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Local Voters’ Resources and Notes on Voters’ Guides
Dear Group,
Washington State Midterm Primary Election ballots are in registered voters’ mailboxes by now. Vote! But don’t let your sense of obligation end there. Talk up the need to vote with anyone you suspect may cast a favorable ballot. Wear your Lisa Brown T-shirt to the grocery store, the library, out to concerts in the parks. Study your local races, make choices. Talk up your choices and your reasons for those choices with your neighbors and anyone you know who might have that race on their ballot too. Keep up the buzz.
There are a lot of overlapping territories that determine who appears on your particular ballot. The territories of this year’s elections (Primary and General) include statewide (U.S. Senator), U.S Congressional (#5, or “CD5” for us), state legislative district races, a slew of countywide offices, and a number of judgeships. (For an interactive Washington State map of legislative districts, click here.)
To most of my readers a vote for Lisa Brown for U.S. CD5 Representative and for Maria Cantwell for U.S. Senator are pretty obvious, but what about “down ballot?” The candidate bios and statements in the online voters’ guide (at MyVote.wa.gov) or the paper voters’ guide are useful…but not comprehensive.
I recommend the ProgressiveVotersGuide.com as a must-view resource. Candidates are evaluated based on endorsements of a range of progressive organizations. Importantly, the reason for the choice is stated in a short narrative that goes well beyond buzz words. I encourage you to check it out and recommend it to others.
There is another website worth visiting–mostly to observe the close linkage of certain segments of Christianity with the Republican Party. WeBelieveWeVote.com (seen advertised on local billboards) is an instructive…and, for me, a disturbing…tool. Have a look. Only Spokane and Stevens County candidates are presented. Candidates are evaluated entirely on their stands on certain hot button issues I do not recognize from my United Methodist upbringing: gender fluidity, civil unions, same-sex marriage, abortion, recreational marijuana, and, oddly, support of “electoral college reform” and “weak borders.” (You might wonder what “weak borders” has to do with the office of Spokane County Clerk…) This is not my parents’ Christianity (any more than, I suppose, the current Republican Party is anything like my parents’ Republican Party.)
As a confirmed United Methodist, the WeBelieve criteria for Christian faith and “alignment” are jarring. I went digging on the WeBelieve website and found this page, the “Pastor to Pastor” letter. Scrolling to the bottom one finds a listing of 97 local pastors who endorse this political website. Have a look. On my browser, if I hit COMMAND F (for “find”) I can type in a word to see how many times that word appears on the page. Here is a selection of findings from the pastor and church listings of WeBelieve: Methodist (0), Congregationalist (0), Episcopal (0), Catholic (0), Unitarian (0), Presbyterian (1-Lidgerwood), Baptist (12), “Life” (9), Assembly of God (5), Nazarene (3), Lutheran (3). Search for yours. (Note McMorris Rodgers was brought up in the Fundamentalist Baptist tradition, arguably to right of most of the denominations and pastors listed. She is “Highly Aligned” with this website’s political agenda.) That adds up to 33 Spokane area churches at least loosely identified with a denomination. The other 64 are apparently unaffiliated, that is, not officially connected to a denomination.
WeBelieve knows it is skating on the edge of violating the IRS rules governing 501(c)(3)s and political involvement. They present a “Legal Do’s and Don’ts” page. I know there are many pastors who don’t believe, for instance, that the Second Amendment and “strong borders” are articles of Christian faith. I urge those pastors to read the “Do’s and Don’ts” and speak out against this political propaganda dressed up as Christian values. WeBelieve is a thinly veiled co-option of parts of Christianity by the Republican Party. It is a shame the donors to 501(c)(3) non-profits are not publicly identified. Is financial support offered contingent on political alignment? There is no way to know, but one cannot help but wonder.
WeBelieve has some use for me. It tells me for whom not to vote. WeBelieve represents few if any of the Christian values with which I was brought up. The values I carry from that upbringing include forgiveness, grace, tolerance, and understanding, not armed isolation and fear of the other.
I am heartened by the many Christians, both parishioners and pastors, I have met who still share the values with which I was brought up, people who are open, tolerant, helpful, people who work for justice, not restriction, people who don’t think “strong borders” and shoddy treatment of asylum-seekers is a Christian value, people who have not been co-opted for a political agenda by a Party that has lost its soul.
So do your research, engage, come out for the GOTV (get out the vote) canvassing, discuss, listen, cajole.
Primary Election Notes
The Democrats organize for all the Democratic candidates. Get to know them.
Interesting fact: On account of State/Federal campaign finance laws “volunteers” paid out of a federal candidate’s campaign coffers aren’t allowed to push local candidates. (That would be a transfer of money, i.e. the “volunteer’s” wages, to the state candidate.) BUT, unpaid volunteers like us are free to talk all we want (First Amendment, you know ;-). The federal candidate’s campaign just can’t advocate or provide literature for state candidates, but as long as we’re unpaid volunteers we can talk by just “putting on our citizen hat” at the doorstep. We’re citizens free to say what we like and our efforts are not considered a contribution in a monetary sense. Phew!
Primary Election Facts to spread around:
1) In every county in Washington State (thank you, Karen Hardy, “Horse Sense-No Bull” Legislative District 7 Senate candidate for pushing Ferry County to join in} the postage for mailing in ballots is pre-paid.
2) You are not required to vote for a candidate in every race to have the votes you do cast counted
3) The sooner you mail in your ballot the sooner the campaigns will know not to pester you. The fact that you voted already is made available within 24-48 hours.
4) Don’t wait until the last day! In rural counties especially you might not get a postmark until the next day and if that happens you won’t be counted!
The Importance of Smiling
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Dear Group, We live in what is nominally a representative democracy. Ideally, we elect people who will best represent our values and convictions. Having met and talked with most of the Democratic candidates in eastern Washington I am convinced every one of them better represents my values than the current crop of Republicans they are challenging. I’ve studied issues to come to this conclusion…but is that the basis upon which I always make my decision for whom to vote, to decide it is time for a change? Elections are not won on issues alone. For most of us there is not time in a life to study every issue. Elections are won on hope and buzz. Elections are won on engagement. Most of all, elections are won by personal contact. Allow me a personal anecdote: Last Sunday Emily and I were remarking on the forest of political yard signs on Spokane’s South Hill. We saw a sign for Dennis Cronin for Judge. I smiled. Then I blinked, shook my head, and asked myself, “Why did I smile?” I don’t know Mr. Cronin. He’s not even on the upcoming August 7 Washington State Primary ballot. (I learned later he is contending for Spokane Superior Court Judge Postion 10 in the November election.) A quick search on the internet reveals nothing splashy. So why did I smile when I saw his sign??? Then I remembered. On Bloomsday I stood with a host of other volunteers near the Courthouse waving a Lisa Brown for Congress sign (something I could not have imagined doing for ANY political candidate two years ago). A block up the race course there was a gaggle of folks waving another candidate’s signs. A smiley woman from the gaggle drifted down toward us and gave us a thumbs up. She was carrying a Cronin sign. I don’t think we exchanged more than a couple of words. I could not identify her in a lineup if my life depended on it, but the smile and the association with Mr. Cronin’s sign stuck somewhere in the depths of my aging memory. I realized that is why I smiled at sign last Sunday—and it is part of the reason I will pay attention and may cast a vote for him in November. Moral(s)? Even those of us who pride ourselves in researching the issues can be profoundly influenced at times by a face-to-face encounter with a real human being. A friend who equipped her car with a rooftop-mounted Lisa Brown for Congress sign remarked, “I’m a pretty courteous driver anyway, but with this sign I drive with the utmost courtesy and a smile for everyone.” Sometimes when I go off on a harangue about how McMorris Rodgers doesn’t understand the difference between a hospital’s charge for a service and what it costs the hospital to provide that service, I notice a glaze forming over my listener’s eyes. I mentally back off a step and realize the very fact we’re having a conversation at all is probably more important than the details. Canvassing, talking with everyone you know and a lot of people you don’t yet know about the candidates, the elections, and what is important to both of you is the most effective means of winning elections and actually getting to the issues. Even the little things like wearing a Lisa Brown T-shirt to the grocery or to a concert in the park (call Eileen–see the boxed text above) and smiling at everyone whose eye you catch has a ripple effect. Tack on some extra buttons and offer one to anyone who engages you. Humanists, liberals, scientists, educators, mainstream Christians, Muslims, Jews, and ivory town intellectuals have been quiet long enough. We’ve sat in our armchairs with our books, read the polls, and shaken our heads in despair. It is time to buzz. It’s time for us to throw off that old dictum that one should not talk politics in “polite company.” Damn it. We ARE polite company and it is well past time to talk! Keep to the high ground, Jerry |
Volunteers? Grassroots? Let’s pin that down
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Ferry County Electoral Hijinks
Dear Group,
Republican hijinks in Ferry County, right here in Washington State’s U.S. Congressional District 5.
Here is the source: http://chewelahindependent.com/hardy-criticizes-ferry-county-auditor-for-not-providing-pre-paid-postage-on-ballots/
Click that link. It’s worth the time to read it. Karen Hardy, the whistle-blower in this tale is a force to be reckoned with. Her campaign motto is “Horse Sense–No Bull.” She is running for the State Legislative District 7 Senate seat. LD7 is contained entirely within Washington State’s U.S. Congressional District 5, site of the Lisa Brown/McMorris Rodgers race, so this act of voter suppression could affect the outcome for all of eastern Washington.
Ferry County is the northwestern-most of the counties in Congressional District 5, just west of Stevens County, McMorris Rodgers’ political place of origin. Government there has been in Republican hands for a long time. Probably thanks to some earlier gerrymandering, the Colville Reservation is split between Congressional District 5 (in Ferry County) and Congressional District 4’s Okanogan County to the west. There is no ballot dropbox on the Colville Reservation. What follows is, in my mind, a blatant effort at voter suppression very, very thinly veiled in a County Auditor’s claim to be “a good steward of the tax payers money.” If this isn’t recall-level incompetence then it is surely Republican ballot box bullshit.
This year Washington state is paying for return ballot postage for our Aug. 7 Primary Election, which means that voters will no longer have to put their own stamps on their ballots, making it easier for more people to vote. However, the Ferry County auditor has announced that she’s declining state funds to pay for postage, which means that every county in Washington will provide pre-paid ballot return postage *except* Ferry County.
The auditor’s decision particularly hurts Colville Tribal members, since half of the Colville reservation is in Ferry County and there is no ballot deposit box on tribal land.
Voters in Ferry County should have the same access as everyone else. Contact Ferry County Auditor Dianna Galvan and tell her that Ferry County should accept state funds for pre-paid postage like every other county -> 509-775-5225 ext. 2500.
Keep to the high ground…and this is some pretty high ground,
Jerry
P.S. We used to trust the checks and balances of government to take care of this sort of thing. I’m done with that. Part of Indivisible’s mission as I see it is to activate citizens to pay attention and, by raising their voices to call out this kind of behavior, and nip it in the bud.
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Follow up 7/18/18 on the Ferry County ballot postage controversy from yesterday. From one of my readers: I got through to Ferry County Auditor Dianna Galvin about Ferry County’s initial refusal to put a pre-paid envelope to return our ballots for the primary elections in August. Ms Galvin was so flooded with phone calls this morning from Ferry County constituents (as a result of the Spokesman Review article) that she and Commissioner Nathan Davis were able to solve the problem. So now, Ferry County voters – all of them, even those on the Res, will be able to mail in their ballots without having to purchase a stamp. They have also put 4 more ballot boxes out in Ferry County (2 on the Res) to make it easier for voters. We called, they listened. That is how DEMOCRACY is supposed to work! Woohoo! I think the kudos here go to Karen Hardy, the Democratic candidate for the LD7 Senate seat “Horse Sense–No Bull.” Ms. Galvin’s ill-considered action might have significantly affected the Primary vote count. Karen Hardy put out a press release, the Independent picked it up and social media and citizen networks amplified it. The Spokesman review picked it up from there, but it was Karen Hardy who started it. |
New Phase. G.O.T.V.! Huh?
Dear Group,
The Trump minority election was a wake-up call. We have shown up at marches and protests, the Women’s March, the March for Science, the protests over family separation. Many of us have taken a new interest in the people who represent (or pretend to represent) us in Washington, D.C., Olympia, and our local city and county offices. We spent a little time to orient ourselves in the political landscape. We understand the folks who claim to represent us in public office need to earn our deference, not assume it. Election alone does not justify an official as possessing special knowledge or even as being especially qualified for the role assumed. They are people more or less like the rest of us, people with backgrounds, education, values, and beliefs that bear on who they are and how they function. We understand physical stature and team labelling are not a substitute for in-depth understanding and ability to listen and to integrate what is heard.
Many of you have signed up as volunteers for one or several causes and political campaigns. Many of you have volunteered with Lisa Brown’s campaign to unseat McMorris Rodgers. Many of you have engaged in post card writing and phone banking. Some of you have swallowed hard, gone canvassing, and learned you can knock on doors. You have learned it is fun, rewarding, and educational to have a conversation with the people who answer those doors.
Now we are entering that season when the rubber meet the road. Ballots for the Primary election in Washington State will appear in mailboxes late this week. The deadline for turning them in is Tuesday, August 7th. The number of ballots turned in for the Primaries are going to send a powerful message. Are the voters paying new attention to the local scene? Engagement in the political process, paying attention to the candidates on the ballot, orienting oneself in the political landscape, and keeping up the buzz have never been more important.
The effort moves into a new phase: “G.O.T.V.” Huh? I had to ask… It means “Get Out the Vote.” Not only are those letters confusing alphabet soup, but in Washington State, with our mail-in or drop-off ballots, they don’t even accurately describe the process.
This Wednesday evening, July 18th, from 6-8PM at Lisa Brown’s field office (1507 E Sprague Ave, Spokane, WA 99202) join us for “Spokane G.O.T.V. canvassing training.” Sign up here: https://secure.ngpvan.com/J9ZkdtwFqEmCwE4lJ9R4Kg2. Come on down. Join the effort. Meet nice people. See what you can do to help.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P.S. A joke on me: Anyone who has lived in Spokane for decades like I have has a slightly seedy image pop up in response to the words “east Sprague.” It is time for a mind frame reset. The street and traffic have been pleasantly re-arranged and store fronts re-vamped. It’s a welcoming place to visit. In fact, for me, one of the great things about this whole political experience I’ve had is that I have gotten out in my home town and reset a lot of old mental images. The mental image associated with east Sprague is one of them.