Washington State Democrats Meeting Report

Friday was an exciting day and evening for me because I was charged with organizing the King County Democrats' forum on New Media in addition to the Labor Caucus Hospitality Event.

Dow Constantine, King County Executive, and Congressman Jim McDermott were featured speakers at the King County event and then we had a panel of on-line journalists that answered questions from the attendees. I was the moderator. The panel consisted of David Goldstein from Horsesass.org, Tracy Record from the West Seattle Blog, Andrew Villanueve from NW Progressive Blog, Erica Barnett and Josh Feit from Publicola, and Joel Connelly from the PI. Several of the Legislative Districts had informational tables, as did the Martin Luther King County Labor Council. Both events were well attended and I would say "successful."

I had received a phone call Friday afternoon from Terry Tilton of the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council alerting me that a handful of legislators were now opposing the recommendation of the panel that had approved the "A Plus" option for the reconstruction of the 520 bridge across Lake Washington. This plan had been developed over many years and construction could begin as soon as this fall. That translates to about 1500 family wage jobs at a time when our state's economy sorely needs them. We crafted a resolution that passed out of the Labor Caucus on Saturday morning. We then had to gather 50 signatures of State Committee Men and Women to get it onto the agenda for that afternoon's meeting, which we did and it passed. Dwight was instructed by the resolution to send a letter to leaders of the House and Senate as well as the Governor informing them of the party's support for this project as-is. I got confirmation on Friday the fifth that the letters had been sent. This is a project that affects our area because the pontoons for the bridge are being manufactured in Grays Harbor County and a redesign of the plan would result in that work being haulted. Kudos to Judy Carter from Grays Harbor for speaking very eloquently on the floor in support of the resolution. There are between 600 and 1000 jobs in Grays Harbor on this project. Plus moving the pontoons augments longshore and other transportation-related jobs throughout the region.

There were two resolutions relative to the nomination process that were heard early on at the meeting that were voted down, in favor of the process agreed to at the Walla Walla meeting last September. I believe these resolutions were out of order since the state committee had already approved a process and the successful Walla Walla resolution would have to have been reconsidered (by motion of someone who had voted on the prevailing side and approval of two-thirds of the body). But since neither one of them passed the issue was moot. We then broke into Congressional District Caucuses and voted to nominate candidates in 7 of the 9 of the districts. There was no action taken in the 3rd CD because there are multiple Democratic candidates, and there is no declared Democratic candidate in the 5th. All of the Democratic incumbents were nominated, including Norm Dicks. Suzan DelBene was the nominee in the 8th CD, and Jay Clough is the nominee in the 4th CD.

At lunchtime on Saturday I went to the Native American Caucus meeting and asked them if we could help to increase voter participation on our two reservations. Lona Wilbur (DNC member and Native Votes Project principal) agreed to come to Mason County to talk about the project to the leadership at the Squaxin Island and Skokomish Tribes. I will work to facilitate that. Perhaps we can coordinate it with the upcoming Kennedy Dinner as I plan to invite her to this event. She just got back from the DNC meeting in Washington DC and I imagine she will have some interesting stuff to share. We may wish to consider giving her a few minutes to talk about the Native Votes Project at the dinner (if she comes), because she is involved at the national level.

Our next state event is the State Convention June 25 in Vancouver. We'll be planning another Labor event, and possibly combining with other caucuses or groups. Stay tuned, should be fun. Hopefully we will have a full delegation from Mason County.

I did have a conversation with DNC Rules Committee Member David McDonald about the nominations. One of the main reasons we are doing this is because we have to preserve our ability to be involved in the replacement process (it would otherwise be done by someone other than the PCOs). I'll give a more comprehensive report at the March meeting.