Paul Berendt served as chairman of the Washington State Democratic Party from January 1995 to January 2006. He was the longest serving state Democratic Party chairman in the nation at the time he stepped down from his post. Active in the

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...

, Berendt served as Vice Chair for the West of the Association of State Democratic Chairs and as a member of the DNC's Credentials Committee. During Berendt's tenure as chairman, Democrat Christine Gregoire became governor after a heavily fought election. She won the election by 129 votes after three counts and multiple lawsuits. Additionally, the state Democratic Party, along with the Republicans and

Libertarians Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and Minarchism, minimize the ...

, sued and overturned the state's former blanket

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

system after the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

found

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

's similar system unconstitutional in ''

California Democratic Party v. Jones ''California Democratic Party v. Jones'', 530 U.S. 567 (2000), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court held that California's blanket primary violates a political party's First Amendment to the United ...

''. They also successfully fought the implementation of a Louisiana-style "top two" primary, in which the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, would advance to the general election. During Berendt's tenure, Washington State Democrats had the best record of any state party in the nation of getting Democratic candidates elected, including US Senator

Maria Cantwell Maria Ellen Cantwell (; born October 13, 1958) is an American politician and former businesswoman serving as the junior United States senator from Washington since 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served in the Washington ...

. Democrats also won four

Congressional A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

seats plus majorities in both houses of the

Washington State Legislature The Washington State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a bicameral body, composed of the lower Washington House of Representatives, composed of 98 Representatives, and the upper Washington State Senat ...

. Under Berendt's leadership, Washington became the only state in US history to elect two women senators and a woman governor. During his tenure, Washington had the most women serving in the state legislature of any state. The party has developed a larger, more complex staff organization which includes professional database, Web design, fundraising, field, and compliance professionals, as well as a one-of-a-kind voter file database. It is the only state voter file that can be accessed by grassroots precinct workers. The grassroots of the party has been rebuilt resulting in the addition of thousands of precinct committee workers to its membership in the past decade. Paul Berendt is now Senior Vice President at Strategies 360, a Seattle-based strategic communications firm.

References

Politicians from Seattle State political party chairs of Washington (state) Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Washington-politician-stub