Party Favors

Hello bunny rabbits—

Welcome to week six! Love is in the air along with calls for police accountability and the rich paying what they owe in f*%$ing taxes. This week we’re talking parties—the kind with favors of the political flavor. More specifically, who are the party politic power players in Washington? Is Washington a swing state? (Hint: N to the O). Read below.

🎉 Party Favors—Washington State Edition

Enough about the legislature this week, let’s dive into the political infrastructure surrounding it. These institutions have enormous power over who gets elected and how they govern once they’re in office. They’re hugely interested in keeping their majorities and maintaining their own power. Sometimes that makes them less interested in passing the policies we need.

Last year’s election was supposed to bring a red wave. Instead we expanded majorities in both chambers. This tells us a fundamental truth: Washington is not a swing state. Yes, we were once, but we won’t be again anytime soon. Some of the folks above haven’t caught on to that.

Washington voters fundamentally reject the radical white supremacist Republican agenda. They’re alienated by attacks on abortion. In a state awash with identity politics and political correctness, Republicans’ racist, anti-trans agenda has no place. Instead of shrinking majorities, Democrats got a stronger mandate. They should act accordingly.

Here are some muckety mucks that shape the parties and need to take note:

Washington State Republican Party (WSRP)

• 🧐 What Is It: The state arm of the Republican party
• 🤠 Who Runs It: Caleb Heimlich is the youngest state Republican party chair in the country. But he used to work at Americans for Prosperity, a Koch brother-funded libertarian nonsense machine that uses the American dream as a front for billionaire interests
• 🤞What do they want: Elect Republicans. Caleb Koch’s—sorry the Kochs—Caleb’s Koch background should tell you a bit about their unhinged agenda. Peep “Section 9: Support for Families” for your daily dose of gender theater
• 🤌 What do we want them to do: Keep peddling their unhinged and unpopular agenda, alienating much of Washington’s voting base

Washington State Democratic Party

• 🧐 What Is It: The state arm of the Democratic Party
• 🤠 Who Runs It: Shasti Conrad, the first south asian chair in the country, came up through the political consulting class after a long career of advocacy and politics including serving as Senior Staff Assistant to Barack Obama
• 🤞Incentives: Elect democrats, sometimes at all costs
• 🤌 What We Want Them to Do: Govern like they have a mandate, godammit!

Washington Senate Democratic Campaign (WSDC)

• 🧐 What Is It: The apparatus that elects Democrats to the Washington Senate, established in 2013.
• 🤠 Who Runs It: Adam Bartz is the Executive Director and calls the shots. Senator Jamie Pedersen (D-43) is the Chair and a whole set of others, including Majority Leader Billig (D-3), serve as Vice Chair. These elected Senators also hold sway over folks who run with the party’s support.
• 🤞Incentives: Stack the WA Senate. These folks want to make sure it’s full of Democrats.
• 🤌 What We Want Them to Do: Run progressive senators from communities who are underrepresented. Oh, and we’d like Senators who will govern like they have a mandate and pass policy that helps working people in Washington. We’d also like to see them run a candidate in every district. A troubling number of Republicans ran unopposed this past cycle. We want to see every community have a progressive option when they fill out their ballot.

House Democratic Campaign Committee (HDCC)

• 🧐 What Is It: They elects Democrats specifically to the Washington State House of Representatives
• 🤠 Who Runs It: Lauren Currin is the Executive Director. Representative Joe Fitzgibbon (D-34) is the Chair. They’re the gatekeepers if you want to run for office
• 🤞Incentives: Keep the majority—especially
• 🤌 What We Want Them to Do: Same as the WSDC, on the House side.

Senate Republican Campaign Committee (SRCC)

• 🧐 What Is It: The apparatus to elect Republicans to the Washington Senate.
• 🤠 Who Runs It: We’re truly not sure. It’s very hard to figure out.
• 🤞Incentives: Elect Republicans to the State Senate.
• 🤌 What We Want Them to Do: Honestly, we want them to go home and sit with their bad feelings so they can transform their fear into care for our communities. But we’ll settle for them losing, in the mean time.

House Republican Organizational Committee (HROC)

• 🧐 What Is It: The apparatus to elect Republicans to the Washington House.
• 🤠 Who Runs It: Rachel Jo (RJ) Elliott … according to LinkedIn. Their website is as clear as the polluted lakes they’d like to see more of in the world.
• 🤞Incentives: Elect Republicans to the Washington House, which is easy when Democrats run no one.
• 🤌 What We Want Them to Do: Cry, cry, cry, then cry more. Hopefully, then, they’ll finally get in touch with the precarity of all being and start building empathy enough to change their lives.