2nd Congressional District Progressive Caucus

Washington State Progressive Caucus elected a new Board at its meeting on Jan. 27 in Olympia, WA. New officers and Board members elected were:

At our teleconference meeting on January 20, 2007, the 2nd CD Progressive Caucus set short term (things to start immediately) and long term (things that will take some planning) goals for our organization. Here’s what we decided upon:

Short Term Goals:

1. Work for passage of comprehensive public campaign financing legislation currently before both houses of the legislature
2. Fair Primary Election resolution: try to get this passed by county and Legislative District Democrat organizations to build support for presenting to the state party at the April meeting. (See text of resolution as passed by Whatcom County Democrats.) 
3. Weekly correspondence with Rep. Rick Larsen, the U.S. Representative from our 2nd Congressional District, with one question and one request for action each week. Emphasis initially will be on getting out of Iraq.
4. Try to get formal commitments from cities and counties in our District to work toward zero carbon emissions to reduce climate change.

Long Term Goals:

1. Host at least three quarterly meetings (February, May, and August or September, depending on convention and primary election schedules) for all Democrats in the 2nd Congressional District. Each meeting would have an issue theme, and would include an educational and/or training session as well as a socializing component. Themes discussed were Public Campaign Financing, Sustainability/Climate Change, and Non-violent Communication/Peace. We talked about trying to organize one in February on Public Campaign Financing.
2. Find a progressive challenger for 2008 to run against Rep. Rick Larsen.
3. Work for fair media treatment of all candidates in 2008. The media is already starting to trivialize and marginalize some 2008 Presidential candidates while treating others with respect. We believe all candidates should be treated with equal respect by the media.
4. Build our organizational visibility and participate in campaign training to prepare for supporting candidates in 2008.
5. Develop a strategic plan for working on sustainability and climate change issues. Some of the ideas discussed included a CD-wide meeting (see 1 above) and developing partnerships with organizations focusing on sustainability, such as Sustainable Connections, Beat the Heat, etc. We can perhaps offer to help in political advisory and advocacy roles, while those organizations help us by recommending needed political change and legislation.

If you would like to help us carry out these goals, you are invited to participate in our monthly meetings. We meet the third Saturday of every month at 2 p.m.. Up until now we have held meetings in Mt. Vernon, but we cover a large geographical area (San Juan County, Whatcom County, Skagit County, Island County, north Snohomish County, and a small part of King County. It has been expensive and time-consuming for some of our members to physically attend meetings. This month (January 2007) we tried meeting via a telephone conference call. Those participating felt it was successful and preferred it to traveling. One noted that we had saved a lot of carbon emissions!

Our next meeting will be on February 17th at 2 p.m. and will also be a teleconference. To receive detailed information on joining our meeting, please subscribe to our email list (see link in the right sidebar on this page). Hope to "see" you there! We’ll be grateful for your help!

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