FOLLOWUP: King County Council appoints Emily Alvarado as State Senator, Brianna Thomas as State House Representative for 34th District
(First published on partner site West Seattle Blog)
(Images via King County TV)
After a process that started less than four weeks ago when new Gov. Bob Ferguson chose then-State Sen. Joe Nguyen to become Commerce Director, our area has a new State Senator and State House Representative, appointed this afternoon by King County Councilmembers. Above is newly appointed State Sen. Emily Alvarado; below is her subsequently appointed successor as State House Rep., Brianna Thomas, who is a policy adviser in the Seattle mayor’s office.
Sen. Alvarado followed her swearing-in by saying, “Let’s get to work on making life better for Washingtonians”; Rep. Thomas followed hers hours later with a few rounds of thank-yous and “I’m having a ‘Miss America’ moment; I’m going to go before I cry,” noting that her dad was watching the livestream from out of state, and that she is looking forward to going to Olympia tomorrow morning.
The appointments were the culmination of daylong proceedings in the county council’s chambers downtown. The council had three appointments to make, these two for the 34th Legislative District, as well as one for the Eastside’s 41st Legislative District. They convened at 11 am for public comment on all the appointments, then interviewed the three candidates recommended for each position by the districts’ Precinct Committee Officers, and then made the appointments, each of which was immediately followed by a swearing-in. These are all interim appointments, until the positions can go to the full electorate.
Both women appointed today are West Seattle residents, but the 34th District stretches to White Center and Burien as well as westward to Vashon and Maury Islands. The third state legislator for this district is House Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, who did not seek the Senate appointment. Alvarado was the only serious candidate for it, as noted in our Sunday report; the other two finalists for the House appointment were Seattle School Board president Gina Topp – who was the 34th District PCOs’ top choice, though that did not bind the county councilmembers – and Burien Deputy Mayor Sarah Moore.
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