Olympian, PolitickerWA, and Politics is a blood sport are all writing about this incredibly cynical mess.

Though PIABS says the Olympian does a good job explaining things, Brad Shannon actually trips up at a few places:

Halvorson and Romero both say they’ll abide by the results and do the best they can. And later, if both survive the primary to meet in the general election, both can seek the formal endorsement of the local party. If I understand this right, both could be endorsed.

Thurston County Democrats don’t endorse. Though we do nominate (for some reason) we don’t endorse anyone. We do offer campaign services, and often times (even in non-partisan races) we offer campaign services (which could mean money) to more than one candidate in the same race, but we don’t endorse.

He did get this part right:

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court let that primary become the law — while allowing for future challenges of the runoff primary system if political parties can show voters are confused or parties are damaged.

And that’s what this crazy nomination process is all about: preserving party standing to sue if they don’t like the results after the Aug. 19 primary.

We’re doing this tonight not for the sake of democracy, but to sue. We could have done the right thing, but we’re not.

So, what we’re going to end up doing is nominating either Halvorson or Romero. And that candidate will not actually gain much in the nomination. Probably, though, the public reaction to the nomination will damage the winner more than the loser.

I’ll be voting in the District 1 nominating election and will vote no (though we only have one choice) simply because I don’t like what’s going on.