April 20, 2018
Day 454 of 1461 days
Dear Co-defendants –
These Are the Times that Try Men’s Souls
Okay, okay, women’s souls too!!!! We are all on the outside looking in, unable to influence much at all for the moment. And that, progressive reader, is because there is not much going on, or promising to go on, in legislative Washington. Despite Paul Ryan’s avowed aims of dismantling entitlement programs, he has chosen the wiser and easier course to simply declare the game over, and go home to Janesville on his handsome pension of $85K plus $250K positions on any many boards as he’d like. Given the balance in the Senate, nobody has much of a feel for anything big. I think it will stay that way.
Which leaves us wondering what we can do! Fear not, the world is full of promise for activists. We are on the precipice of 2018 national elections, with only about 200 days to go until November 12, 2018. Here are a few things we can do to make that election the great winner that we progressives need.
1.-Spend some money on candidates who need it. Spend as much as you can afford on senators currently under fire from the enemy. Google Claire McCaskill, Heidi Heitkamp, Jackie Rosen and Kyrsten Sinema – all candidates for must-win senate seats. We do have a chance to win this house if things go our way, and if we do, we then control all Supreme Court appointments. It is worth the effort!
2.-Do not neglect to support those organizations doing all our institutional fighting for us. Emily’s List, ACLU, MALDEF, Planned Parenthood, NRDC, Politico, NPR and others. Send some money to these outfits so they can continue to slug it out for our side.
3.-Participate in any effort to support national candidates who need assistance – phone banks, post cards, canvassing. Pick a project and organize to get it done. Need a good project worth your time? Try unseating Devin Nunes in Fresno CA. Contender Andrew Jantz might do it with enough help[! There are others too. If you lack one, give me a note and I’ll outline one or two for you.
4.- Do not ignore the local races. Here in Oregon, May 15th is the big date for primaries and maybe the generals, too, in non-partisan races. In Oregon non-partisan primaries, the candidate with 50% plus one more vote wins the election. That means that any non-partisan race with two candidates only will be decided within one month. See the “endorsement” section below for our endorsements and opportunities to help. Last primary in 2016, 20% of registered voters decided those elections. Make it 25%, and we win. Get out the vote.
5.-Talk to your neighbors and friends. Many people encountered at canvassing don’t know that there is an election coming up, and that the vote for Washington County commissioners is vital for our advancement locally. Talk things up. Get out the vote. Make it your mission to get one acquaintance to fill out that ballot and vote.
6.-Find out if a friend or relative is unregistered – and then get them registered to vote.
ENDORSEMENTS
While all hell has been breaking loose daily in Washington DC, we at Cedar Mill have been busy tending to a few things under our direct control: endorsements. A committee, composed of Karyn Servin, John Fox, Laurie Weide, Lisa Perry and Mercedes Maltese, have met with all the candidates for county-wide positions. We found that all the candidates were all absolutely progressing in the right direction, and we had some difficulty in a picking just one for endorsement by the chapter.
We have already registered our endorsement of Suzanne Bonamici(Dem Representative to Congress), Mitch Greenlick(State Rep for 33rd District), Elizabeth Steiner Hayward (State Senator for 17th District)and Kate Brown (Governor). After interviewing all the ‘progressive’ candidates for local offices, we endorsed the candidacies of Greg Malinowski, Kathryn Harrington, Steven Burke and Juan Carlos Gonzales. Oregon has a jungle-primary wherein the winner of the non-partisan primary election, with 50% plus one vote, wins the whole cake. Less than that, the highest two go on to the general election in November. Greg Malinowski, Steven Burke and Juan Carlos Gonzales fall into this primary win-or-lose category.
We owe all our candidates our loyal work, money and promotion. These people do work tirelessly for us. Canvassing opportunities abound in the next few weekends at the following places:
Max Wall, Saturday 4/21/ 12 PM – 140 NE 3rd Ave, Hillsboro, 97124 (Dem Hqs)
Kathryn Harrington, Saturday 4/21 12PM, 5495 SW Erickson Ave, Beaverton 97005
Greg Malinowski, Saturday 4/21 11-3PM, Sun 4/22 12-4PM, Sat 4/28 12-4PM. All at
Local office in Shopping Center, NWCornell/NW Saltzman, below library and next to Cedar Mill Museum.
Find the time and courage to go out and knock on some doors to help us all get the progressive government we so need in this county! This is our chance to unseat a regressive business-oriented county commission.
RON WYDEN TOWN HALL
The senator will be in Washington County on Saturday, April 28 at 11:00 AM. The place: Five Oaks Middle School at 1600 NW 173rd Avenue, Beaverton. The only excuse for not going is that you have signed up for canvassing to support one of our local endorsees! Be there.
MONTHLY MEETING
The meeting is set for Monday, May14, at 1750 NW 131st, 97229. Doors open at 6:30PM and the meeting starts promptly at 7:30 PM. Refreshments, both adult and juvenile will be provided along with a few tasty snacks.
L’audace, encore l’audace, et toujours l’audace!
Thank you.
John Fox