The Island County Republican Party publishes a newsletter, which we are posting here. We believe that the statements made by the leadership of each party is of general public interest.
Chairman’s Brief
An important month that was as busy as could be! I can’t thank everyone enough who helped with the primaries. Both those who worked directly for a campaign and those who helped in general. THE WORK IS NOT DONE!
Yes, there is a lot more to do. Now that we have candidates in the general it’s as important as ever to keep up the momentum and fight, Fight, FIGHT through the Finish!
One of the best things we can do is to make this Constitution Day Dinner the greatest. By doing so we will have the ability to support these candidates through the general election. So, get your tickets, invite your friends and let’s have a great time.
I also need to address the district One Commissioner race. Having two great candidates cost us. Either one of them would have been an awesome Commissioner. With that said, WE ARE NOT DONE YET! We are mounting a write-in campaign with Damien Greene as the candidate. He barely lost by a couple hundred votes last time and has great name recognition on South Whidbey. So, hold on to your hats and come to the dinner and meet him and other candidates as well.
Attending the dinner as of now are Ron Muzzall, Jill Johnson, Gary Wray, Carrie Kennedy (hopefully), Cody Hart, Dan Mathews, Damien Green, David Olson and waiting for confirmation from a few more. This is going to be a candidate centered Dinner! Let’s get some wins!
Timothy Hazelo (USN Ret)
Chairman ICRP
Message from the editor
The preliminaries are complete. Now it’s on to the final round. A number of our endorsed candidates are in the general election. Time to focus on getting them over the finish line. To that end, you will find links to all of the remaining candidates so you can connect with and support them.
As Tim mentioned above the upcoming Constitution day dinner will be an opportunity to meet many of the candidates. Details on tickets and prices are on page two.
In addition, you can see who most of the team will be that carries the Island County Republican Party forward into the next two years. Looks like a good crew and I look forward to working with everyone involved in the near future.
Finally, a note on some changes due to a departure and a report on the recent State Committee meeting complete this issue.
Read on!
Jim Spoltman
Chair, ICRP Communications and Outreach
| $150 | VIP Individual Ticket: 5pm early check-in, Meet-and-Greet the Guest Speakers, 2 drink tickets, VIP Hour hors d’oeuvres and special seating. |
| $250 | VIP Couples Tickets: 5pm early check-in, Meet-and-Greet the Guest Speakers, 4 drink tickets, VIP Hour hors d’oeuvres and special seating. |
| $85 | Patriot Individual Ticket |
| $155 | Patriot Couples Tickets |
Candidate information
* – Endorsed by ICRP
Island County
Commissioner District 2
Jill Johnson* – What I believe: – Re-Elect Jill Johnson (wordpress.com)
Legislative District 10
Senate: Ron Muzzall* – Home | RON MUZZALL (www.ronmuzzall.com)
House Pos 1:
Carrie Kennedy* – Home – Carrie Kennedy for State Representative Office, LD-10 Position 1
(carriekennedy4wa.net)
House Pos 2: Gary Wray – Gary Wray for Washington (garyforwa.com)
Congressional District 2
Representative: Cody Hart – https://codyhart.org
Statewide
Governor: Dave Reichert – Dave Reichert for Governor of Washington (reichertforgovernor.com)
Lt. Governor: Dan Matthews – Dan Matthews for Lt. Governor | Lieutenant Governor Washington State
(electdanmatthews.com)
Attorney General: Pete Serrano* – SERRANO FORAG – Protecting Washington’s Families; Safety, Service,
Transparency (serranoforag.com)
Secretary of State: Dale Whitaker* – Dale Whitaker For Secretary Of State 2024 (whitakerforwa.com)
State Treasurer: Sharon Hanek* – Sharon Hanek Homepage (www.sharonhanek.com)
State Auditor: Matt Hawkins* – Matt Hawkins (mchawkins.org)
Commissioner of Public Lands:
Jaime Herrera Beutler – Jaime for Lands (jaimeforlands.com) (Through to general election)
Sue Kuehl Pederson* – Citizens for Sue | Public Lands Commissioner (citizens4sue.com) (Recount
against Dave Upthegrove)
Election Observers for the 2024 Lands Commissioner Recount
If you would like an opportunity to observe ballot counting, this is your chance to sign up: https://
www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4DA8AC23A7FBC07-50882885-2024#/
Superintendent of Public Instruction (NP): David Olson* – Elect David Olson: Champion for Education – Olson for OSPI (electdavidolson.com)
State Insurance Commissioner: Phil Fortunato* – Home – Phil Fortunato for Insurance Commissioner
(votefortunato.org)
US Senate: Raul Garcia* – Garcia for WA U.S. Senate – Health, Leadership, Unity (garciaforwa.com)
National
President: Donald J. Trump – Home | Donald J. Trump (donaldjtrump.com)
Turning Island County Red
Well that was an interesting election. Most of our endorsed candidates made it through to the general. See the list on page three for full details and how you can help with the Lands Commissioner recount. Kudos to Tracy Abuhl and her team for helping to cure a number of ballots for Sue Kuehl Pederson’s effort to make the general election, and driving to have observers during the recount.
Believe it or not, there will also be a recount for two of the PCO races in Island County. Precincts 306 and 307 will require a recount. Here is how things stood as of the certification:
Once these settle up, we will know who will be the next Central Committee that will be taking the ICRP forward.
Here are the settled races for PCO:
For those of you who are new to the role, welcome aboard! For those returning, thank you for your continued commitment to making the ICRP great!
When the final races are settled there will be 45 PCO positions filled by election out of 90 possible. These are the PCOs who will elect the next Executive Board: Chair, Vice Chair, State Committee man and woman that will carry the party forward toward reclaiming Island County by providing the focus and clarity of purpose that gets our candidates elected.
Going and Coming
Dear members of the ICRP,
It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform you all of my resignation of state committeewoman effective August 18th 2024.
My husband, who was hired on with Customs and Border Protection last August, was transferred to the port in Porthill, ID and so we will be making the gem state our new home. Although we are looking for ward to bringing back to life a family farm which has been dormant for many years, I will miss being apart of this great body and the friends and acquaintances I have met along the way. It was a pleasure to serve this body and represent our beautiful county as we navigated both the good times and the more challenging times. This experience truly has been a blessing and will hold a special place in my heart.
I extend my best wishes to this body and encourage the continued pursuit in making Island County and Washington great again. May determination and commitment to what is good reside in the hearts of current and future members of this party for years to come.
So let us not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
Galatians 6:9
Sincerely,
Jessica Thompson
Hi everyone! It’s been a pleasure meeting many of you over the past year. I’m honored to be appointed as State Committeewoman and hope to serve through the end of the year. Here’s some detail about me.
I started in politics at 18, during what I’d call the end of the Golden Age for Republicans in North Los Angeles County. My family wasn’t politically involved, but they instilled the importance of community service. A summer internship in my Republican (thankfully!) Congressman’s office led to over a decade in Southern California politics. I worked on campaigns during college and, after graduation, represented elected officials in my hometown, including two years for a House member and three years for the only Republican LA County Supervisor. Along the way, I got involved in our local central committee, Young Republicans, and served as President of the College Republicans at UC Irvine. I even got a grant from our County Republican Women Federated to run a program registering voters at US Citizenship ceremonies. During this time, I met my husband, Brett (he’s tagged along with me to ICRP meetings many times.) He joined the Navy a few years after we met, we got married, and we got Moose, our poodle-mix, to keep us busy.
In 2020, we moved to San Diego. I got laid off from a great job I had started due to Covid, but a friend offered me a position to work with her Fundraiser and that’s how I found that I really enjoyed political fundraising! I worked with great teams, raising millions across LA and San Diego Counties, flipping an Assembly seat and electing more Republicans, supporting recall efforts, and helping the development goals of conservative organizations. In May 2023, we moved to Oak Harbor, and I launched Vartanian Strategies to help political candidates and organizations meet their fundraising goals. It’s been rewarding meeting so many passionate candidates, volunteers, and staffers in this wonderful state.
As you can see, like many of you, I’ve had my fair share of red politics in blue and purple regions – I pretty much built my career off it. It takes passion and dedication to keep pushing forward and working to elect common-sense legislators that believe in less taxes and government accountability. We have a great group here in Island County and I am excited to continue to work with all of you.
Nicole
State Committee Report
The last State Committee meeting on Sat Aug 17, was attended by Tracy Abuhl (Proxy for Tim), Jim Spoltman and Nicole Vartanian (proxy for Jessica). Included are a few items of note.
With Matthew Froelich’s appointment as executive director Brady Batt has moved into a role supporting
fundraising
There were several resolutions brought forward and voted on. Those are covered as they come up in the various committees below. One resolution was presented to the Executive Board the prior night to Reaffirm Life, but it was too late to be considered. There are rather strict rules that resolutions must be presented 45 days prior to the meeting. It was not brought up during the general session.
Treasurer’s Report
RNC – Grow Program
- Not solely based on votes, but includes fundraising, turnout metrics, staff numbers/purposes, etc
- WAGOP received a $50k grant from the RNC
- Created Ashley Ray’s position as a county support role
The Convention budget wound up going over because of the events that roll into it (heart of the party etc) and they took a 25k loss on the hotels as the booking did not meet expectations.
Legal Council Report
The party is not on the defensive on any lawsuits. It has been some time since this was the case. The WAGOP will be pursuing a lawsuit related to the 30-day residency requirement that the SOS and AG decided to waive in a consent decree. Based on verbiage in the Washington State constitution this is unconstitutional.
Chairman’s report
Primarily focused on Sue Pederson Kheul’s race for Lands Commissioner.
Bylaws
Three amendments were presented and an additional motion from the floor to address the failure of
amendment three.
- Updates to verbiage for consistency in referring to Regions rather than Congressional Districts – approved
- Codified that Special Meetings of the Executive Board be limited to the purpose for which the special
meeting was called. – approved (This was traditionally the case, but this change makes it official) - Apportionment of representation on the Executive board – failed (We will spend a bit more time on
this below as it was an interesting discussion) - Review apportionment formula by the next Bylaws committee – approved
Candidate Committee
Claimed candidates as republicans on the ballot (per WA Constitution/LEGAL). This means that the party officially nominates the candidates so that, should they step down, the WAGOP has a voice in their replacement.
Motion to endorse all the top winning republicans in state and federal primary election. –
Amendment – ensure that candidates go through the vetting process. – Failed
Amendment – blanket endorsement except when there are two Rs and one has already been previously
endorsed – approved
Motion approved as amended.
Election observers are working hard in particular in King County. They are stationed at the counting facility around the clock and very visible so that the county elections folks know they are they looking for any shenanigans.
Young Republicans
Adopted resolution against Hamas and supporting Venezuela’s recent elections.
Rolling Calendar – adopted
General Session
Motion – Update policy that only endorsed candidates (all across the board from the top to the bottom) have access to state party resources. Only candidates that are endorsed by state or county parties will have access to WSRP resources. This was done to correct a problem of the WAGOP offering resources to republicans that were not supported by county parties. This is to prevent county parties from having to explain why their endorsed candidate appears to have an opponent endorsed by the WAGOP.
Notes on Bylaws amendment for the apportionment of representation on the WAGOP Executive Board
Okay, this was a fun discussion. The summary of the proposal was to change the way representation on the WAGOP Executive Board was determined from an arbitrary process to one based on Republican votes in the most recent presidential year. It was explained during the discussion that this was targeted at giving the more successful Regions more representation on the E-board not to punish one particular Region. King County did not take it that way as their traditional representation has been six members and would be reduced to four. Note that the other two slots would go to other regions with a better record of votes for republicans. This caused quite an uproar with King County asserting how it is special and needs extra representation. This was countered by stating that the more successful regions should have some recognition by having more say in the E-board.
There was a lot of focus on the formula being used. It is the same one used to allocate delegates to the State Convention. No one knows when it was created or why. It counts republican votes for President, Governor and Secretary of State and then divides the representation based on the number generated.
The argument was the formula was not necessarily fair since Washington voters no longer have to declare party affiliation. The counter was that it was about success in generating votes for Republican candidates independent of party. If adopted, this would hurt King County’s ability to get representation on the board. As the most populous county, they were opposed to this.
After much back and forth, the maker of the amendment offered a change so that the E-board would be expanded if King County fell short of their six-member allocation. This was discussed and voted down be cause it did not limit King County representation to six representatives only.
In the end the motion failed, and a new one was offered and passed that assigned the next Bylaws committee a job to research this and come up with a new formula for allocation of representation on the E-board.
Jim has lots of opinions on this one. He will be speaking to it at the next Central Committee meeting, and you are free to ask his thoughts at any time.
Respectfully submitted
| Jim Spoltman | Nicole Vartanian |
| ICRP State Committeeman | ICRP State Committeewoman (proxy) |
Useful Links
ICRP Homepage: Island County Gop | Island County Republican Party | Oak Harbor (https://www.islandcountygop.net/)
ICRP Facebook Page: Go Here (https://www.facebook.com/groups/islandcountygop/?tn=%3C)
Voter Interests Project: Voter Interests Project | Exploring the topics on the minds of voters (https://voterinterests.com)
Let’s Go Washington: Let’s Go Washington (letsgowashington.com)
[Editorial Policy: The Voter Interests Project is a non-partisan organization. Part of our mission is to keep voters informed about the activities of elected officials and candidates for public office. We do not endorse or support any particular candidates; therefore, we omit all email links and donation links from candidate communications to supporters. If you are interested in supporting a candidate, we recommend you contact the candidate or their campaign directly.]
