Washblog

Craig Salins, Executive Director, and Marcee Stone, incoming Board President, set a relentessly positive tone for colleagues. Easygoing and hard-working Craig has a gift for diplomacy and motivational speech. He's like the mentor/advocate you always wanted. Marcee uses her natural warmth and organizational skills to great advantage.

Board members wisely shower volunteers with praise; who doesn't enjoy appreciation? Join up and find out for yourself!

David Donnelly (right), keynote speaker, is co-author of  Are Elections for Sale? and Public Campaign Action Fund's National Campaigns Director. PCA holds elected officials accountable for the special favors they do for their political contributors. "The present system may not be corrupt, but it IS corrupting," he said.

He also managed two successful "Clean Elections" initiative campaigns - in Maine and in Arizona.

If we want success any time soon in bringing publicly funded campaigns to Washington State, we should consider how to best work with the main groups that will be affected. These include business and legislators themselves. That may have been the central message of Donnelly's keynote address.

AWARDS
State Leadership Award
Governor Christine Gregoire's proposal to publicly finance judicial campaigns was honored. That's not her on the left, accepting the award - it's a staff member.

Honorable mention went to State legislators who sponsored public financing bills in this year's legislative session: Senators Rosa Franklin, Jim Kastama, and Eric Oemig, and Representatives Joe McDermott, Mark Miloscia and Shay Schual-Berke. Speaking of Rep. Miloscia (below left), he was shmoozing heavily with Seattle City Council candidate Tim Burgess all evening. I tried to eavesdrop, but unsuccessfully.

Local Leadership Award
The 1978 Seattle City Council enacted a program of public matching funds for campaigns for local office - the first of its kind in the nation. The King County Council enacted a similar program for council races. Until stopped in 1992 by Initiative 134, these programs allowed a diversity of candidates to run, with less attention to campaign fundraising and more attention to the voters. Members in 1978 were George Benson, Michael Hildt, Tim Hill, Paul Kraabel, Phyllis Lamphere, John R. Miller, Randy Revelle, Norm Rice, Dolores Sibonga, Sam Smith, Jeanette Williams.

Alice Woldt (above left) and City councilmember Nick Licata presented an Local Leadership award to Dolores Sibonga, who ran on public campaign funds and was the first woman of color elected to the Seattle City Council.

Volunteer of the Year
Harry Abbott took up the challenge to hold a public forum on Clean Campaigns. First arranging the Everett forum, he then contacted supporters in Tacoma with a similar plan - and soon, Seattle and Olympia followed suit. The result was a series of January public forums in Everett, Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia, on the eve of the legislative session: over 700 attendees. These successful forums brought WPC's fledgling grassroots movement into the open.

Above, Annie Phillips, Vice-President of the Board, Harry Abbott, Craig Salins, Marcee Stone.

THEM AGAIN?

Everett City Council candidate Jackie Minchew, our Snohomish County friend Chad Shue
of "My Left Shue," and Lisa Stuebing, candidate for School Board.

Above, Washblog Editor Noemie Maxwell and Christine Hawkes.

Betsy Graef, banquet coordinator - a monumental volunteer job! - and Dinazina, who designed those handsome awards and all the other graphics. Notice I am TALLER than 5-foot Betsy here, cause I'm wearing four-inch heels, ha! Betsy, you little squirt!

IN SUMMATION:
In the past year, Washington Public Campaigns has tripled its membership - and it's expected to triple again this year. Volunteers in the speakers bureau have given more than 75 presentations -- plus "tabling" gigs. There is a feeling that, although the organizing process takes time and effort, change is coming and we have, just around the corner, the opportunity to follow the proven models of Maine, Arizona, and Connecticut to get special interest money out of our state's election campaigns.

Above, guests try to choose among desserts. My table rep (grinning in the background) scored a light sponge cake with whipped strawberry cream thingy that was umm, very good yet minimally sinful, or so I said. Wait, I got distracted. Back to important stuff:

Follow-up email from our Dear Leader, Craig Salins(right):

For a first-time annual dinner, it was an unbelievable success in so many ways. It helped to knit together our "family" of supporters from all around Puget Sound and much of the state.

...The national representatives who were involved - including David Donnelly, from Public Campaign - now have an indelible memory that Washington State is on the move, that our organization is growing and is capable of events like this.

...And - for an organization funded nearly entirely by our members and supporters - it was a stunning financial success...Beyond the direct fundraising success, is the goodwill generated by the event and the warm friendliness that all of you helped to create.

Obviously we are all involved in this because we have an abiding belief that fundamental change is needed in our electoral and campaign systems, and that working together like this, we can bring Clean Campaigns through publicly-funded campaigns to Washington State and the nation.  Make no mistake: people are with us on this, history is on our side, and we will prevail!

Above, pro-public campaigns cards to Patty Murray are collected. Think it'll do any good?