Hello Democrats and happy April 1st! Don’t worry - we didn’t put any April Fools pranks in this email! The GOP owns the “fool” space quite well.

Legal Update Vs Conservative Conspiracy Theorists - Back in October, when conservative conspiracy theorists who believe that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump sued several Washington counties calling for baseless “audits,” the party jumped into action immediately, and we filed an injunction seeking to stop these attacks on the integrity of our elections.

This week we got an update on one of the cases, in Lincoln County. No surprise – we won! Spokane County Superior Court Judge Michael Price ruled that the plaintiff’s claims were “frivolous and advanced without reasonable cause,” and agreed to sanction the plaintiffs, awarding costs and fees to the defendants.

Time and again, conservative activists across our country and our state have tried to undermine the very bedrock of our democracy - our free and fair elections - with these baseless attacks on the 2020 election results. Democrats won’t stop fighting to uphold public faith in our democracy and to hold accountable the Republican Party leaders who intentionally foster these conspiracies for their own political gain. These ridiculous lawsuits are driven by Donald Trump’s endless promotion of these conspiracies and from Republican leaders’ willingness to indulge them, with the Washington State and King County Republican Parties running preposterous “election integrity committees” led by fraudsters and scam artists like Bill Bruch of Skagit County.

We have to come together as a state and a country and put a stop to them, with a decisive rejection of their party and their willingness to promote misinformation and distrust in our elections in service of their pursuit of power. This week’s ruling was another win for democracy, and there’s more to come.

Cool New Democratic Merch - We wanted to make sure you heard our exciting announcement about the new merchandise available now through our webstore! We’re thrilled to say that all of our products are 100% USA and union made, and they’re a great way to show the world that you’re a proud Democrat. Additionally, the proceeds go towards our Coordinated Campaign, the only program totally focused on getting out the Democratic vote everywhere in Washington State! Help us meet our fundraising goals so we can hire the organizers we need to win by shopping with us: https://store.wa-democrats.org

You all know how I love to support our rural Democrats, so my favorite is the Dirt Road Democrat lineup - I’ve already heard so many people say how much they love it - but we’ve got apparel, stickers, bags, and more.Take a look. There’s something for everyone!

For folks getting an early start on shopping, you can enter the code “LETSORGANIZE” to receive 10% off your entire order!

Major Party Events Coming Up
Last weekend, our legislative districts caucused and elected hundreds of delegates from across the state who will convene and represent Democrats’ from their local communities at our state convention in June. In total, we expect 1,700 Democrats at the Convention – more than twice as many as for our 2018 state convention! You will not want to miss it, and more information about our speakers and gala event will be coming out soon.

The fact that we had many more people running for delegate now than four years ago is a great sign for the grassroots enthusiasm for the party right now. Thank you to all our LD organizations for running their caucuses, and a HUGE thank you to everyone who ran for delegate!

We’ve got two big party events coming up. First, from May 11th-13th, the Association of State Democratic Committees will be holding its spring meeting in Seattle, hosted by us! The ASDC’s membership consists of the governing Democratic organizations from all 57 states and U.S. territories. Their function is to bring together State Party Chairs, Vice Chairs, staff, and DNC members – the individuals who lead the grassroots effort to get out the vote and help terrific candidates win each and every electoral cycle. This meeting is an opportunity for State Democratic Party leaders to come together, establish our strategy for 2022, and set the course for victory in November. Do come join us for some panels, and events!

I’m excited for Democratic leaders from across the country to be here in lovely Washington state, with the best state party in the country, to learn from each other so we can organize and win this year. It’s going to be a fantastic event!

A month later, we will be holding our state convention on June 24th-25th in Tacoma, where our delegates will assemble to work on critical issues like our platform and to hear from our Democratic leaders. As mentioned, I’m looking forward to announcing some of the special guest speakers who will be joining us, but I know the convention will have us all fired up for a summer of getting out the vote!

Decline To Sign I-1929 - The seven super-rich GOP donors and one GOP political consultant who want to overturn the capital gains tax on the wealthy that was passed last year have a number for their initiative; it looks like they’ll be campaigning to roll back this measure to fund education and early learning – to the tune of $500 million dollars – as I-1929.

This tax would be paid by a tiny percentage (fewer than 2 out of 10,000) of Washington’s richest people - folks who make more than $250,000 a year in profits from selling stocks and investments alone - and will raise half a billion dollars a year for education and early learning. At a time when students and teachers need our support, we should be increasing funding for schools, not cutting it - but that’s just what the Republicans are doing. Join me in declining to sign I-1929 when you see signature gatherers out in public!

Something to Read - You can catch up on the latest involving Donald Trump and his role inciting the January 6th insurrection attempt in this Washington Post column published yesterday. A judge’s ruling ordering the release of communications between Trump and his lawyer, John Eastman, makes it clear that it’s likely Trump was engaged in criminal activity as he worked to overturn the election and prevent the peaceful transfer of power to President Biden:

The court’s ruling came in a lawsuit that one of Trump’s lawyers, John Eastman, brought against the select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Eastman served as the legal architect of Trump’s effort to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count numerous states’ electoral votes on Jan. 6. Eastman asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 146 times at his deposition before the select committee. His lawsuit argued that some of his emails should be kept from the committee because they were shielded by either attorney-client privilege or “work product” privilege, which protects confidential documents prepared for litigation. The opinion by Carter, a former prosecutor nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton, makes clear Eastman has good reason to worry about criminal consequences.

The attorney-client and work-product privileges must give way if they involve communications that further the commission of a fraud or crime. And Carter found that at least one of the emails did just that.

Carter’s decision was at once pedestrian and remarkable. Pedestrian, because all the 44-page opinion did was methodically recite the law and apply it to the facts. Remarkable, because of where its analysis inexorably led: that a sitting president of the United States, with the help of his lawyer, “more likely than not” violated two federal criminal laws in a desperate effort to keep himself illegally in power.

I don’t want anyone to become numb to what Republicans are up to and have been for years. We should all be angry at the levels they’ll stoop to in their desperate pursuit of power. We need to make it clear to voters in our communities what their choice is - between a party that will stand up for our democracy or a party that happily promotes misinformation and conspiracies to undermine the bedrock of our country if it suits their drive for power.

We can’t let them get away with it! That’s why I’m making sure our party takes action like the legal injunction I wrote to you about above. But we need your help, too, as donors and volunteers, to make sure we have the financial support to take legal action like that (our lawyers are very, very good, but they aren’t cheap) and the people power it takes to go out and beat these Republicans fair and square at the polls. Thank you for your help and support as always - together, we can do this.

With gratitude,

Tina Podlodowski

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Washington State Democrats
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