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Supporters seek Gore for ballot

Belfair man wants ex-vice president for chief executive
Brad Shannon
The Olympian
A formal effort is getting under way to put former vice president Al Gore's name on the Democratic ballot for the Washington presidential primary Feb. 19.
"I am quite encouraged by folks' interest in seeing Al Gore run and be in the primary," said Daniel Roy, a Belfair Democrat.

Roy said he has about 30 signatures on petitions, and he was just opening his first envelope from Tacoma containing additional signatures. His goal is to collect at least 1,000 signatures to qualify Gore — who has not said he is running or that he absolutely would not.

But the effort all might be for naught — and not just because Gore could ignore the effort. Assistant state elections director Katie Blinn with the Office of the Secretary of State said that the Gore petitions might not be valid.
That's because the signature-collection period does not begin until Nov. 21 under state law, Blinn said. The law says the secretary of state must first designate those recognized as major-party candidates. Blinn said the law sets a Dec. 21 deadline for turning in the required 1,000 signatures.
Roy said he'd been advised by other state elections staff that Washington law sets a deadline for filing that is 39 days before the primary. But the Nov. 21 start date was news to him, adding that he might suspend his signature gathering until he gets clarification — perhaps today.

Signature collecting
Roy attended Thurston Democrats' summer picnic in Tumwater and collected close to 30 signatures for Gore.

"I'm quite encouraged by this. I think he will come around," Roy said of Gore, who has devoted his attention to global warming rather than a campaign. "We plan to collect signatures so we have a good representation of the overall state. We realize we could easily get 1,000 people to sign."

Roy said the original idea was to bring the signatures to the state elections office in Olympia as soon as October.

Besides the Gore activists, supporters of Barack Obama, Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich have been active in Thurston County, but supporters of national frontrunner Hillary Clinton have been quiet. Former state party chairman Paul Berendt has been working for John Edwards' campaign, Thurston County Democratic Party chairman John Cusick said.

Republicans have done little locally, although former Secretary of State Ralph Munro is working at the state level for Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Cusick said it remains to be seen whether Gore will get in the race in November.
"I see a lot of support for him but I don't know if that means he'll end up being the preferred candidate in Washington," Cusick said.

Brad Shannon is political editor for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-753-1688 or bshannon@theolympian.com.