Hello Democrats! We are in the midst of our final preparations for tomorrow’s State Committee meeting and I’m so excited to talk with all our State Committee members about what we’ve been up to and our big plans for 2022! From our Coordinated Campaign to our Convention in June (in Tacoma this year!) there’s a lot coming up for our local party organizations to work on and engage in. Make sure you’re fired up and ready to go, because we are all counting on every Washington State Democrat doing their part this year!
Local Parties Getting Active - You all know that our local parties are the grassroots of this entire organization, and we count on you to lay the groundwork we need to win – now and in the future. It’s your year-round work starting NOW that sets us up in a position to be successful in the General Election nine months from now.
We’ve got four important projects that we want our local party organizations to get started on right away:
Early Endorsements - Don’t wait to endorse our great Democratic incumbents, like Sen. Patty Murray. These early endorsements help build the groundwork for our organizing and voter contact around these candidates. It’s especially important for legislative candidates and folks in smaller districts, who don’t represent as many areas and who really want to be able to get their Democratic Party endorsements in their voter guide statements. The voter guide statements for both the primary and general elections are due in the middle of May and if your party waits until later than that to endorse, you won’t be able to be included in the voter guide statement! That’s a big problem for our parties and for the candidates we support - make sure you have scheduled at least one early endorsement opportunity in April or sooner.
For example, I want to give a shout out to the local Democratic Party organizations that HAVE already endorsed Sen. Patty Murray!38th LD Democrats, Grant County Democrats, Chelan County Democrats, Douglas County Democrats, Franklin County Democrats, and the WA Democrats Native American Caucus all took early action to endorse her re-election. Get your LPO on this list next!
PCOs Can (and should) Start Doorbelling - For PCOs, the time to walk or call the voters in your precincts is NOW so that we can get that data back into Votebuilder ASAP. The data PCOs collect in the first quarter of this year is essential to the voter targeting every Democratic candidate will be able to do in the primary election and for the rest of the year. If needed, our Coordinated Campaign staff can help set PCOs up with a phone or canvass list, an appropriate script for their precinct, and either a listening or ID canvass - just ask us at organizing@wa-democrats.org.
Local Volunteer Teams - Join a local volunteer team! Our state party field organizers are already working to set up local volunteer teams and scheduling voter contact events with those teams. Search for events near you and sign up for your first shift of the year at https://www.wa-democrats.org/organizingevents/.
If you don't see an event near you to sign up for, invite three friends to join you in starting a new volunteer group, and let us know at organizing@wa-democrats.org. We'll work with you to set up a schedule and provide a script, lists, and training!
Lobby the Legislature - Get involved in the legislative session and contact your legislators about a bill or bills that you support from our Democratic platform! You can get the email address for the legislators in your district from this page, or you can call the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000 (TTY for Hearing Impaired 800.833.6388) to leave them a message. The hotline staff will also fulfill requests for bills and other legislative documents and can answer questions about meeting times and places, and the legislative process. They’re open for calls from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday during the legislative session.
Some bills I’m interested in (and you should be too):
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SB 5182, to repeal Tim Eyman’s wasteful, meaningless advisory votes on each year’s ballot. These are just propaganda to voters each year with no legal impact except to waste room on the ballot and time and money at our elections offices who have to count them.
This one is particularly important because we need to make sure all our Democrats are behind this bill so it can move forward. It wasn’t brought up for a floor vote last year, and we need to make sure our Democratic leaders know that this bill has strong support from the Democratic grassroots and that we expect to see this brought up for consideration.
Also take a look at:
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SB 5078, banning high capacity magazines for guns. I don’t think civilians need guns with magazines that have more than 17 rounds of ammunition in them. Let’s make our communities safer from gun violence!
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HB 1782, to expand opportunities for affordable housing in our cities. Let’s face it, we have an affordable housing crisis in this state, and we need to build more homes that younger people and folks working lower-wage jobs can actually afford! Right now we’re pushing folks out into sprawl with longer commutes and worse environmental consequences. We need to build affordable housing in our cities, and this bill will help make that possible.
Otherwise, find a bill that matches your biggest concerns and our Democratic platform, and pick up the phone and call your legislators!
School Levies on the Ballot - Many school districts across Washington state have levies on the ballot right now! For most of these, their election day is Tuesday, February 8th. Make sure you’ve double-checked your mail for a ballot! These levies provide critical funding for school district services and are so important for making sure we can support our teachers and school staff during these very challenging times. Check for your ballot and if you’re in a district running a levy right now, make a plan to get your ballot returned in a dropbox or postmarked in the mail by Tuesday February 8th!
Legislative Session Calendar Update - Next Thursday, February 3rd, is the deadline for bills to get a vote in their policy committee and pass to be considered further. Except for bills relating to the budget, a bill that doesn’t pass committee by that deadline is considered “dead” for the year. The clock is ticking and advocates need to be tracking their bills closely to make sure their top priorities have already passed out of committee or are scheduled for a vote next week. Both the House and Senate have begun floor action on some bills as well, so we’re starting to see legislation move back and forth between the chambers and towards the governor’s desk for signature!
The dates and the deadlines coming up are:
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Last day for bills to pass policy committee in their chamber of origin - February 3
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Last day for bills to pass fiscal committee in their chamber of origin - February 7
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Last day for bills to pass the floor in their chamber of origin - February 15
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Last day for bills to pass policy committee in the opposite chamber - February 24
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Last day for bills to pass fiscal committee in the opposite chamber - February 28
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Last day for bills to pass the floor in the opposite chamber - March 4
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Last day of session - March 10
All these deadlines will be important for determining what legislation will pass or fail, and the days leading up to those deadlines will be crucial times for advocates to push for action on their bills.
As with last year, every legislative committee will be offering remote testimony options. You have the option of testifying live via video conference or phone, submitting written comments, and/or just noting for the record whether you are for or against a bill. Here are some of the “rules of the road” you should be aware of, if testifying live remotely:
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Registering to testify does not guarantee you a chance to speak or speak at a specific time.
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The committee chair may limit public testimony (for example, one minute per testifier) due to time constraints. Be prepared to testify at any point during the hearing.
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Maintain proper committee protocol, which includes waiting to be acknowledged by the committee chair before speaking, ensuring testimony and any objects appearing in the background of video feeds are respectful and professional, and following rules for testimony established by the chair.
For those reasons, it’s a good idea to always combine your live testimony plan with written remarks that you can email to committee members and to the legislators from your own district, in case you aren’t able to deliver your full, planned testimony.
Here are some key links to help with remote testimony participation during the 2022 Legislative Session:
State Committee Meeting Tomorrow - Our January meeting of the Washington Democratic Central Committee is tomorrow morning - the action gets started at 9:00 a.m. Our state committee members will be working on issues like resolutions, the state convention, and more. Folks who aren’t on the committee canwatch on our Youtube stream here!
With that, I need to wrap up my remarks for tomorrow and get some rest tonight, because we’ve got a big day tomorrow! Talk to our state committee members then, and see more of you on the Youtube stream! Thank you!
With gratitude,
Tina Podlodowski
