Party Designation: Candidacy Form
The official form used for filing for elected office in Washington State is uniform. It’s the same from big time Congressional positions to the non-partisan weed control district commissioner. The form requests all sorts of information; location, name, address, position for which you want to be elected, an oath of filing, a section on fees, and yes, a request about your political party. Not one the candidate belongs to, the one the candidate chooses to be “affiliated” with. Perhaps a distinction without a difference.
Plain and Unusual
A candidate can state or check the box that they don’t “prefer” to be “affiliated with” a political party. And for those who want to check the box, and disclose which party they prefer to be affiliated with, there is a slot for them to write in the name of the party. That’s why we have party affiliation names as bland as Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, and Independent. We also have people running for office who choose to be “affiliated” with non-mainstream parties like, Independent Republican, RepublicanSpirit (one word), Socialist Workers, Framer party (maybe they misspelled Farmer), Centralist, and Non Partisan Party, which we assume is different than the “no party affiliation”. (See distinction without a difference thing above)
Now we’re not through. Standing out like a lone party in the wind of tradition is the Corporate Party. Friday it was there, then Monday the 38th District candidate withdrew. Must have had some pushback from …you guessed it, Corporate. By the way, an acquaintance asked me what is the difference between GOP and Republican? And again, in the words of Henry Fielding, “It is a distinction without a difference.” Anyway.
The Real Party That Cannabis Wire Is Interested In
Were we surprised to see Rich Payne, 2nd Legislative District, filing as a candidate for the House, Position 2 and claiming he prefers “Marijuana Party.” Yep, it’s right there, on the filing list. We called Mr. Payne’s office and there was no answer. The outgoing message is in Spanish and we left a message. No returned call as of this post. We did Google “Marijuana Party Washington State.” Of course all we got was a bunch of stuff about parties, at which cannabis was served. But nothing about a political party.
So until he returns our call we assume Mr. Payne would prefer a “marijuana party” to any of the other kind of party, as would a lot of our readers. And if you’re into puns, as some of our staff are, you can play with the campaign sign slogans…about Medical Marijuana, you know something about Payne (pain).
Anyway, it is good to know that if political party affiliation preference is any indication of a legislator’s action, Mr. Rich Payne just my be able to lend a hand in a rewrite of our MMJ law.
Good Luck Mr. Payne.
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