LARC Committee Notes, July 2005

These are from the notes taken at a July meeting of the LARC Committee Co-Chairs. We are hoping to organize a meeting of everyone who has signed up for this committee in the coming months. Until we reach that point, please visit our Working Groups, and join in the efforts there in support of Health Care and other issues.

Legislative Action

• Election reform (and nominations) is our top issue, because as Democrats, we all have a particular stake in proposed legislation.
• We need to locate other organizations that track issues and/or monitor the voting records of legislators in the following areas:
  • --human services
  • --the environment
  • --peace
  • --tax policy/economic development

  (We realize this isn't exhaustive, but it is enough to tackle)

We would prioritize for action the issues on which our legislators chair or co-chair committees: fiscal policy, higher ed, natural resources and transportation, because this is where we can be most influential. We would also hope to influence the budget.

Legislative action must be preceded by a resolution published in the newsletter and approved by a majority vote at a meeting of the 46th LD. Resolutions can address city, county, state or Congressional elected officials, or other bodies such as the Port of Seattle.

Possible activities for legislative action:

• Train membership in grassroots lobbying.
• Write articles and post information on citizen advocacy in the Demogram and on our website.
• Bring resolutions to the Platform and Resolutions Committee.
• Forward adopted resolutions to elected officials, and to other Legislative District organizations, the KCDCC and the State Democrats.
• Write letters and encourage letter-writing and emails by the membership.
• Post resolutions and supporting materials on our website.
• Host or co-host one or two Town Hall Meetings with our legislators to focus on key issues.
• Ask our three state representatives what kind of support they would like from us.
• Other activities that arose at the Feb. 17th meeting?

Research

• Purpose: to create a statistical profile of the LD and make it available to Democratic candidates and non-partisan campaigns.
• Sources: Voting records, voter roll, Democrats' database

Also, we believe campaigns would benefit from a list of churches and other faith groups (available from Church Council of Greater Seattle) and a list of community organizations and their contact info to be developed by the Community Outreach Committee.