April 2011 Volume 9, Issue 4 11th LD Democratic Organization Chair Martha Koester
April 2011 Chair’s Report Martha Koester
We’ve had quite a busy time in March and early April with many actions in Olympia promoting closing tax loop- holes over cutting essential services. A grand time was had by all on Larry Grubb’s birthday at Mick Kelly’s; thanks so much, Larry, for the great jazz music!
The weather is warming up, and it’s time to get serious about voter registration and fundraising. Look for some calls during the month for phone banking and canvassing days.
We’ve got early endorsements coming up at our April meeting. After the filing deadline new candidates Pam Linder (for Mayor of Renton) and Dian Ferguson (for Seattle City Council) will be requesting endorsements. I hear so many gripes about not having enough good candidates for state and federal office; we really must pay attention to these local races to get more good people in the pipeline.
Burien City Council Member and Water Commissioner Kathy Keene is finalizing her plans for retiring to Florida. Does she realize that wildlife there includes some very large cockroaches? Doesn’t matter—she’s leaving anyway, for our loss and Florida’s gain. Now taking bets on how long she can stay out of local politics there. Stay tuned for word about a going away party.
Robin Guevarra has just gotten out of the hospital after treatment for a number of medical issues, and is recover- ing nicely at home. Being in the hospital did not, of course, stop her from organizing transportation by cell phone to the We Are One rally in Olympia on April 8th and arranging speakers for the South King County Alliance of Re- tired Americans.
Upcoming programs ***11th Legislative District Democrats General Membership meeting April 19, 2011 – 7:00pm at Carpen- ters Hall, 231 Burnett Ave N, Renton, WA 98057. DINNER SERVED AT 6:30PM. We had some feedback that waiting until the 8pm break was too late for many people.
Lemon glazed chicken and Punjabi side dishes for just $6.00. Service starts at 6:30PM. On the side we’ll have Carrots and Potatoes Biryani and salad with tamarind dressing (plus some oil and vinegar for those who don’t feel like experimenting)>
During the business meeting we will have a presentation by Dr. Bobby Virk on how dentistry for low income adults is affected by pennywise and pound foolish budget cuts. He will be running for state legislature from the 47th LD to try to change this.
Lloyd Hara has asked for an early endorsement. A representative from Bruce Harrell’s office will discuss a resolu- tion in favor of requiring shoulder cameras for police. I will present two resolutions against attacks on Social Secu- rity and Medicare by our current Congress.
Jim Flynn will describe some proposals by George Summers for some issue-themed events later this year.
Meeting after the meeting
Does the break seem too short to finish conversations with people you meet? People who don’t have to get up early and don’t have other places to be right away adjourn to The Rock Restaurant at the Renton Landing to knock back a few. To get to 830 N 10th St, just go north on Burnett Ave, turn left on 4th St and then right onto Logan Ave. Turn right at 10th St, and the restaurant is on the left side of the street.
GO DEMS!! Martha Koester Chair, 11th Legislative District Democrats PAGE 2 THE 11TH DISTRICT JOURNAL APRIL 2011 VOLUME 9, ISSUE 4
Welcome to the 11th Legislative Democratic Organization
You are Invited to attend the Monthly Meetings and engage in democracy in action! Your dues enable you to receive the district newsletter, help us defer our meeting expenses, and support our efforts on behalf of Democratic candidates. We provide or participate actively in fun and informative opportunities to reach out to Democrats and other voters in the 11th District.
Your volunteer efforts will further our goal of active members in all of the 11th District precincts.
We welcome you!
2009— 2011 11th Legislative District Democratic Organization Executive Board
Officers
Chair Martha Koester 206-491-4542 [email protected]
Vice-Chair Marvin Rosete 425-255-2009 [email protected]
Treasurer Shirley Gaunt-Smith 425-255-1303 [email protected]
Deputy Treasurer Chuck Laney 425-260-5824 [email protected]
Secretary James Flynn 425-221-0883 [email protected]
WSDCC - Male Azziem Underwood 425-430-2652 [email protected] WSDCC - Female Kate Kruller 206-853-9330 [email protected] KCDCC – Male James Flynn 425-221-0883 [email protected]
KCDCC - Female Rosemary Quesenberry 425-271-4396 [email protected]
KCDCC - M Alt Roger Pence 206-276-5668 [email protected]
KCDCC - F Alt Eimly Willoughby 206-241-5885 [email protected]
KCDCC - LAC Don Bennett 206-242-9113 [email protected] Appointments Programs Parliamentarian Brendan Donckers [email protected]
Raffle Azziem Underwood 425-430-2652 [email protected]
Membership Retention George Summers 206-244-0632 [email protected]
Webmaster Robert Kangas 206-554-1691 [email protected]
PCO Activities Grubb Larry 206-243-3199 [email protected]
Newsletter Editor Young Virginia 206-650-0240 [email protected] PAGE 3 THE 11TH DISTRICT JO URNAL APRIL 2011 VOLUME WWW.11THLDDEMS.ORG 9, ISSUE 4 TREASURER
Please Send in Your 2010 Membership Dues Now (Make checks payable to the 11th District Democrats)
Memberships: ____ Regular Membership $15.00 ____ Family Membership $27.00 ____ Captain Membership $50.00 ____ Living Lightly $6.00 ____ Liberty Membership $100.00 ____ Silver Membership $250.00 ____ Family Sponsorship $100.00 ____ Gold Membership $500.00 ____ Platinum Membership $1,000.00
NAME______(Please list all household names joining if membership is for Family or Sponsor) Telephone: ______E-Mail: ______Address: ______City: ______State: ______Zip Code: ______Employer______City:______State:______Occupation______Payment by Credit Card Master Card______Visa Card______Name on Credit Card______Card Number______Exp. Date______
Signature______PAGE 4 THE 11TH DISTRICT JO URNAL APRIL 2011 VOLUME 9,
11th Legislative District Democratic Organization Monthly Meeting Tuesday March 15, 2011 March Meeting Minutes – James Flynn, Secretary Outline by Robert Kangas
Our secretary wasn’t able to make it. (We have backups for most of our key roles. Anyone interested in volunteering to be the backup secretary?)
Cindy Cole and John Repp spoke to us on the condition of the State Bank of Washington.
We approved the 2011 budget for the district with a ceiling of $8500. We don’t have to spend it all, but we need to start getting on the phones and asking people for money.
Presentation of a resolution by Gabriela Quintana on requiring mandatory sick leave for employees in the city of Seattle.
Presentation of a resolution by John Fox to maintain the number of apartments for very low income families in the Yesler Terrace redevelopment.
Ivan Weiss spoke on King County Democrats voter outreach
Joe McDermott (King County Council and 11th LD Representative Zack Hudgins spoke about county and state budget issues.
th March 11 LD Meeting
John Repp talks about what a state bank could do for the State of Washington.
PAGE 5 THE 11TH DISTRICT JO URNAL APRIL 2011 VOLUME 9,
WSDCC State Committee Woman – Kate Kruller
Last month I shared with you that the WSDCC Rules Committee and the Affirmative Action Committee would be meeting in Seattle on March 26 and 27 to develop their proposals to lay before the Washington State Democratic Central Committee on April 30. At that meeting in Wenatchee, the Washington State Democratic Central Committee will approve the Delegate Selection Plan for Delegates to the 2012 DNC Convention in North Carolina. That means we will be deciding whether to use Precinct Caucuses again in 2012.
As a member of the Rules Committee I represented you in the process of reviewing and updating the 2008 rules used last time we made delegate selections to the national convention. The default set of rules we worked on were for a caucus-based selection process. As a matter of process it is better (and easier) to for- mulate the caucus rules early and then convert it to rules for the primary process if the vote goes against the proposal.
New Business:
What is at stake with the caucus vs. primary national delegate selection decision? This year there have been proposals made in Olympia this year to cancel the Presidential Primary for 2012 in order to save the State $10 million. WSDCC Chair Dwight Pelz asked the Legislature to postpone this decision until 2012, stating that the next State Central Committee meeting in April will decide whether to use the Caucuses or the Primary.
If the Democrats and the Republicans decide to go with Caucuses, it seemed the Legislature would have ample time next January to cancel the 2012 Presidential Primary and save the $10 million. With recent budget shortfall projections, everything is on the table for devastating cuts, and it is hard to argue for pri- maries in a funding competition with social programs.
Dwight Pelz explained the caucus situation in this way:
―In 2008, we had the largest Precinct Caucuses in our history. 240,000 Democrats packed the halls, driven by the tight contest between Obama and Clinton and by our desire to get the Republi- cans out of the White House.
There will be far less passion in 2012 when we will meet and undoubtedly choose to nominate Barack Obama. He may well have the nomination in hand by the time we meet. I expect that a maximum of 40,000 Democrats will turn out for Precinct Caucuses in 2012 if we choose to hold them.”
The State Central Committee still has the last word on whether we go with precinct caucuses or the presi- dential primary in 2012. I will vote on that as your WSDCC State Committee Woman for the 11th Legisla- tive District and am very interested in your opinion on how you feel about this.
Next WSDCC Activity:
WSDCC Rules Committee Meeting Saturday morning April 30 – Wenatchee WSDCC Meeting Saturday April 30 - Wenatchee PAGE 6 THE 11TH DISTRICT JO URNAL APRIL 2011 VOLUME 9,
State Bank Conference Call 3/24/2011 Notes by Martha Koester
State bank advocate Ellen Brown has done economic analysis of the Federal Reserve. Eight states have in- troduced bills (Hawaii, Oregon, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Virginia, and Massachusetts); four other states (California, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Pennsylvania) are considering it. There is one work- ing state bank in North Dakota. States already lend money; a state bank would allow them to leverage money like private banks do when they make loans. The federal government has refused to bail out the states. They bailed out Wall Street instead. It would cost $180 billion to bail out every single state — a mere 2% of what Wall Street got. Banks get cheap money from each other at 0.02% interest, but they charge much more interest for loans.
Sam (of ESI?) has done one of the few studies to model what state banks might look like, analyzing how the Bank of North Dakota works in practice. Their main function is to provide liquidity to local private banks, increasing the amount of lending that they can do. The bank return money to the general fund has created 8- 10K jobs and added $70-200 million to the state budget.
The Oregon State Bank Coalition reports that its legislation has gotten further. In January 2009 they ana- lyzed the best features of the Bank of North Dakota. Their bill starts small. In Oregon the playing field is tilted toward large banks and away from community banks. A state bank would allow community banks to fund larger projects and keep more money local. Oregon has 1/3 the number of community banks that North Dakota has, despite having six times the population.
Representative Bob Hasegawa. has introduced state bank legislation (HB 1320) for the second time in WA State. The Main Street Alliance testified at bill hearings in the House and Senate that access to capital is currently the number one problem for small business. Given that the bill did not make it out of committee, it will be necessary to invoke its criticality to the state budget in order to get it out of the House. The main ob- stacles are the state treasurer and large commercial banks.
It is important to have the state treasurer’s endorsement, but we are not likely to get it. There has been a substantial amount of public support for the idea of a state bank at legislators’ town hall meetings—and not just in the 11th LD.
Sam was asked how he would address the WA State treasurer’s objections. Treasurer McIntyre is concerned that the state would be on the hook for the value of loans just like other banks, but this is true for all banks, and it does not stop them from turning a profit. McIntyre’s fiscal note assumed that 750 employees would be necessary—this is ridiculous, as the State Bank of North Dakota operates with 150. A state bank is NOT a retail bank, and therefore it does not need branches. In addition, the Bank of North Dakota has much lower overhead than private banks. The calculation of its profit includes the cost of operations.
Would a state bank make loans other banks won’t make? Absolutely not—it would add capital to loans that private banks have already vetted as good risks. Ellen commented on the safety issue—Bank of America is now doing with state funds exactly the same things that a state would do, and, moreover, the state budget itself is not safe right now. Profits should be considered to be gravy—the major purpose of a state bank would be to get credit flowing by partnering with local banks.
John Repp (one of our presenters at our March 2011 meeting) noted much of the public, as well as legislators, don’t understand that this would be a state bank’s major function. We need to frame our campaign in terms of easily understandable sound bites.
PAGE 7 THE 11TH DISTRICT JO URNAL APRIL 2011 VOLUME 9,
Update from Cindy Cole and John Repp
Last month we sent out notice that the Washington Investment Trust bill 1320 did not make it out of committee. It is considered NTIB (necessary to implement the budget), which means it is not en- tirely dead this session, but it is a very long shot. However, another bill has been drafted HB2040 Providing for assistance for financing in- frastructure and economic development, a hybrid of HB 1320 and HB 1915 a State Treasurer’s request bill. HB 2040 is Prime Sponsored by Rep. Hans Dunshee who chairs the Capital budget Committee to which the bill has been assigned. It has 28 co- signers. It creates a task force, similar to the pre- vious bill, that will create an operational plan for a state agency that supports financing infrastruc- ture, student loans, and economic develop- ment. The task force will make recommendations back to the 2012 Legislative Session for implemen- Bob Hasegawa Town Hall tation of that plan. Also, this bill allows the State Treasurer to enter into contingent loan agreements with local governments.
Rep Bob Hasegawa of the 11th District drafted this bill and has asked that people contact their legisla- tors to support it. A public hearing was held on April 5th, and the only opposition was from the bank lobby. The bill has a sunset clause, a way to measure the progress of the taskforce and a clear set of re- sults. It includes language that addresses the concerns of the State Treasurer, and Bob hopes these ad- justments make the passage of 2040 achievable this session.
Overall, it is a step in the direction of fulfill- ing some of the pur- poses of the Washing- ton Investment Trust.
Comment from Martha—the big dif- ference between this bill and a real state bank is that a state bank can leverage money by loaning it; whereas, an infra- structure develop- ment fund cannot. Still, the Dunshee bill would be a step in the right direction. PAGE 8 THE 11TH DISTRICT JO URNAL APRIL 2011 VOLUME 9,
Robin and John Guevarra Given Awards for South Park Community Organizing
Robin and John have been go-to people in the South Park community for many years. They got two of the YOU’RE GRATE awards for their role in mobilizing the community to get funding for the South Park bridge re- placement. The awards were made with grating from the demolished bridge. Flowers from a collection taken up at the 11th LD eboard meeting on April 7th.
We Are One Rally in Olympia April 8th
Somewhere between 7,000 and 12,000 labor union members and supporters showed up in Olympia demand that our legislature Machinist Contingent at the Rally close tax loopholes in- Fat Cat Throttling Laborer stead of having an all cuts budget. John Guevarra and I rode down in the IAM bus, and Jim Flynn at- tended with IBEW. Lots of music to go with speeches describ- ing what budget cut- ting does to real fami- lies.
Martha Koester took a picture of Jim Flynn taking a picture of her.
Side with the Poor, not Standard & Poor PAGE 9 THE 11TH DISTRICT JO URNAL APRIL 2011 VOLUME 9,
UPCOMING EVENTS
April 14, 2011
South King County Alliance of Retired Americans Robin Guevarra, Chair 1:00PM at Kent Senior Activity Center 600 E Smith St Kent, WA 98030 http://www.ci.kent.wa.us/content.aspx?id=1306
April 17, 2011
New Meetup for South King County Progressives!
What: GASLAND: Movie Night When: Sunday, April 17, 2011 6:00 PM Where: Federal Way Regional Library, Meeting Room 2 34200 1st Way S Federal Way, WA 98003 (253) 838-3668
Why: Hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) is poisoning our drinking water and increasing the chances of de- structive earthquakes. Come watch the movie 'Gasland' and learn what you can do to stop this lethal method of natural gas extraction. The Clean Water Act is supposed to prevent toxic chemicals from getting into our water supply...but instead, we've granted exemptions to the law to the oil and gas industry. Recently, a bill has been introduced to repeal those exemptions. We have to take action now to make sure that Congress passes this important legislation
April 20, 2011
Fourteen states are fighting to implement single payer at the state level. Join us to find out what you can do in WA state. Michael Dembrow will talk about what they are doing in Oregon. Physicians for a National Health Program meets at: 7:00PM Swedish/Cherry Hill Campus Conference Center Auditorium http://www.pnhpwesternwashington.org/ [email protected]
April 26, 2011
King County Democratic Central Committee 7:00PM at Renton Carpenters Hall request. endorsement early Lloyd Hara p.m. 8:40 Reports and Committee Officer Brief Harrell byMelissa cameras police shoulder on resolution of Presentation p.m. 8:10 Break p.m. 8:00 Medicare and Security Social on resolutions will present Koester Martha pm 7:50 health dental on adult budget of cuts effects on the will speak Virk Bobby Dr. pm 7:10 Agenda Approve Minutes Past Approve p.m. 7:05 Salute Flag Call to Order pm 7:00
9:00 p.m. 8:50 p.m. 8:45 p.m. 8:20 Harrell Bruce for request Early endorsement
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Adjourn
Good of the Order Good of PrizesRaffle
Renton CarpentersRenton Hall
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