Next Pop-Up Social – Feb 28th
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The February meeting of the 34th District Democrats will be held on Wednesday, February 12th on zoom. Register to receive the link: https://bit.ly/feb-25-mtg-reg
The 34th District Democrats are recruiting new leaders to shape a better future for our community. Joining the 34th Dems offers the opportunity to engage in advocacy, build community, develop leadership, and shape the future.
While our mission is to elect Democrats, we also serve as a platform for elected officials to connect with their constituents and amplify the voices of our district’s residents. Membership allows you to be a part of those conversations, advocate for key issues like affordable housing, climate justice, equitable education, and public safety, and be an important part of creating meaningful change.
We believe in building a diverse, welcoming community focused on justice, fairness, and progress.
We recognize that representation matters. By fostering diversity in our organization, we make better decisions and promote policies that better reflect the needs of everyone in our district.
Join us to help shape a more dynamic, effective, and representative political movement that can drive real change.
The 34th Dems have supported some of our region’s most influential leaders, including: US Representative Pramila Jayapal, State Senator Joe Nguyen, State Representatives Joe Fitzgibbon and Emily Alvarado, King County Executive Dow Constantine, and King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda.
We’ve also championed policies to fund our schools, invest in our transportation infrastructure, build affordable housing, provide universal health care, and build our climate resiliency. We’ve fought for workers’ rights, reproductive rights, responsible gun ownership, and so much more!
We’ve achieved a lot, but there is still work to do to both preserve the progress we’ve made, and to continue pushing forward. Now is the time to take action in your local legislative district. Join us and create a lasting impact in your community.
To learn more about our organization, check us out at: 34dems.org/about
To read our policy platform, go to: 34dems.org/34th-ld-platform
To become a member, visit: 34dems.org/contribute
Your membership with the 34th Democrats is good for one calendar year.
The 34th District’s monthly newsletter has been released. Editor Steve Butts says this issue is one you won’t want to miss! Download the NL and learn what’s going on in the district!
Passed by the membership on August 14th, 2024
WHEREAS the Washington State Democrats have called for “Legislating respect for workers [with] Government protection for workers in the gig economy” and, consistent with this value, the 34th District Democrats support ending the wealth gap and income inequity, living wages tied to the area’s median market housing rate, promoting healthy, harassment free workplaces, whistleblower, and workplace organizer protections, a $15 per hour federal minimum wage and local adoption of living wage standards in line with area median income, ensuring that every Seattle worker can support themselves and their families is a critical tool in reducing homelessness by ensuring that workers can remain housed and afford their other basic needs; and
WHEREAS federal minimum wage laws were developed with exclusions for certain industries and categories of workers, resulting in racialized disparities in earning power and incidents of workplace abuse that drive down working conditions for all workers and weaken the local economy, every worker in Seattle should have minimum wage protection with no exceptions; and
WHEREAS Seattle and the State of Washington have a proud legacy of strengthening labor standards to improving working conditions, including leading the national movement to increase the minimum wage, and passing the Seattle Domestic Worker Ordinance in 2018 thereby creating the right to minimum wage for all domestic workers in the city regardless of classification as an employee or independent contractor, and having a substantial positive impact on a previously unregulated industry; and
WHEREAS app-based workers:
WHEREAS, when the law went into effect, the regulated corporations responded by imposing substantial new fees on customer orders in a coordinated effort to undermine the law, making delivery cost-prohibitive for customers and hindering workers’ and local businesses’ ability to support themselves; and, at the Seattle City Council Governance Committee meeting on March 28, 2024, the public learned that the Seattle City Council has been considering amending or repealing this new law, and that negotiations on the proposed policy to date have only included gig corporations and Drive Forward, an Uber controlled and funded lobbying group, and have excluded workers and their representatives; and that proposed changes would cut worker pay, eliminate legal protections for workers from retaliation, and make it much harder for workers to enforce their rights,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED the 34th District Democrats support the minimum wage and other protections for low-wage, app-based workers.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the 34th District Democrats call on all Seattle City Councilmembers to maintain support for this important law; to commit to open and transparent policymaking that includes all stakeholders, particularly workers; and to affirm that Seattle must continue to be a city where working families are able to thrive and support themselves with living wages.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED the 34th District Democrats urge its membership to take action and communicate their support for gig worker minimum wage.
Submitted by Rachel Glass, Vice Chair and PCO, 34th District Democrats, April 2024
Passed by the membership on August 14th, 2024
Whereas the original name of Fort Lawton and Discovery Park for time immemorial was PKa’dz Eltue, “thrust far out,” in Lushootseed and were part of the ancestral lands of kinship bands of Duwamish, Suquamish, Muckleshoot, Tulalip Nations prior to the Point Elliot Treaty of 1885; in the 1960s and 1970s the United States deeded a large portion of Fort Lawton in the Magnolia neighborhood to the City of Seattle (City) leading to the creation of Discovery Park and the Daybreak Star Cultural Center in response to indigenous community interests; and
Whereas, Bernie Whitebear of the Colville Confederated Tribes and his fellow United Indians Of All Tribes Foundation (UIATF) advocates, successfully negotiated a 99 year-lease on 20 plus acres in November of 1971 of lands the United States government had previously used as the
historic Fort Lawton, with the options to successive 99 year-plus lease renewals in a legally-binding agreement; Daybreak Star Cultural Center and the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation began building structures to support environmental security and sovereignty for Urban Indians on September 27, 1975; the United States government retained for military purposes approximately 34 acres at the northeast corner of Discovery Park; and
Whereas in 1975, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 (ISDEAA). 43 Title I of ISDEAA authorized federally recognized tribes freedom from federal decision making, providing self-determination, governance, and revised boundaries for tribal sovereignty, which was reinforced by the TItle IV in 1994 for full funding and allocation of appropriations, to include housing; and
Whereas in the early 2000s, as part of a realignment of assets, the U.S. Base Realignment and Closure Commission designated the City as the entity entitled to repurpose the site; considering Seattle’s urban indigenous people are at high risk of homelessness and housing insecurity, the City prepared plans for development of the site to accommodate low income housing and additions of green space to Discovery Park, with completion of environmental review (FEIS) of a Fort Lawton Redevelopment Plan in 2019; the Seattle City Council in June 2019 (Resolution 31887) confirmed “the City’s commitment to further fair housing” in support of the Fort Lawton Redevelopment Plan; during project planning in preparation for site development the City determined that the infrastructure cost per unit of housing under the 2019 Plan is too high; and
Whereas, as a result of extensive reassessment of the Plan, the City has determined that an increase in the density of housing on the 34 acre site can be done that will:
Now therefore be it resolved the 34th District Democrats enthusiastically support the City proceeding with the revised Fort Lawton Redevelopment Plan as quickly as possible; and
Be it further resolved the 34th District Democrats urge the City to prioritize the project to provide housing for urban indigenous households; and
Be it finally resolved the 34th District Democrats convey strong support for this important project to the city council, the Mayor, and the involved federal agencies.
Sponsored by Ted Barker, 34th District Dems, PCO and State Committee Member
We usually record our Zoom meetings, programs and events. If you are not able to attend, visit our YouTube Channel (under our communications chair’s name – Carla Rogers) to see these recordings. Subscribe and you’ll be the first to hear about a new posting. Check out our channel today and see candidate forums, programs and more!
Adopted by the membership on April 10, 2024
Whereas the Seattle voters duly and independently elected Judge Pooja Vaddadi, a municipal court judge, to a four-year term in November 2022; and
Whereas on Friday, March 1, 2024 the departing criminal division chief Natalie Walton-Anderson of the Seattle City Attorney’s Office issued a standing affidavit of prejudice against Judge Vaddadi, effectively preventing Judge Vaddadi from hearing any new criminal case against defendants within the City of Seattle and thereby preventing her from fulfilling her duties as an elected judge; and
Whereas this action is extreme and negates the election of Judge Vaddadi by denying her right to hear cases that would be within her jurisdiction and puts added pressure on other judges and a system already dealing with workload issues; and
Whereas, according to Judge Vaddadi, she was not presented with any evidence of the accusations of biased rulings, failure to find probable cause where there was clearly probable cause or any of the other stated reasons for the action disqualifying her and, in fact, none of her previous decisions have been reversed on appeal; and
Whereas the actions of Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison appear to be based on policy differences with the judge rather than a legitimate legal foundation, none of which have been acknowledged by the City Attorney,
Now therefore be it resolved the 34th District Democrats reaffirm their support for Judge Vaddadi demonstrated by endorsement of the judge in 2022; and
Be it further resolved we call on Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison to withdraw the Standing Affidavit of Prejudice that is preventing the judge from doing her duly elected job; and
Be it finally resolved we call upon Mayor Bruce Harrell, District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka and other councilmembers to condemn the actions taken by the Seattle City Attorney’s office and uphold the values of an independent judiciary.
Sponsored by Kelsey Vanhee,34th LD Democrats Member, March 2024
Adopted by the membership on April 10, 2024
WHEREAS on February 24, 2022, the Government of the Russian Federation launched an unprovoked, full-scale, military invasion against Ukraine in direct violation of international law; and contrary to the expectations of the Russian Federation, Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv did not fall in a matter of days, thus preventing Russia from achieving its objectives of conquering Ukraine and installing a puppet government; and
WHEREAS Russia’s invading forces have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other atrocity crimes in Ukraine, including rape, torture, murder, the forcible deportation of children, and the targeting of civilian critical infrastructure; and
WHEREAS Russia’s full-scale invasion has created immense humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and, as a result, there have been over 30,000 civilian casualties of which about a third have died, roughly 8 million people have been internally displaced, and 17,600,000 people are in need of humanitarian aid; and Russia’s war has also triggered an immense human and economic toll felt well beyond Ukraine’s border, including a massive influx of over 8,100,000 Ukrainian refugees in Europe and an exacerbation of global food insecurity; and
WHEREAS, as a share of a country’s defense budget, 12 countries have provided more military aid to Ukraine than the United States; and
WHEREAS House Resolution 227, “Recognizing the sovereignty of Ukraine and the unbreakable spirit of the people of Ukraine,” has been introduced in the US House of Representatives and a similar resolution has been introduced by Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell in the Senate,
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED the 34th LD Democrats urge US Representative Pramila Jayapal and all of the Washington State Democratic delegation to co-sponsor House Resolution 227:
(1) affirming strong support for continued United States assistance to Ukraine, specifically the transfer of aid to enable Ukraine to liberate its sovereign territory and win the war as soon as possible;
(2) showing support for those United States allies and partners that have provided significant support to Ukraine and urging continued and increased assistance to Ukraine; and
(3) calling on allies and partners in Europe to increase national defense spending in order to bolster trans-Atlantic security; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED this resolution be sent to the Washington State Democratic Delegation in the US Congress.
Sponsored by Carla Rogers, officer and member of the 34th LD Democrats, January 2024
During the January meeting of the State Party, details for this year’s convention were shared. You may review the full explanation of the delegate process on the state website. The website includes key dates and a video from State Party Chair Shasti Conrad.
If you are interested in running for 34th delegate, pre-register here. Filing deadline is March 31. Our delegate caucus will be held on April 6th, virtually.