Celeste Bennett has bowed out of consideration as chair of the Jefferson County Democrats, leaving Marty Gilmore as the lone vetted candidate.

Bennett and Gilmore had been set to square off in an election scheduled for Tuesday, April 11 in the Chimacum High School auditorium.

Bennett said in an email Monday that she and her husband had received some housing-related news that has “added a great deal of stress to our lives,” and as a result, she decided to withdraw from the race and recommend that Gilmore be elected. Bennett said in an email that the home she is renting has been put on the market.

While Bennett recommended Gilmore, nominations from dues-paying members also were to be accepted at last night’s meeting.

“So someone could be nominated from the floor,” Gilmore acknowledged Monday.

Both Bennett and Gilmore had been interviewed March 28 at a candidate forum, during which members were allowed to question candidates for two hours.

Only precinct committee officers (PCOs) are allowed to vote in the chair and vice chair election. There are 39 precincts in Jefferson County.

Gilmore is currently vice chair, so if he were elected president, a new vice chair also would need to be chosen. On Monday, Gilmore said that election is set to happen at an April 25 meeting, depending on the outcome of last night’s meeting. Per party bylaws, if a man is chosen as chair, then the vice chair is supposed to be a woman.

Gilmore was not aware of Bennett supporting him, but did say, “We’ve run a respectful campaign with each other. She and I have been getting along well.”

CHAIR RESIGNATION

Democrats have not had a chair since Linda Medeiros Callahan, who was elected in December in a controversial vote that ousted chair Bruce Cowan. Callahan resigned for personal reasons in January, shortly before the first meeting of the year.

Gilmore was elected in December as vice chair of the party shortly after Callahan was elected chair.

“To be effective this year and next, our local party needs the wisdom and experience of the longtime party members who turned this county from Republican to Democrat,” Gilmore wrote in a statement on why he decided to step up to run for chair.

He added, “We also need the passion and energy of our newer members who have joined due to the efforts of the [Bernie] Sanders campaign, or who have joined due to fear of Trump.

“I’m running for chair to continue my outreach and to bridge the divisions within our local party and I’ll be more successful in my efforts if I am officially chair,” Gilmore wrote.

Gilmore said he was raised in the mining towns of Butte, Montana, and Hibbing, Minnesota. He worked as a member of the United Steelworkers of America in an ore-processing plant to pay for college and says he knows the value of the labor movement.

Gilmore has a degree in chemical engineering with a minor in environmental science. He said his activism started in college with the antiwar and environmental movements.

“I protested against the Vietnam War, including marching in Washington, D.C., and I helped organize the first Earth Day on my campus.”

Gilmore also said he worked for Bechtel and traveled the world, including to Tokyo, Australia and Basra, Iraq, before retiring to Utah and then moved to the Silicon Valley, where he bought a pizza restaurant and turned it into a success.

Bennett has served as communications chair for the party and was elected as a precinct committee officer last summer. She also was a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Convention in 2016.

Her day job is as outreach manager for the Jefferson County Library.

Bennett is a PCO and as such she can vote on the next chair.

In her statement to party faithful, Bennett wrote, “The Democratic Party is in crisis. We need leaders who can attract independent voters, and candidates who represent change while standing firmly on the platforms adopted at the local, state and national Democratic levels.”

Cowan was ousted, in part, after Bernie Sanders supporters rallied last summer to elect PCOs that were favorable to him. Cowan did not take sides on the Bernie Sanders–Hillary Clinton race.

At the December meeting, it was clear that Sanders supporters had an agenda and that electing a Sanders supporter, Callahan, to lead the party was part of that agenda.