New Thurston County Commissioner Karen Valenzuela on her appointment (via email and edited for paragraph breaks):

I feel like this is something we all did!  

Thurston County Dems certainly did our job in creating a good process for involving a lot of people in the conversation about who we'd like to see fill Commissioner Macleod's seat.  A sizeable group of interesting candidates showed up to share their

vision for the County with us.  We all voted our top three picks; one Commissioner explicitly supported our process by committing to appointing our top pick.  While I think it's unfortunate the Commissioners were unable to make this appointment themselves, I understand completely that there was little room for compromise given that each of them wanted a different outcome.  

When I spoke with the Governor yesterday, she was a bit incredulous that this had somehow ended up on her desk ("I'm just a LITTLE busy these days," she said with the smallest frown on her face), and asked for my frank opinion about why I thought that had happened.  

We spent a lot of time talking policy issues (GMA, my views about impact fees, Thurston County's role in restoration of Puget Sound and climate issues, flooding issues in the south county, etc), and a bit of time on more personal issues like what I do when I'm not working, a favorite movie I've recently seen (she HIGHly recommended 'Slumdog Millionnaire,' which I hadn't actually planned on seeing, not being a particularly big fan of Bollywood, but now I think I have to, don't I?  I recommended

'The Secret Life of Bees' to her, both the book and film, which she hadn't yet read or seen), and a good book I've recently read (turns out we've both read 'Dreams From My Father' and we both loved it).  It can't be overstated how personable and easy to like our Governor is --we're so fortunate to have her!  

When our nearly hour-long conversation concluded, she thanked me for doing this (ALWAYS wonderful when someone acknowledges a candidate for putting themselves out there!) and said she'd be deciding soon.  By the time I had gotten back to my office,

however, there was a voice-message from her legislative director, Marty Brown who, when I returned his call, offered congratulations and that he intended to call first the other two candidates, then The Olympian.  My first thought was WOW, that was fast!  She makes up her mind and MOVES!  

Then YIKES, a MILLION things to do to transition to this new role -- not the least of which are resigning both my seat on the Tumwater City Council as well as my 'day job' in public health.  I'll miss them both, and all the truly great people I work with at City Hall and the Dept. of Health every day.  

Then of course I thought of us Thurston County Dems.  We did this, my friends, and the Governor respected our process enough to essentially ratify it and endorse our choice for County Commissioner.  That is HUGE!  We all need to convey our deep appreciation to her for that, celebrate together at my swearing-in, and then dive into the work ahead!  

The challenges the County faces are many, but I think we now have a strong County Commission interested in the views of its citizens in confronting those challenges.  I'm energized by all of my fellow Dems who travelled this appointment process road with me and who I will continue to count on to help me govern effectively.  

Congratulations to us all, and many thanks to all of you who participated.  I think we did good, friends!