Washblog

nice post Jimmy, thanks for giving us your perspective on the forum.  I hope we have somebody attending all these forums so we get a full picture of what happens at each!

Switzerblog'll knock you out!

by switzerblog on Tue Jan 17, 2006 at 10:00:22 AM PST

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The drive by will certainly not influence me.  Dwight had an opportunity to bring his position as candidate for State Chair and chose not to.  That in itself is cause to believe that, at least our part of Eastern Washington was not important to him in gaining the chair.  If we are going bring Washington, and all of Washington, to a reasonable and rational state, blue state, we need someone that listens to ALL the state.  Not just what is convenient to them.  Isn't that what all this "big tent" talk is about?

by Jimmy on Tue Jan 17, 2006 at 11:25:56 AM PST

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I would be far more impressed if Dwight defended himself here.  That opportunity is always there.

by Jimmy on Tue Jan 17, 2006 at 11:39:28 AM PST

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was only that of the chair of the 4th congressional district democtatic committee not the endorsment of the congressional district or even of the other committee men and woman from the 4th.
AS a state committee man I was forwarded the following detailed letter from well known democrat Nancy Rising. I have looked into the basis for her comments and they look to be correct. Her opinions are subject to some debate but when looking at those chair candidates with prior backgrounds as elected officials, how the parties funding partners regarded them when in office is worth thinking about as we select a chair since fundraising is so very important.

    I have heard that a group of Washington Democratic Federation Women met with Laura Ruderman and now many may think that she is the best candidate for State Party Chair.  I strongly disagree and welcome the opportunity to explain why.

I have observed Laura in the legislature for the past few years prior to her resignation to run for Secretary of State.  She took several unacceptable votes and supported a completely unacceptable political line.  Her votes have made it almost impossible for our principal allies and supporters to work with her.  Electing her chair would severely harm our ability to elect more Democrats with every election.  

If you ever want to find two differing principled views, you need only look at what I believe (as an "FDR Democrat") and stand for in the Democratic Party and for the opposite view, look at what Laura represents.  She has been one of the most vocal supporters of the Democratic Leadership Council in the House.  In fact, Laura was carried on their national literature as a "Rising Star" of the DLC.  Make no mistake: she follows their line right down to the letter.

"But when voters hear her New Democrat message, she says, they respond positively."   --This is directly from the DLC web site with their listing of their "Rising Stars - 100 to Watch List" several years running.

"Guiding Value: Social justice and opportunity. In a just society, opportunity goes hand in hand with social justice. True competition is based on merit, not connections, gender, race, etc. Opportunity guides my commitment to education and higher education, along with providing asset development opportunities for the working poor so they can bring themselves into the middle class. The earliest years matter most, so we also need to focus on food and nutrition for infants and young children."                                                                                                                           -- Again from the "100 to Watch List" of the DLC.

In an ideal world we might say that we can proceed as though we are living in a world that has true competition.  However, I don't live in that world and neither does anyone else.  We need affirmative action so people can develop their abilities and talents to even be able to begin to compete in this dog eat dog world.  I want all people to have access to become "productive participants" in our competitive global economy.  But "privilege" has the view that merit is all we need.  Just look at the decline in college participation by people of color.  Merit has nothing to do with it.

My greatest difficulty is that while Laura will talk the language of the people, she votes the language of the special interests of the global corporations.  She votes for the interests of the global business class -- corporations and all the bio tech companies -- while voting against the interests of the people and the portion of the Democratic Party where I live and that I love.  Corporate rule, whether from the right or the left, is still corporate rule - and an anathema to democracy.

One of the most pressing problems facing our seniors is lack of access to affordable prescription drugs:  Laura spoke on the floor against prescription drug legislation because "it would stifle the investments in bio tech research and development."  This was a direct vote against the poor, seniors and people in need of low cost drugs - and people we need to vote Democratic.

She was an outspoken proponent of charter schools and vouchers after teachers from the Issaquah, Bellevue and Lake Washington School Districts spent long hours in phone banks in her first election to support her. She claimed her district was in favor of charter schools but she supports charter schools in principle and that means she is not a proponent of public education.  She admits it.  This stance has alienated our many of our teacher friends who have always stood by us at election time.

In vote after vote she has opposed Labor's efforts, sometimes voting against their top priority bills.

She was prime sponsor of a bill and spoke in favor of instituting tip credit, a bill that would have allowed restaurant owners to pay less than minimum wages to waitresses and waiters who earned tips. I am deeply offended by that position.  It is important to note that minimum wage is not a living wage and many of the women working as waitresses are single women supporting children and mothers or grandmothers.
She voted to restrict workers' compensation hearing loss claims by requiring they be filed within two years of last injurious exposure.
She voted for the unemployment insurance "reform" that dramatically cut benefits to unemployed workers.  This was by far the most serious blow to seasonal workers, many of whom worked in the fields and farms, to fishermen and those in the building trades. And it was one of the most serious blows to working women of color that we have ever witnessed in this state.
She voted for a bill granting R & D Tax breaks (SHB 2546) that didn't even make the businesses tell us how many new jobs they would create as a result of the tax breaks they got. This was a vote to give away the store as tax incentives to the high-tech, bio-tech industry that are the darling of the DLC -- completely consistent with their values.
She voted to give tax exemptions for physical fitness centers at a time when essential public services were being cut and state employees' pay had been frozen.
She voted for an amendment to the resolution that created the outsourcing task force adding a member of the business oriented Competitiveness Council thereby making sure the task force is dominated by business interests.
You can imagine how Labor feels about Laura and why they don't want to work with her.

This is her pattern; and it is the political platform of the Democratic Leadership Council.

This is not someone who I think ought to be leading the Democratic Party in our state.  While her sense of values may be perfectly consistent with a party on the Eastern Seaboard, I do not think she has a clue about the schism we have had in our party regarding grass roots organizing and the DLC.  She does not have roots in our party or our state, quite frankly.  She is bright, articulate and capable of manipulating situations, justifying her votes and actions, to suit her needs of the moment.  But that does not mean she should be the leader of the Democrats in our State.  I am not willing to endure another bout of DLC leadership in our party.

Sincerely,

Nancy Rising

48th District

by Particle Man on Tue Jan 17, 2006 at 09:06:26 AM PST

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Everything after the words "so very important" are the words of Nancy Rising.

by Particle Man on Tue Jan 17, 2006 at 09:10:59 AM PST

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As someone from the 45th District, I can attest that Laura has capably represnted us.  Even when I disagreed with her position, we are generally in agreement with goals and she could articulate good reasons for voting the way she did.  

Regarding Laura's voting tip credit legislation, this is a complicated issue.  The overall goal here is to raise the wages of all restaurant staff--including those in the back room--by looking at those who are the face to the public making great money in tips.  When that goal couldn't be reached, and potential impact to benefits, Laura switched her vote.  We had a lengthy discussion here before the site redesign.

The health care legislation is one that is also complicated.  There were many hi-tech workers in the region that argued that this was an issue that would impact jobs in an area that is important to Washington's future and competitiveness.  

Finally, Laura has never supported vouchers.  Period.  She did feel that it was her responsibility to respresent her district where there weas strong support for a charter schools pilot program.  (The 45th actually voted for the initiative).  A list of representatives that also supported the charter schools leglsiation includes Speaker Chopp, Rep. Kessler, and other eastside and suburban Democrats.  This was also covered in the previous comment thread.

Watching the forums and looking at people's positions, all of the candidates are good Democrats.  The state committee should look towards plans for growth of the party statewide, each candidates experience as a manager and how they would run our party and engage volunteers, and who could bring the entire state together in the future.  

by JayArnold on Tue Jan 17, 2006 at 10:23:10 AM PST

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Note:  P-man posted this earlier but I needed to edit out a phone number so I deleted his intitial comment.  I thought I would re-post this for him.

Dear Fellow State Committee Men and Women -

Like you, I have watched with dismay as the campaign for state party chair has descended into name calling and personal attacks.  I have tried to stay out of this so as not to be part of the problem, but with the absolute factual inaccuracies that a recent email spread about one of the candidates, I think it is time to spread some facts and be part of the solution.  As Laura's constituent, State Committee Woman, and a current legislative assistant in Olympia, I feel compelled to spread some truth and light on this situation.

On labor - Laura has an 88% lifetime voting record with the Washington State Labor Council.  You can check that out for yourself at http://www.wslc.org/legis/04%20voting%20records.pdf. This is higher than some well-known urban Seattle liberals and, I think, is a record to be proud of.

Laura has NEVER prime sponsored a tip credit bill.  Five years ago, she did co-sponsor such a bill.  As a Legislative Assistant in Olympia, I can tell you that the two actions are quite different.  Prime sponsoring a bill is typically an endorsement of the policy in the bill, while cosponsoring it often means that you just want to have an open discussion about the policy.  Laura was joined in cosponsoring this bill by several of the most liberal members of the Seattle delegation (including one with a 98% lifetime labor record).  I encourage you to contact Laura directly to talk about why she did this. As I understand it, she had been speaking to several servers in high-end restaurants in our area and heard stories of servers working 30 hours a week making 70k.  Meanwhile, the dishwashers and busboys were getting only minimum wage.  She thought this might be a way to get more money to the lowest income workers at the back of the house.  The bill contained numerous provisions to protect lower wage servers in lower income areas.  You can get all of this information for yourself at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1973&year=2001.  After this, Laura had several more conversations with folks from SEIU and the other unions working the issue and realized that it probably wouldn't work the way she had envisioned.  While other tip credit bills were introduced before Laura left the Legislature, her name NEVER appeared on them.

Laura has NEVER supported vouchers, ever.  This is just one more factual inaccuracy that is being perpetuated.  Did she vote for charter schools in 2004?  Yes.  One of Laura's values is to represent her constituency.  In this case, while charter schools had failed statewide several years before, it passed in the 45th district.  Again, the particular bill included a number of specific protections so that the formation of these few schools as a pilot project would not undermine public education - they could be shut down each year if not meeting or exceeding district standards on the WASL or ITBS, they were mandated to serve disadvantaged students, and they were required to be formed under the auspices of a public education institution.  Again, you can look all of this up for yourself at .  I know that if Laura is Chair of the State Democratic Party, she will represent her new constituency as faithfully.

There have also been some questions about Laura's involvement with the DLC.  For those who don't know, Bill Clinton formed this organization in the 80's to try and figure out how to get Dems back in the win column.  Long before George Lakoff, they were talking about how to frame issues and values-based messaging.  In the 2004 Presidential election, they took a hard policy turn to the right.  Laura stood up at their national meeting and criticized the DLC's attacks on Howard Dean (and got quoted in the NY Times for her trouble).  She has not been involved with the DLC since.

I am not going to go through the rest of the recent email point by point.  From these clarifications, I hope that you will see that much of the email cannot be trusted.  If you want to know what Laura really stands for, email her or call her directly.  She is open, honest, and direct and will answer your questions that way.

If you take any small group of votes or actions from any person's life, you can paint any picture you want (especially if you throw in some stuff that just isn't true).  I see a different Laura Ruderman.  One who:

·         Cosponsored every civil union/domestic partner bill introduced in the state house.

·         Voted for the Anderson/Murray bill every time that it was up on the floor.

·         Personally hosted two house parties for Equal Rights Washington, including one which raised over $14,000 for the organization.

·         Voted to implement collective bargaining for state employees (they had been trying for 10 years to get it)

·         Was named a Washington Defender by Washington Conservation voters (her voting record with them in her last session was higher than some from urban Seattle.  Check it out for yourself at http://www.wcvoters.org/scorecards/2003to2004_justscores

·         Voted to restore food stamp eligibility to felons

·         Earned awards for her efforts to expand the breast and cervical cancer screening program for low-income women

·         Fought for 6 years to increase teacher pay for teachers who live in high-cost areas.

·         Solidly defended choice at every turn, including raising money for NARAL

·         Has served on the Board of Directors of Washington CASH for 7 years - an organization that makes small loans to low-income folks (primarily women) so they can start their own businesses and get out of poverty.

In addition, Laura takes her own time to counsel (and raise money for) candidates who are running in marginal districts in Eastern Washington, won her own "red seat" in 1998 (getting the state house out of the minority), helped recruit and train candidates in neighboring districts (culminating in 2002 with the first Dem having been elected from the 48th since statehood and the first Dem being elected from the 41st since 1956).  With all of this success in East King County, Dems ran a strong candidate against an incumbent Republican Senator in the 41st and won - regaining control of the State Senate.  This is the Laura that I know - committed to electing Democrats from the top of the ticket to the bottom and all across the state.

And, in the end, isn't that what this race is all about?  We aren't electing someone to go to Olympia or DC and vote.  We are electing someone who can get us out of debt and build up a significant war chest, who can develop and deliver a message that resonates with swing voters, and who can organize the office and the grassroots so that we can elect democrats and not pay PDC fines.

As a more personal note, my father in law - a life long Republican - decided that he could vote for Laura after one 5 minute speech.  The ONLY campaign donations he has ever given in his 67 years has been to one democrat.  In addition to promoting our values in order to continue to win local and state elections and gain federal seats for Democrats we must find someone that can appeal to ALL voters WITHOUT sacrificing the principles we as democrats speak for.  Without that, we will continue to push people from the party instead of bringing new faces to the party.

Laura is the candidate who can do all of that.  I hope that you will join me in rejecting the lies and innuendo and vote on January 28th for a positive future for the Washington State Democratic Party by voting for Laura Ruderman.

Thanks,

Amy Ockerlander
45th LD State Committee Woman

by Jimmy on Wed Jan 18, 2006 at 11:48:36 AM PST

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Maybe I'm reading their website wrong, but the endorsement appears to be from their Chair, rather than from the organization.  If I'm wrong in my reading, let me know - but my reading indicates that it is simply an endorsement from Keith Gourley, and not an endorsement from the 4th CD Democrats.

If you agree with my reading, please update your post.  Thanks!

I'm with Obama

by willisreed on Fri Jan 20, 2006 at 12:28:49 AM PST

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