Mar 13

9th CD Democrats Activists’ Meeting: March 31st, 2013

Date: Sunday, March 31st, 2013
Time: 1:30-3:00
Location: Renton Public Library
100 Mill Avenue South
Renton, 98057, 425-226-6043

When the state committee people met to elect the 9th CD member for the WSDCC Executive Board a great deal of interest was expressed in a meeting of activists from across the congressional district. The purpose of this meeting is to introduce ourselves and discuss further possibilities for organizing at the CD level. Please pass this information along to your executive board and general membership. Anyone interested is welcome to attend. I am hoping that by sending this out a month in advance it should be possible for everyone to announce it in their regular meetings.

Bryan Kesterson,
47th LD Washington State Democratic Central Committeeman

Mar 10

Reorganization & GM Minutes, January 15th 2013

The minutes from the Reorganization & General Meeting on January 15th 2013 have been posted.  You can view them here:  11th LD Democrats Re-Org and GM Minutes, Jan 15, 2013

Mar 08

Proposed bylaws changes for the 3/19/2013 general meeting

Hey PCOs of the 11th LD, we are proposing a couple of bylaws changes for the general meeting on Tuesday, March 19th.  Please review the document in the link below:

Proposed bylaws changes 03072013

At a high level, what are we proposing changing?

  • Endorsements: We would like to be able to endorse in non-partisan races (think King County Council / Executive races).  We need a modification in order to allow for us to do this.  
  • Endorsements: A modification to state that we cannot endorse before the end of the filing period for candidates that we haven’t endorsed before in that race.  This is a fairness issue, we should know who all the candidates are before we endorse.
  • Meeting notices: Reducing the requirement that the meeting notice goes out no later than seven days before the general meeting.  It used to be 10 days, but there are several months throughout the year where there’s not enough time to edit the newsletter & send it out before the meeting (some months only has 11 days between the e-board meeting and the general meeting).

If you have any comments, please email chair@11thlddems.org and vicechair@11thlddems.org and we’ll look at your feedback.  And… if you have feedback, please give it BEFORE the next meeting.  Thanks.

 

Mar 08

Congressman Adam Smith Townhall

Congressman Adam Smith is hosting a townhall at Hazelwood Elementary School (7100 116th Ave SE, Newcastle WA 98056) on Thursday March 28th 2013 from 7-8:30pm.

The discussion will include the following congressional topics:
-The budget
-Immigration
-Education
-The economy & more

RSVP if you’re interested:
-rsvpsmith@mail.house.gov
-425-793-5180
-888-SMITII09

Mar 08

Zack Hudgins Newsletter – March 2013

In case you didn’t get it, State Rep. Zack Hudgins sent out his newsletter.  You can find a PDF version of it here (sorry about the conversion from the email):

zackhudgins_newsletter_march2013

Mar 07

11th District Town Hall – Sat., March 16th

From Zack Hudgins:

zack_townhall

You are invited to join me for a town hall meeting with Sen. Bob Hasegawa and Rep. Steve Bergquist on Saturday, March 16th from 1-2 pm at the King County Regional Communications & Emergency Coordination Center (RCECC) in the Renton Highlands. I hope to talk with many of you about our work so far this legislative session and provide an update on the next biennial budget for the state.

Afterwards, our hosts at the King County Office of Emergency Management have graciously offered to take us on a tour of the facility and provide a glimpse into the vital work our public agencies do to keep us safe. If rock and roll history is also your style, you can also take a moment to visit the grave of Jimi Hendrix in the neighboring Greenwood Cemetery.

Town Hall Info:
Date/Time/Location:
Saturday, March 16th
1-2 pm, RCECC tour to follow
King County Regional Communications & Emergency Coordination Center (RCECC)
3511 NE 2nd Street
Renton, WA 98056

Mar 06

E-board meeting agenda: 3/7/2013

11th LD e-Board Agenda
March 6, 2013
7:00 pm Arrival to Renton Carpenters Hall
7:05 Timeline: newsletter, minutes. Notice dates for meetings.
7:15 11th LD Calendar for next 3 months (6 if we get ambitious)
Meeting topics/speakers
Endorsement meetings
7:40 General meeting
Basic Robert’s Rules
Format
Raffle rules
Promotion of meetings: who, how, when
8:00 Hospitality Team
How often, who, how to organize
8:10 Proposed Bylaw Changes
8:25 South Seattle Mayoral Candidate Forum – sponsored by 11, 34, & 37 LDs
Monday, April 29 at South Seattle CC Georgetown Campus
Need to ask for up to $150 from LD
Any interest in volunteering?
8:30 Committee Updates
8:40 Agenda for next general meeting
8:45 Adjourn

Mar 01

Top Democrats refuse to schedule votes on Family and Medical Leave, Sick Days

Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48) (left) is Chair of the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D-36) (right) is chair of the House Finance Committee.

Legislators are dragging their heels on two bills that will help rebuild Washington’s middle class and save tax dollars. What gives?

Two top Democrats, chairs of the House Finance and House AppropriationsCommittees, are refusing to schedule votes on the Family and Medical Leave Insurance (HB 1457) and Paid Sick Days (HB 1313) bills in front of their respective committees.

Lawmakers have received an outpouring of emails and phone calls in favor of the two bills. Small business owners, parents, injured workers, early learning experts, and health professionals have testified in support of these commonsense policies for healthy children, strong families, and public health. And because state employees already have sick leave, and family leave insurance benefits and administrative costs are fully covered by modest insurance premiums, any direct costs to the state’s general fund are minimal.

Read the full article here: Washington Policy Watch

and please call or comment on the bills to show support: Family and Medical Leave Insurance (HB 1457) and Paid Sick Days (HB 1313)

Feb 25

What will happen to Washington state if the sequester happens?

The White House has released reports on what will happen to the states if the sequester happens.

If sequestration were to take effect, some examples of the impacts on Washington this year alone are:

  • ¾ Teachers and Schools: Washington will lose approximately $11,606,000 in funding for primary and secondary education, putting around 160 teacher and aide jobs at risk. In addition about 11,000 fewer students would be served and approximately 50 fewer schools would receive funding.
  • Protections for Clean Air and Clean Water: Washington would lose about $3,301,000 in
    environmental funding to ensure clean water and air quality, as well as prevent pollution from
    pesticides and hazardous waste. In addition, Washington could lose another $924,000 in grants for
    fish and wildlife protection.
  • Public Health: Washington will lose approximately $642,000 in funds to help upgrade its ability
    to respond to public health threats including infectious diseases, natural disasters, and biological,
    chemical, nuclear, and radiological events. In addition, Washington will lose about $1,740,000 in
    grants to help prevent and treat substance abuse, resulting in around 3800 fewer admissions to
    substance abuse programs. And the Washington State Department of Health will lose about
    $174,000 resulting in around 4,300 fewer HIV tests.

The full report is here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/sequester-factsheets/Washington.pdf

Feb 21

Open States: A great tool to track what’s going on in the Legislature

open states

Open States is a great tool for tracking what’s going on in the Legislature: Bills, Meetings, Committees: Finding your Legislators.  There’s even a free app for iPhones and iPads:

http://openstates.org/wa/

Thanks Christopher Anderson!

 

Feb 21

WA State Legislature: See which bills our Legislators are sponsoring

Finding out which bills our Legislators are sponsoring this session is easy.  Here’s how you do it:

  1. Find your legislator on this website: 
    1. For House members, click here: http://www.leg.wa.gov/House/Representatives/Pages/default.aspx
    2. For Senators, click here: http://www.leg.wa.gov/Senate/Senators/Pages/default.aspx
  2. Find your Legislator’s name and click on it
  3. Click on the Bill Sponsorship link
    bill sponsorship
  4. You will now see the bills this Legislator sponsored.
    bills sponsored

Feb 21

WA State Legislature: How to comment on a bill

As of this 2013 session, the public can now comment on bills under consideration in the state legislature.  This is incredibly useful, as many of us don’t have the time to venture down to Olympia to give in-person opinions on laws under consideration.  Here’s how you do it:

  1. Go to the Legislature’s website: http://www.leg.wa.gov/pages/home.aspx
  2. Click on the Bill Search tab on the page:
    bill search
  3. Enter the bill number you’re searching for and click Search:
    bill search number
  4. Click on the “Comment on this bill” button
    comment on this bill
  5. Select a position (Oppose, Neutral, Support), then type your comment.  When you’re done, click the Submit button.
    comment
  6. If you don’t have a user account, you’ll be requested to create one.  If you have a user account, you’re done.

Feb 20

Bylaws Update 2/19/2013

Last night, we voted to update our bylaws.  The update just contains some minor housekeeping (cleaning up a few lines of data that didn’t belong anymore… basically, old dates and page numbers).

The updated bylaws are viewable here: https://www.11thlddems.org/bylaws/

Stay tuned for future updates from our rules & bylaws committee.

Feb 20

Progressive Radio in Seattle Update & Petition, 2-19-13

Subject: Progressive Radio in Seattle Update, 2-19-13

Meeting with a KPTK Insider

Our Progressive Radio in Seattle (PRS) Team had a meeting this past week with a former advertising sales person for KPTK who provided us with some interesting information about the demise of 1090 Progressive Talk.

  • 1090 has been owned by CBS since its inception and was the only progressive talk station owned by CBS in the country.
  •  CBS chose to not spend any money on advertising for KPTK and did minimal guerilla marketing for promotion.
  • When KPOJ in Portland first became a progressive talk station, they spent money on advertising and it did well for the first year.

Please help us build signers on our petition

Our SignOn petition has over 9,100 signers.  We want to build it to over 10,000.  If you know someone who hasn’t signed yet and would be interested in what we are doing, please send them the link: “Don’t Let Seattle Lose Progressive Radio” http://signon.org/sign/dont-let-seattle-lose-1?mailing_id=9335&source=s.em.cr&r_by=396352

When we’re ready, MoveOn will pay for making one set of paper copies for us to deliver.  The plan is to create a media event, if we can find a reporter that wants to cover it.  We can deliver electronic copies of the signers anytime.

Continue reading

Feb 20

Pavone Announces Candidacy for 2013 Renton City Council Race

Current Renton City Councilman Rich Zwicker said he’ll step down at the end of 2013 and endorsed Pavone as his replacement.

From the Renton Patch: http://bit.ly/Xx4zjs

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