rules require 60 percent support for an endorsement; no one got that on the first ballot, which was split 32 for Mercedes Rinck, 21 for Woo, 9 for Sanchez, 3 for “no endorsement,” 1 for Yusuf. That sent Mercedes Rinck and Woo to a second ballot, from which Mercedes Rinck won the endorsement, 43 to 25 over Woo.

The other contested endorsement was for state Attorney General, with West Seattle resident and former regional U.S. Attorney Nick Brown vs. State Sen. Manka Dhingra, a King County senior deputy prosecutor. In speeches by those who nominated them, both were hailed as fighters who were ready to defend the people of Washington against whatever the future might bring. After two votes that were near-ties – with Brown a couple votes ahead of Dhingra both times – the group decided on a dual endorsement.

The third position that was the subject of a standalone vote was state Public Lands Commissioner, which Hilary Franz is leaving after two terms to run for Congress. Though he’s not the only Democrat in the race, King County Council chair Dave Upthegrove was the only candidate nominated for 34th DD endorsement consideration. He was the only candidate of the night to have anyone speak in opposition to him, a person who seemed to be blaming him for non-inclusive politics in Burien. Longtime 34th DDs member Chris Porter took issue with that, saying Upthegrove had long been intent on bringing more voices to the table. Ultimately, 67 voters supported endorsing Upthegrove, 10 voted for no endorsement.

WHAT’S NEXT: The West Seattle Democratic Women are having a forum with the four City Council Position 8 candidates at their meeting next Thursday. We haven’t heard of any other local forums yet.