State Moves Its Primary To March 26

Washington will move its presidential primary from one of the latest dates in the nation to the March 26 date recently picked by California, Gov. Mike Lowry and Secretary of State Ralph Munro said Thursday.

The governor signed into law a bill allowing the date to be advanced from the fourth Tuesday in May - a date so late that both parties usually know their nominee by then.

“Washington will now have a relevant primary,” Lowry told reporters. “It’s a stroke of real good work.”

But before he approved SB5852, Lowry assembled an unannounced meeting on Wednesday with Democratic and Republican party leaders, legislators and Munro to see if the bill would work. As drafted, either party could have scuttled the whole bill by simply refusing to participate in a date-setting huddle.

But Republican Chairman Ken Eikenberry, Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt and the others met with the state officials near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and agreed to Munro’s proposal for the fourth Tuesday in March.

With that informal assurance, Lowry agreed to sign the bill, rather than vetoing it as meaningless, or excising the provisions that give the two parties veto power over the date-setting. Lowry told reporters he didn’t want to tinker with the legislation if he could be assured it would work.

The same group, minus Lowry, will meet again soon to make the date official.

Both Lowry and Munro said picking the same date as the California primary will put Washington on the map. California has the nation’s largest crop of delegates and Washington is the second largest bloc in the West, they noted.