Whatcom Democrats

OUR ENDORSEMENTS:

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell
Governor Bob Ferguson
State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti
Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal
Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer
State Senator LD 40 Elizabeth (Liz) Lovelett
State Rep Pos. 1, LD 40 Debra Lekanoff
State Rep Pos. 2, LD 40 Alex Ramel
State Rep Pos. 2, LD 42 Joe Timmons
Supreme Court Justice Pos 9 Sheryl Gordon McCloud
Court of Appeals Judge Pos 1 Cecily Hazelrigg
PUD Commissioner Atul Deshmane
PUD Commissioner Eddy Ury

Whatcom County ballots mailed for top-two primary election; deadline to return them is Aug. 6 Two candidates with the most votes will advance to the November general election.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries just spoke for all of us:

"President Joe Biden is one of the most accomplished and consequential leaders in American history. In less than one term, he rescued the nation from a once-in-a-century pandemic, brought the economy roaring back from the brink of recession, enacted consequential legislation for everyday Americans and saved our democracy by defeating the Insurrectionist-in-Chief.

America is a better place today because President Joe Biden has led us with intellect, grace and dignity. We are forever grateful.”

Joe Biden withdraws from presidential race after weeks of pressure to quit President endorses Kamala Harris to lead Democratic ticket just four months before November election

“It’s a system with multiple checks and balances, with video surveillance and preservation of ballots. There is a complete record of every step in the process,” said Andrew Reding, the Whatcom County Democrats chair. “I cannot imagine a more transparent and secure system. I love that it is bipartisan, and I have complete trust in our auditor and her staff.”

Secure election system in Whatcom County open to voters | Cascadia Daily News Auditor focused on ensuring confidence in valid results

League of Women Voters noticed that the repeal committee cheated on signatures:

"An initiative is for new laws, while a referendum is to change or repeal existing laws, according to numerous sources who point to the county’s charter — akin to a county constitution — as well as an advisory memo, and an initiatives and referendum handbook from the auditor’s office.

One difference is that proponents of an initiative need to gather 6,392 verifiable signatures from voters registered in Whatcom County, while a referendum requires 11,034 such signatures.

“That’s purposeful so that we aren’t enacting, un-enacting, you know flip-flopping,” said Eileen McCracken, president of the League of Women Voters of Bellingham/Whatcom County, of the higher number of signatures for referendums.

The group gave the auditor’s office 9,620 signatures.

McCracken said the league noticed the difference while researching the charter as part of its efforts to educate the public, because this is the year voters will elect people to the county Charter Review Commission."

Initiative to repeal Whatcom County child care tax goes to court - Salish Current Nearly $100 million hangs in balance as the County Council launches a legal challenge weeks before the deadline to put the measure on the November ballot

Watch your mailbox for your primary ballots. It's that time of year again.

Whatcom Democrats has endorsed 40th LD State Sen. Liz Lovelett and Reps. Debra Lekanoff and Alex Ramel, and 42nd LD State Rep. Joe Timmons.

Because 42nd LD Rep. Alicia Rule has a Democratic challenger, we will endorse in that race after the primary.

42nd and 40th Legislative District primary vote will eliminate one contender - Salish Current Rep. Alica Rule in 42nd draws two challengers in Pelletti and Melman

Whatcom Democrats supports rent stabilization here in Washington State where it is desperately needed. President Biden's proposal of 5% annual limit on rent increases is a start, but we believe it should apply to all landlords, not just very large ones, and that it should be indexed to inflation, as in neighboring British Columbia.

Biden’s push to cap rent hikes could energize the pursuit in Washington • Washington State Standard President Joe Biden’s call Tuesday for limiting rent hikes could help Washington lawmakers in their pursuit of a statewide cap on increases.

Healthy Children's Fund repeal is legally flawed | Cascadia Daily News The science is clear: Investments in children pay dividends for all

County Treasurer Steve Oliver warned us about this coming budget shortfall last year in the context of discussions about the size and cost of the new jail, saying we were only being held aloft by federal pandemic relief funds.

Whatcom County orders temporary hiring freeze in the face of rising budget deficit County sets 90-day pause as administration reconsiders budget for the next two years.

If you use Puget Sound Energy, you could qualify for up to $3,000 back when switching from natural gas to a qualifying ducted or ductless heat pump system.

If you made qualified energy-efficient improvements to your home after Jan. 1, 2023, you may qualify for a tax credit up to $3,200. You can claim the credit for improvements made through 2032.

Other state programs assist low-income persons.

How to get help installing a heat pump at your home Credits and rebates are available through local utilities, as well as state and federal programs.

We will be considering a resolution on rights of the unhoused at our September 27 General Membership Meeting.

"reports from the Opportunity Council’s Homeless Outreach Team show that deaths of people living on the street are rising sharply. There were 39 deaths in 2020, 46 in 2021, 57 in 2022, and 84 last year.

“This year we’re already on track to go over 100, with 56 documented cases through June,” Winter said. “The rising cost of living, the opioid epidemic — it’s not just the opioid epidemic but the extreme lethality of the drugs that are being proliferated now — the lack of affordable homes and a strained behavioral health system. Each of these crises takes a disproportionate toll on our most vulnerable community members.”"

Whatcom County on pace for record number of deaths among homeless, according to recent data Deaths through June this year are equal to all of 2022.

State data shows Bellingham crime dropped 29% in 2023.

Annual report: Bellingham, Whatcom County see drop in crime reported in 2023 | Cascadia Daily News State data shows Bellingham crime dropped 29% in 2023

Whatcom Democrats members have endorsed Sal Mungia.

Four candidates are vying to fill the open WA Supreme Court seat Washington voters will choose a replacement for Justice Susan Owens from among an ideologically broad slate of legal professionals.

Violent crimes decreased 5.5%
Murders were down 5.8%
Property crimes decreased 11.9%

Crime fell in Washington state last year Washington has the lowest officer staffing rate in the country for the 13th year in a row, a new report says.

Whatcom Democrats/42nd LD Democrats Picnic was a lot of fun, thanks to a GREAT group of volunteers and a wonderful collection of delicious side dishes and desserts.

Whatcom Democrats was among the groups asking for the legal challenge to an initiative fraught with legal errors.

The 4-2 vote (Republicans Ben Elenbaas and Mark Stremler opposed, Tyler Byrd abstaining) asks the Whatcom County Superior Court for a declaratory judgement to determine whether Initiative 2024-01 is procedurally invalid.

County council challenges validity of Healthy Children's Fund repeal initiative | Cascadia Daily News Four council members vote to request pre-election declaratory judgement

Fourth of July big win for Labour in UK, biggest Conservative defeat ever.

Fifth of July clear victory for reform presidential candidate in Iran.

And now seventh of July huge win for French center-left after predictions of far right takeover.

France election: surprise win for leftwing alliance keeps Le Pen’s far right from power Marine Le Pen’s National Rally falls into third place despite strong showing in first round of voting

Whatcom Democrats in today's Pride Parade in Bellingham.

Including State Reps. Debra Lekanoff, Alex Ramel, Joe Timmons, and Alicia Rule.

"Official election results Friday showed a landslide victory for the country’s center-left Labour Party — its first victory in 19 years ... For the Conservatives — the party of Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson and outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak — it was the worst defeat in their party’s nearly 200-year history. Prominent lawmakers including former Prime Minister Liz Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Penny Mordaunt lost their seats in Parliament. Sunak retained his seat but resigned Friday as Conservative Party leader"

Britain swings to the center-left in a historic U.K. election landslide After 14 years of Conservative rule, Britons elected a new prime minister, Keir Starmer, and Parliament dominated by the Labour Party, which hadn't won a national election since Tony Blair, nearly 20 years.

Two days ago, Labour won a historic landslide in the UK, ending 14 years of chaotic Conservative rule. Yesterday, a reformist won a crushing victory in Iran.

"The reformist Masoud Pezeshkian has pulled off a stunning victory in the Iranian presidential runoff ... Pezeshkian has been an advocate of letting women choose whether to wear the hijab and ending internet restrictions that require the population to use VPN connections to avoid government censorship. ... Under the slogan “For Iran”, Pezeshkian had promised to be a voice of the voiceless, saying protests must not be met with the police baton."

Reformist Masoud Pezeshkian wins Iran presidential election Victory reflects deep dissatisfaction with direction of country and could bring greater cooperation with west

Seven hopefuls tee up against incumbent Larsen in U.S. District 2 race | Cascadia Daily News Democracy, border security, climate change, abortion rights and health care are top concerns

At today's Blaine Fourth of July Parade.

f passed, Initiative 2117 would repeal the state's new Climate Commitment Act, which has raised more than $2B for projects like electrifying transit.

WA ballot initiative would cut $848.6M of environmental programs If passed, Initiative 2117 would repeal the state's new Climate Commitment Act, which has raised more than $2B for projects like electrifying transit.

WA public lands commissioner race attracts unusually crowded field A variety of candidates are seeking the statewide office that oversees public-owned lands and firefighting efforts.

Who are the three candidates running for WA attorney general? Two Democrats and one Republican, all with notable legal experience and all people of color, are competing to run the state’s largest law office.

Among the revelations: Robert F Kennedy Jr's treatment of women that led his own wife to su***de.

"Ask Not tells how Mary Richardson, a talented architect with looks evocative of Jackie Kennedy, married Robert in 1994 and had four children with him. ...

Mary found Robert’s diaries. In the back pages were lists of women with whom Robert had had flings. The book elaborates: “He ranked them from one to ten, as if he were a teenager. Ten, Mary knew, was for full-on in*******se. ‘My lust demons,’ he wrote, were his greatest failing.

“He used the word ‘mugged’ a lot – women who, he wrote, just came up to him on the street and said, How about it? If they had s*x, he considered himself mugged, a passive victim of aggressive women."

‘They always got away with it’: new book reveals Kennedys’ shocking treatment of women Maureen Callahan’s eye-opening exposé looks back at the Kennedy men and the women they ‘destroyed’, digging into a long and grisly history

Whatcom Democrats has long been on record calling for repeal of the three-strikes law.

"Researchers argue that instead of exclusively incarcerating the state’s most dangerous repeat criminals for life without parole, the law also sweeps up lower-level offenders and provides them no avenue for rehabilitation or redemption. The report was copublished by Seattle University School of Law’s Civil Rights Clinic and the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality this month.

The three-strikes law — one of the country’s strictest sentencing laws — is among the starkest examples of deep-seated institutional racism in court, the report found, and is “out of step with our evolving standards of decency.” ...

Researchers stressed the figures, which don’t align with violent crime rates among Black people, reflect widespread implicit bias and racial discrimination in law enforcement and legal system practices."

After reforms, racial inequity in WA 3-strikes law remains, report finds The three-strikes law — one of the country's strictest sentencing laws — is among the starkest examples of deep-seated institutional racism in court, a report published this month found.

Danny Westneat:

"“In Idaho, we’ve been flying out about a patient a week to Utah or Oregon or Washington, because the fetus is nonviable or the life of the mother is at risk,” Dr. Edward McEachern, of Boise State University, said this past week. “I am seeing patients from Idaho, but also from Texas, Arizona, Alabama and other states,” said Dr. Elizabeth Harrington, a University of Washington OB-GYN."

"These patients weren’t seeking abortions, but rather had complications while pregnant, such as their membranes rupturing prematurely or a placenta separating from the uterus. Serious complications all, which can sometimes lead doctors to recommend ending the pregnancy.

But you can’t do that in Idaho anymore, not unless the mother’s death is imminent. Uncertain of how to proceed when the mother is facing serious but potentially nonfatal health complications, the doctors sometimes order an airlift, like it’s a MASH unit."

"Women are becoming dramatically more pro-choice, while men are slightly pro-life. The change means there is by far the biggest gap between the s*xes in the 30 years that Gallup has been polling the question.

Women are now 30-plus points pro-choice, 63% to 33%, according to a Gallup poll this month. As recently as six years ago, women were about evenly split. That’s an enormous shift when views for decades were relatively stable."

"Women had a fundamental civil right canceled, arguably the biggest rollback in rights for a group since the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896, which sanctioned segregation for Black people."

"In another Gallup poll, 44% of women, a record low percentage, say they’re satisfied with how women are treated today by society. It was 25 points higher two decades ago. So women feel the backsliding."

The loneliness of the woman voter A huge gap between men and women on abortion has emerged. It's because women are treated like second-class citizens — as months of airlifts out of Idaho show.

Ron Judd in CDN: "In a plugged-in, well-informed community, is it politically palatable for a police department to sit on its hands and say absolutely nothing for … two … full … days … after a vicious assault in one of Bellingham's prime public gathering spots? Last Saturday's unsettling attack by a lone assailant on a female runner on the trails around Lake Padden sent shockwaves through the community. The victim sustained injuries that required treatment at a hospital. The perp remains at large. ...

It was frequently suggested to CDN and other news orgs that things would improve with the hiring of a new police chief. Mertzig has held that role for more than a year. The final step in fixing the comms was to be the arrival, at long last, of a full-time, skilled, professional Public Information Officer ... That person, Megan Peters, arrived last October with grand expectations. ... Remarkably, timely facts about public-safety issues such as the Lake Padden incident have gotten even more scarce since the arrival of Peters ...

It's not like Peters hasn't been busy; her office spends a significant amount of time posting feel-good, quippy missives about department doings on BPD's social media channels, many adorned with emojis and other visual flotsam exuding junior-high-level gravitas. ...

At least act like a responsive public agency. Religiously post a more complete timely, log of police activity, with additional info forwarded to media about significant matters. The entire "detailed" entry for last Saturday's incident, for record, was this: "Officers responded to an assault that occurred on the Lake Padden Trail.""

Bellingham cops' slow public alert of Lake Padden assault: Sadly, business as usual | Cascadia Daily News Timely, accurate information flowing from police to the public isn't too much to ask

Whatcom Democrats adopted a resolution calling for removal of all mandatory parking minimums in Bellingham. Nearby Vancouver has just done that. Parking minimums add $20,000 to $80,000 to the cost of every housing unit and discourage construction at a time when we have a housing shortage.

The move won’t affect requirements around accessible spaces for people with disabilities, visitor spaces, bike parking or loading spaces.

Vancouver scraps minimum parking requirements citywide - BC | Globalnews.ca The city has estimated the cost to build underground parking add up to $100,000 per space to a construction project.

"This effectively created a food desert in the neighborhood, defined as an area with limited access to affordable and nutritious food. The AG opened an investigation into the property restrictions to determine whether they violate Washington antitrust laws. Albertsons removed the restrictions as a result of the investigation according to the AG’s announcement. Albertsons must also pay $25,000 to defray the costs of the investigation."

Washington AG’s Office: Grocery business can now locate at former Albertsons location on Northwest Ave | Whatcom News A land use restriction prevented grocery businesses from operating out of the property.