Ep. 99: League of Women Voters & WA Paramount Duty Lobbying Days

We continue our coverage of the lobbying events happening in Olympia, first with Washington’s League of Women Voters, who’s co-hosting a lobby day with Fix Democracy First. We talk with the chair of LWVWA’s democracy team, Kathy Sakahara, about the group’s legislative priorities for 2019, which are focused on Democracy and voting reforms.

Then we check in with Summer Stinson, president of the education advocacy group, Washington’s Paramount Duty, who tells us about what they have planned for their lobbying day, and we get her take on Tuesday’s special election, which was all about school levies and bonds.

And finally, we talk with research team member Jim Austin about this week’s calls to action, and to get his take on HB 1157, which is aimed at allowing local law enforcement to pick and choose which voter initiatives they uphold. A number of sheriffs in the state are choosing to not enforce the gun safety initiative, I-1639, which passed in November. Spoiler: Austin says the bill is likely to go nowhere.

Links:

The Washington League of Women Voters Lobby Day: lwvwa.org/event-3100942

LWVWA Issue Paper: “ELECTIONS, CAMPAIGN FINANCE, GOVERNMENT ETHICS”: lwvwa.org/resources/Documents/…20Elections%20IP.pdf

LWVWA’s rundown of pertinent bills: lwvwa.org/democracy2019

Fix Democracy First: http://fixdemocracyfirst.org/

Washington’s Paramount Duty: paramountduty.org/

Info on our state legislature: www.leg.wa.gov