Berendt leaving Democratic chair

The Seattle Times reported today that state Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt has decided against seeking another term. Berendt has served longer than any of the other Democratic Party chairs in the nation, having first been elected in January of 1995. I've never been a fan of Berendt and am plenty happy to see him leave. The man is a genius at political organization, but is also often incessantly negative and often hypocritical, but I suppose that is the latter is the case of most party leaders. I'll be interested to see if the state party committee will pick a chairman more in the mold of Berendt (Dwight Pelz, notably) or somebody more decent. Probably Pelz.