31st Legislative District: Democratic Party
PRECINCT COMMITTEE OFFICERS

If you don't see your precinct listed here, that means there is no Democrat PCO for your precinct. Volunteer for the position! Send an e-mail to our Pierce County PCO Chair, Diane Kerlin or our chair Mark M. Boswell. Anyone interested in becoming a PCO can still be appointed or be an acting PCO.

Don't know what precinct you are in? Go to Washington State Democratic Chairs website.

Precinct maps for the 31st LD.

Below is a list of PCO's that were elected in the August 2012 primary for the 2012 - 2014 term. Want to contact your PCO? Click on the person's name in the list below to send them an email. PCO's who have an "(a)" by their name have been approved by the 31st executive board and the county to be appointed PCO's for the next term.

PIERCE COUNTY:

31-801 Robert Kennedy

31-802 Harold (Hal) Phillips

31-803 Linda Wagenblast

31-804 Bruce F. Kennedy

31-805 Diane Kerlin

31-806 Nick Derrough

31-808

31-809 Renee Rich

31-810 Anne S. Percival

31-813 Sandy Loveland

31-817 Dawn Devlin Burr

31-823 Martha J. Humphreys

31-835 Michael White

31-836

31-843

31-845 Jaime Tréjo

31-888 Tim Pearson

31-891 Greg Clinkingbeard

31-892 Kathy Lorimer

31-898 Linda G. Rutenberg

31-902 Michael Rutkosky

31-907 Ingrid Curtis (a)

31-923 Karen Willard

31-924 Jeremy Sandor(a)

KING COUNTY:

Aub 31-0062 Brian L. Gunn

Aub 31-0069 Robb Wilcox(a)

Aub 31-3335 Craig Sanders

ENM 31-0418 John S. Mayers

The following precincts have names:

Wabash George Cridland McKay

Falcon

Moneysmith

Wynoche Mark M. Boswell

   PCO Handbook Online                   here.

What Are Precincts and Precinct Committee Officers?

by Sharon Hodgins
Former Chair of PCO Recruitment & Relations Committee for the 31st LD Democrats

Every 10 years, our country's government takes a census; within two years of a census, new borders are drawn for Congressional Districts, State Legislative Districts, and Precincts, in an attempt to smooth out population shifts so that each elected official will represent about the same amount of people. Most people have not paid much attention to precincts in our state, because political parties have not had much power. Due to new court rulings regarding how candidates are selected to represent a party, precincts and precinct committee officers may become much more important in our state.

Precincts are the smallest political unit in any state; they generally include about 300 households, and there are about 5,000 in our state. The 31st Legislative District has about 127 precincts.

A Precinct Committee Officer, or PCO, represents a political party within the precinct; each precinct may have a Democrat, and a Republican, and a Libertarian or any other political party PCO. A Precinct officer is basically the grass-roots organizer for that political party within his/her precinct.

Precinct Officers are voted on every two years, and appear on that precinct's ballot. A political party can also appoint a precinct officer for a precinct, until the next even-numbered election year. A political party may ALSO appoint someone as "Acting" precinct committee officer for a neighboring precinct when the one that person lives in already has a PCO but the neighboring precinct does not.

Precinct Committee Officers are asked to identify Democratic voters in their Precinct, and to serve as their representative to the various levels of the organized Democratic party. Among some of the things Precinct Committee Officers do are:
1. Conduct a precinct caucus when necessary;
2. Make recommendations for poll-workers for the precinct;
3. Doorbell with campaign materials for endorsed candidates prior to elections;
4. Participate actively in get-out-the-vote activities and help with campaigns;
5. Conduct Voter registration.

By state law, it is the Party's Precinct Committee Officers who name candidates for an elected official who cannot fulfill his/her term of office. For example, several years ago, Republican Kent Pullen died before fulfilling his term on the King County Council. Republican PCO's for Kent's district gathered, and selected three nominees. It was from those nominees that Kent's replacement was chosen.

Depending on what our Party eventually decides, Precinct Committee Officers could have a more substantial role in helping to determine candidates to represent the Democratic Party in elections. We have about 1/5 of the possible Precinct Committee Officers we could have in the 31st Legislative District. We will be having small training sessions for our PCO's, as some of their work involves the computer. We hope that if your precinct is not represented, you will ask to become its Precinct Committee Officer. If you're interested, please contact us.