As the Pierce County Council considers replacing Auditor Pat McCarthy, the local Democratic Party has three suggestions. Whether the council must heed those suggestions remains a matter than may be decided in court.

The county Democratic Party met Saturday to select three nominees for county auditor.

The party’s first choice: Katie Blinn, assistant director of elections for the Washington Secretary of State’s Office.

Second choice: Tacoma City Councilwoman Julie Anderson.

Third choice: Beckie Summers-Kirby, who served two terms as vice chair of the local party and has served on the Tacoma library board.

A fourth candidate – Beverly Davidson, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for county assessor-treasurer – was not selected.

Blinn helps oversee elections for Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed. She served on a committee that advised McCarthy about implementing Pierce County’s ranked choice voting system. And she monitored last month’s election for the secretary of state’s office.

“She’s done a phenomenal job working with auditors around the state,” local Democratic Party Chairman Nathe Lawver said today. “She brings a lot of knowledge of elections to the (auditor’s) position.”

Lawver also praised Anderson as an experienced nonprofit manager who can bring a strong sense of customer service to the auditor’s job. And he praised Summers-Kirby’s community involvement and organizational skills.

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Lawver plans to submit the party’s nominees to the council by early next week. Now the question is whether the council will listen as it seeks to replace McCarthy, who won election as county executive last month.

Under the county charter, it’s the council’s job to fill vacant elected offices. For partisan offices it must choose from three nominees submitted by the party of the person leaving the office.

McCarthy was twice elected auditor as a Democrat. But last year Pierce County voters approved charter amendments making the auditor, assessor-treasurer and sheriff nonpartisan offices.

The charter is silent on how to fill vacancies for nonpartisan offices. But Democrats say that because McCarthy was elected as a Democrat they should get to nominate her successor. They believe the office will not become officially nonpartisan until a special election is held next November.

The council’s Republican majority disagrees. They say a nonpartisan process is required to fill what is already a nonpartisan office.

Earlier this month, the council – on a 4-3 party-line vote – approved a process for replacing the auditor that does not rely on Democratic Party nominations. Instead, candidates will apply directly to the council, which plans to name McCarthy’s replacement on Jan. 13. The council is accepting applications until Jan. 5.

Democrats have threatened to take the county to court. Lawver said the party may file a lawsuit before the council fill’s the auditor’s post.