‘Underdog’ Tri-Cities political party makes rare endorsements in nonpartisan races
Benton County Democrats will back a small slate of Tri-City-area candidates this November after several years of keeping their hands out of local nonpartisan elections.
It’s a significant departure from longstanding tradition that the party has kept to not endorse or financially backing candidates in races where candidates do not declare a political party.
But party leaders are coming to terms with the public’s changing attitudes toward politics, especially as local races for seats on city councils and school boards become increasingly more politicized.
At its general meeting last Thursday, Benton County Democrats voted unanimously to endorse two candidates — one of whom is running for governor next year — and recommend another candidate for office.
“We’ll become too much of the underdog if we do nothing,” said Justin Raffa, the party’s state committeeman and elections committee chair.
Democrats say these discussions of nonpartisan endorsements have been percolating among party leadership for about six years now.
In a statement released after the meeting, Chair Misty Muchlinski said the decision was driven in part by an “unbalanced landscape” created by the Benton County Republicans, who choose to regularly endorse in nonpartisan races.
Voters are less compelled to research a candidate’s platform and qualifications based solely on their partisan identity, and may make assumptions that candidates who are not endorsed by the Republican Party fall in line with the Democrats, she said.
Benton County Republicans leaders could not be reached Friday on the issue.
“While we understand that this is a change in our approach to local nonpartisan elections, we recognize that the nature of politics itself has changed and so we must adapt with the times,” Muchlinski wrote. “We will continue to respect the nonpartisan nature of these races and only act in the best interest of candidates who most closely align with our party’s values and priorities.”
The general election in Tuesday, Nov. 7, and county elections offices plan to begin mailing ballots out to registered voters Oct. 20.
In all, 141 candidates in the Tri-Cities area are running for 100 seats on local city councils, fire district boards and school boards.
Across the river in Franklin County, Democrats will continue to not endorse in nonpartisan races, said Chair Ana Ruiz Kennedy.
GOP leaders in both Benton and Franklin counties are continuing to back and bankroll candidates.
Who they’re backing
Benton County Democrats endorsed Maricela Sanchez for Prosser City Council Position No. 4 and made a recommendation of Elizabeth Vann-Clark for Richland City Council Position No. 2.
Endorsements and recommendations are different things, Raffa explained.
Endorsements are their “full Democratic stamp” of approval. Candidates need to declare party affiliation before getting that stamp, which can also come with a lump sum financial contribution.
Recommendations are softer and are made to show which candidate in a race would align closer to a party’s values.
“We feel like we’re increasingly in a losing position when the opposition has chosen to make full blown endorsements with full blown contributions,” Raffa said. “It’s put a lot of pressure on us to ask what is our obligation here, what is our role?”
Fifty-eight seats are up for grabs this year in Benton County, and Raffa said they only reached out to candidates in 19 races that they saw as competitive.
Of that, only two candidates — Sanchez and Vann-Clark — showed enough interest to engage with the Democrats.
“I appreciate the Benton County Democrats’ recommendation. That was a choice I made to have a recommendation instead of an endorsement because I’m not a Democrat,” Vann-Clark said.
She would like to see political parties take a back seat in local elections and see a greater focus on the qualifications of candidates running for public office.
“Because this is a recommendation and not an endorsement, I am fully funded by individuals who span the political spectrum.... I continue to respect the nonpartisan nature of our local election,” she continued.
Sanchez, a lifelong Prosser resident and local physician, was the only candidate who spoke at the party’s meeting.
“(The Tri-Cities) has been a one-party region for a very, very long time. And yet this place is growing, more and more people are coming to the community, and it’s really time that we offer some more choices and voices within the democratic process,” she said. “I think that Prosser is a place that is very, very open to change.”
Sanchez has had other runs for city council and school board, and last year led a successful opposition campaign against a bond measure that would have funded a replacement for the city hall and fire station destroyed in 2021 by a fire.
Her opponent in November is Jim Chesley. He is a construction site manager and earned the endorsement of the Republicans.
Benton County Democrats also voted to endorse Bob Ferguson in the 2024 gubernatorial election, as well as support renewal of the Public Safety Sales Tax — a 0.3% tax on the purchase of goods and services that pays for law enforcement, public defenders, police units fighting sex trafficking and other programs.
This story was originally published October 2, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
