Demo Chief Says Gop’s Victories Are Scaring Voters

So what’s a nice farm boy from conservative Pend Oreille County doing running the state Democratic party, especially these days?

Paul Berendt, elected to the $50,000-a-year post in January, says six months into the job he’s enjoying the work of rebuilding from the ruins of the 1994 campaign.

“It’s like stocks. You don’t buy when they are high. Otherwise there’s no way to go but down.”

That’s one way of looking at heading a party whose standard-bearer at the state level, Gov. Mike Lowry, just paid through the nose in an out-of-court settlement of sexual harassment allegations.

Plus, Washington just led the nation in Democratic congressional seats won by Republicans.

But Berendt, 39, is undaunted.

He’s rebuilt the party’s bank balance from being $20,000 in the hole to $92,000 to the good. And he insists the GOP revolution has actually been a great commercial for Democrats.

“You used to have just a few hard-core rightwingers in Olympia. Now you’ve got probably 18, by my count. A lot of people are scared of Republicans these days.”

You figure he has to keep telling himself that.

Berendt’s father, Joseph, was a Pend Oreille county commissioner for 16 years. The family raised Hereford cattle.

Berendt moved to Seattle in 1979 to work as an intern for the Democratic Party, stuffing envelopes and so on.

He never moved back, but instead worked his way up in legislative staff jobs, and finally launched his own campaign consulting business.

Berendt put his consultant’s hat back on this week, and met with Lowry for nearly two hours for a “frank discussion” about the governor’s re-election chances.

A decision from Lowry on whether he’ll run again won’t be be coming for some time, Berendt said.

Even the buoyant Berendt had to admit: “You know, this thing with Mike has been kind of a nuisance.”

Time for someone to ask the Senate Republican Caucus what part of “no” they don’t understand.

The caucus, chaired by Sen. James West, R-Spokane, was informed by the state Public Disclosure Commission in January that fund-raising during the legislative session is illegal.

The three other political caucuses refrained from the illegal fund-raising. But not Senate Republicans.

Caucus lawyers and staff blew off the PDC not once but three times when warned the solicitations they were sending out were illegal.

They even ignored a formal finding by the PDC in April that the caucus was violating the law. By then, the caucus had raised about $70,000 during the session.

A Superior Court judge ruled this week that - surprise - the caucus broke the law.

Senate Republicans’ response? They plan to appeal.

House GOP Caucus Chairman Todd Mielke keeps raking in the accolades.

Spokane’s Mielke, 31, was widely regarded as a star of the session this year for his fix-it work on health-care reform, tax cuts, and yeoman effort recruiting candidates for the 1994 campaign.

This week, Mielke was named Republican Legislator of the year by the National Republican Legislators’ Association.

He beat out 3,000 GOP compatriots for the honor.

The award includes plaques from Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kansas, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

Mielke was typically modest, saying solemnly, “It’s a great honor.

“But you know I get a kick out of this stuff,” he said of the plaques. “They’re personalized. There’s this little note from Gingrich. A ‘Dear Todd,’ and ‘Your friend, Newt’ kind of deal.

“I’ve never even met the guy.”

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