The 34th District Democrats have chosen Sharon Nelson as their first choice to replace Rep. Joe McDermott, who has moved up to the Senate. The district met last night and Nelson won the top spot over Toni Lysen and Greg Doss, whose names will be forwarded to the King County Council as second and third choices for the appointment.

Nelson won the vote easily, according to Josh Feit's account. Nelson is an aide to County Councilman Dow Constantine. A Maury Island resident, she has been active in the ongoing effort to stop expansion of gravel mining on the island. She worked with former Sen. Erik Poulsen last session to try to get the Legislature to stop the expansion. She says in a statement on the 34th Dems Web site:

She saw, during the session, that our super majority of Democrats were not always progressive on the Maury Island issue and other issues.

On a side note, I was looking at Nelson's candidate questionnaire. The candidates were asked:

4. Have you ever supported or given money to a candidate from another party in a partisan race? If so, to whom and why?

Nelson's answer:

Yes, I gave $100 to Jane Hague after Richard Pope filed for the County Council position. Pope is not a Democrat.

I wonder how many other Democrats have done the same? Are you Democrats out there planning on voting for Hague over Pope?

(Thanks to the 34 District Democrats for making it easy to follow the news of the appointments and updating their Web site with lots of good info on the candidate.)