Protest in Olympia 3/5 re Repub/Conservadem budget

[eridani]

Please support this effort to protest in Olympia at 5:30 Monday if you are able. Jim Dawson of Fuse leads the Our Economic Future Coalition, a large progressive coalition of which King County Democrats is a participant.

Sarajane Siegfriedt, chair
KCD Legislative Action Ctte
(traveling Monday, back late)
Sent from my HTC on the Now Network from Sprint!


----- Forwarded message -----
From: "Jim Dawson" <[e-mail]>
Date: Sun, Mar 4, 2012 7:37 pm
Subject: Action tomorrow at 5:30 in response to the Senate budget
To: "revenue" <[e-mail]>


Hey Everyone,

In case you haven't heard Friday was pure chaos in Olympia. As conservative Democrats aligned with Republicans in the Senate to pass a budget that legislators didn't have a hearing and most legislators didn't have a chance to read.

Most importantly the budget is terrible for our kids and communities, raises no new revenue, and ends no unjustified tax breaks. It passed 25-24

There are two important actions:

1) Action Tomorrow
Several partners are mobilizing quickly to respond tomorrow at 5:30pm with an action at the Capitol.

Please help spread the word about this important action to your supporters the details are below.

Please join a silent protest on Monday, march 5 at 5:30pm. Meet at the Capitol in the Prichart Library(Cafeteria) and we will tape our mouths shut to show that they can try to silence us but we will stand in silence and stand up against the attacks on our children and working families. Bring your signs about lost opportunities. We'll conclude with a plan for more actions to come. (we are looking for a good nearby space to debrief everyone).

2) Put pressure on Senators:

Also if you have not sent an email to your list about this event please generate emails in opposition to the budget that was passed.

Below is the email Fuse sent out yesterday feel free to use it and change it if it's helpful.
------------------------------------------
Dear Friend,

Late Friday, three conservative Democrats turned their backs on Washington families and joined all 22 Republicans in hijacking our state senate.

Conservative Democrats Rodney Tom, Jim Kastama, and Tim Sheldon joined Republicans in using an arcane procedure to seize control of our senate.Their goal is to pass a radical conservative budget, as well as four other far-right policy bills. Their budget cuts the salaries of our most highly trained teachers, school funding, family planning, higher education, and financial aid, and wreaks havoc on the disabled and poor.1 To add insult to injury, they only released their budget a few hours ago, leaving no time for other senators to even read the bill.

This legislative temper-tantrum isn’t how government should work. Legislators should pass a progressive, sustainable budget that invests in our communities and protects funding for education, health care, and essential services. The only thing sustainable about this ultra-conservative budget is the pain it will cause thousands of Washington families for years to come.

Tell Senators Tom, Kastama, and Sheldon to stop holding the senate hostage. Their anti-democratic efforts to pass a conservative, inhumane budget are undermining our future. Click below to take action now.

http://fusewa.me/wA2wfm

[freshwest]

1. Kline explains in this video:

Eridani, I will PM where this came from. I'm too tired to edit my intended post. It might give some information, you decide.

[eridani]

2. A sliver lining to the Senate coup?

This was picked up by one of my friends in Eastern WA. Interesting thought.

•WA-Gov (PDF): Just as the CW on the Massachusetts Senate race has seemingly shifted thanks to a few polls, something similar may be happening in Washington. Wednesday saw the release of a second straight survey showing the gubernatorial race a tie, something PPP found just a couple of weeks ago, after a string of polls featuring GOP leads. The new numbers are from Dem pollster Grove Insight on behalf of an unnamed union, though, so a measure of the usual skepticism may be in order. In any event, Grove has Republican AG Rob McKenna and Democratic Rep. Jay Inslee deadlocked at 38 apiece, with 25 undecided. The two men have nearly-identical faves (33/20 for McKenna, 33/21 for Inslee), but Inslee has a little more elbow room for growth, having nailed down 72% of Dems while McKenna has 77% of GOPers.

Also, here's a clever observation from PubliCola: The big loser from last week's Republican budget coup in the state Senate was... Rob McKenna. In case you missed the brouhaha, minority Republicans passed their budget out of the Senate with the aid of three moderate Dems. Don't worry; it promptly goes to the more-solidly-Dem-controlled state House to die, but that means the regular session is likely to end without a budget, meaning that the lege is likely to go into special session for another month. McKenna, as an elected statewide official, is prohibited from fundraising when the legislature is in season, so that means one more month sitting in the penalty box while Inslee is free to rattle his tin cup as much as possible. (David Jarman.)

Walt Kloefkorn
Stevens SCM