During their reorganization meeting on Saturday afternoon, King County Democrats elected Shasti Conrad, first vice chair of the club, to serve as their chair. Conrad beat the current chair, Natalie Reber, 237 to 75. The other candidates running along with Conrad on her Vision 2020 slate all won their bids, too—that’s David Fleetwood for first vice chair, Julia Reed for second vice chair, Josh Vaughn for third vice chair, and Jen Carter for fourth vice chair.
Earlier this year, Bailey Stober resigned as chair of the King County Dems after a 13-hour trial-like meeting following allegations of harassment and financial mismanagement. The group still holds plenty of debt, but, depending on who you ask, some combination of Conrad and Reber helped stabilize the organization, which has been mired in drama.
Conrad hopes to rise above the internecine battles and lead a more streamlined organization to success. In a message on Facebook directed at supporters, Conrad wrote, “We would like to thank Natalie Reber and the outgoing vice chairs for their stewardship over these past few months, and Sharon Mast for running a great meeting. We can’t wait to get started building the inclusive, collaborative and focused agenda that you voted for.”
Reber didn’t respond for a request for comment, and Conrad didn’t immediately return my call, either. I’ll update if I hear back from both.
