Thurston County Democrats
www.thurstondemocrats.org
John Cusick,
Chair
Debby Pattin,
1st Vice Chair
Randy Scott,
2nd Vice Chair
Jeff Holcomb,
Secretary
Jane Johnson,
Treasurer
Linda Lombard,
State Committee Woman
Joel Staloch,
State Committee Man
Jeanne Passarelli, County Committee Woman
Jerry Muchmore,
County Committee Man
P.O. Box 164
Olympia, WA
98507-0164
360-956-0235
Highlights from last TCD Central Committee Meeting
Elected two at-large positions
Adopted TCDCC 2005 Budget
Adopted a resolution to withdraw the troops from Iraq
Adopted a resolution supporting Initiative 336 – For Better Safer Health Care
Next TCD Central Committee Meeting
March 28th
TC Courthouse Bldg. 2 Room 129
6:30 pm – Social Time
7:00 pm – All TCD PCOs and other Democrats
Agenda
PCO Training – All PCOs and Proxies are encouraged to attend!
Leg. District 2
Bill Harrington, Chair
Cindy Poysnick V. Chair
Pat Roberts-Dempsey, SCW
Tim Lancaster, SCM
Meetings
7:00pm-3rd Monday
Roy Community Center
Leg. District 20
Bob Guenther, Chair
Ellen Brock V. Chair
Jan Leth, Sec’y
Ed Smethers, Treas
Judy Guenther, SCW
Bill Little, SCM
Meetings
6:00pm - 2nd Monday
King Solomon’s Restaurant, Centralia
Leg. District 22
John Cusick, Chair
Rhenda Strub,
V. Chair
Helen Wheatley, Sec’y/Treas
Elizabeth Shepard,
SCW
Zach Smith, SCM
Meetings
6:00pm - 4th Monday - January, April, July, October
Thurston County Courthouse Bldg. 1 Room 152
Leg. District 35
Fran Moyer, Chair
Fred Finn, V. Chair
Stacia Bilsland, Sec’y
Jane Roush, Treas
Irene Bowling, SCW
John Pearce, SCM
Meetings
2nd Saturday - January, March, May, and October
Location varies
Chair's Message
First, I want to extend a hearty welcome to Jeanne Passarelli and Jerry Muchmore, the two “at-large” members elected February 28th to complete our executive committee. We’re glad they’re finally here and look forward to their ideas, suggestions, and contributions.
Second, I want to thank everyone who’s been helping us fill positions, organize the precincts, identify candidates, reach out to the community, plan events and serve on the many committees. There’s much to do and we welcome everyone’s help.
We now have the opportunity to get effectively organized and ready for the November 2006 elections, which will be here before we know it. While we continue to recruit new PCOs for vacant precincts and identify and support candidates for the many local races this year, we must continue identifying and recruiting members in all precincts. The roots of our success electing strong Democrats next year lie with our supporters in our neighborhoods and communities. The outreach and organizing we do now will pay measurable dividends later this year, next year, in 2008 and beyond.
Speaking of dividends, we’re working hard now to raise funds to help elect candidates who will be strong supporters of Democratic values. If you haven’t already done so, please consider becoming a dues paying member and electing to receive our monthly newsletter via email.
Feed and Seed for the Grassroots
The new PCO Support Committee is hard at work creating strategies and tools to help Precinct Committee Officers identify Democrats and organize them into grassroots campaign teams.
Committee co-chair Jeanne Passarelli is using her extensive experience as a union organizer to help us recruit people to fill the many vacant PCO positions in Thurston County. Jeanne has prepared packets to assist anyone who wants to help with this important task. We have lists of Democrats who have participated in past activities (such as the caucus last year) that we are using as a starting point for finding volunteers. Jeff Holcomb is working on maps to help us with a visual representation of the areas we need to cover and to later help the precinct committee with canvassing. Sam Cagle and Jerry Broadbent have ideas for literature that can be left with voters and Sam has created a nice PCO business card design that he will share. All of us are working on identifying the needs of PCO’s so we can develop training to meet those needs.
If you want to join us, whether you are a party veteran or brand spanking new, we would love to have you. We meet again Wednesday, March 16th at Room 149, Building 2 of the Thurston County Courthouse. We will be working on the lesson plan for our first PCO Training to be conducted during the next TCD Central Committee meeting March 28th. Preliminary plans for that training session include a short introduction to the online voter file and role-playing for canvassing teams.
If you have ideas for training or are a PCO who needs help or has a training request, please call Committee Co-Chair Rhenda Iris Strub at 943-1913 or email her rhenda@irisassociates.net.
Legislative District News
Legislative District 2 - Represents Pierce County, including McKenna, Rainier, Roy, Ft. Lewis, Spanaway, Orting, Graham, Yelm, and the City of Eatonville.
Our monthly meeting is Monday, March 21st, 7pm, at the Roy Library. An Election Reform Forum will be held Thursday, March 24th at Bethel Jr. High at 22201 38th St E, just north of Bethel High School. The event includes dinner by Pierce County Democrat from 6-7pm ($25) and the forum from 7-9pm with Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman and leading legislators on Election Reform on the forum’s panel. ALL Thurston Democrats, especially those from the 2nd Legislative District are invited.
Legislative District 20 – Represents all of Lewis and south Thurston Counties.
The 20th LD Democrats will gather in Thurston County for their April 11th meeting, 6pm at the Tumwater Valley Bar & Grill. Please show your support and join our social/dinner at 5:30pm. Also, several Thurston 20th LD PCOs are working to increase the number of PCOs and general grassroots party building. To help out, please contact Joel Staloch at joelws27@earthlink.net or Sam Cagle at caglels@comcast.net.
Legislative District 22 – Represents the northern portion of Thurston County, including all of Olympia and portions of Lacey and Tumwater, and the unincorporated communities of Johnson Point, Cooper Point, Tanglewilde, Thompson Place, and Boston Harbor.
With Brendan Williams’ election last fall to succeed Sandra Romero, we continue to be blessed by three outstanding members of the State legislature, allowing us to focus more attention on helping the other 3 legislative districts in the county. Thank you Senator Karen Fraser, Representative Sam Hunt and Representative Brendan Williams for standing up for education, health care, fair elections, workers rights, a clean environment, fairness and justice in the current legislative session!
Legislative District 35 – Represents Mason and portions of Grays Harbor, Kitsap, and Thurston Counties.
The 35th Legislative District roared into the 21st century late last month with a brand new web site (www.35thdemocrats.org) and an on-line version of its newsletter, The Quad County Clarion (www.35thdemocrats.org/docs/clarion.pdf). Thanks to the hard work of volunteer webmaster and Thurston County resident Mark Messinger, these two endeavors were very successfully launched almost simultaneously.
Because it’s spread over parts of four counties, the 35th LD has only four meetings throughout the year—the next one is March 12th, at Olympic College’s Bremer Center in Bremerton. There will be a St. Patrick’s Day lunch served at noon ($5/members, $15/non-members) with Congressman Jay Inslee speaking on Iraq, Social Security, media consolidation, and the BPA rate increase. He will also answer questions on these topics and more.
The actual meeting begins at 1 p.m., and will take up approval of the revised by-laws and other pertinent topics. We hope to see you there.
Resolutions Passed at February 28th Thurston County Democrat Central Committee
Two resolutions were unanimously adopted at the February 28th TCD Central Committee meeting: one in support of I-336 and the other in support of our troops, and the truth, in Iraq. The full text of each may be viewed at our website.
Dylan Malone, describing the tragic injuries and eventual death of his son, Ian, spoke of the patient safety, and insurance and legal reform benefits of I-336, sponsored by a coalition of consumer rights and labor groups, trial lawyers and injured patients, and contrasted it with I-330 sponsored by the insurance and medical industry.
Jerry Muchmore, PCO - Tri Lakes (subsequently elected “at-large” member of the executive committee), who retired from the military and DOD, offered his resolution in support of both troops and truth, asking our congressional representatives to make a concerted effort to bring our troops home now and hold the Bush administration accountable for misleading the public into an illegal, unjust, and unwinable war.
Jefferson/Jackson (JJ) Dinner and Democrat of the Year Award - May 21st
Mark your calendars our once-a-year event celebrating Being a Democrat! This is our time to get charged for the upcoming election season with our exciting Keynote Speaker: Governor Christine Gregoire! We’ll be honoring our local elected officials and celebrating our own Democrat of the Year (to be voted on at our April TCD Central Committee meeting) Details about the JJ Dinner and Democrat of the Year award will be available at March TCD Central Committee meeting.
committees - Help us be the the best county democrat organization in the state!
Burger Booth Support - Help us get the Burger Booth repaired and in top condition for upcoming fundraising events. The Burger Booth is one of the largest sources of funding for the Thurston County Democrats.
Randy Scott 352-2524 olyaccess@msn.com
Campaign Services/Support - Have you ever been a candidate or worked on a campaign? This is the committee for you. Come help us develop and implement a plan that will support the needs of candidates, Democrats, and others involved in getting Democrats elected to local office.
Jerry Muchmore 413-9729 bigdogjerry@comcast.net
Joel Staloch 455-1973 joelws27@earthlink.net
Memberships & Volunteers - Are you an organized person who likes to motivate and engage people? These are the committees for you!
Elizabeth Shepard 943-9448 jemn1@earthlink.net
PCO Support - Develop training, strategies, and other supports to make our PCOs the best trained and best prepared PCOs in the state.
Rhenda Strubb 943-1913 rhenda@irisassociates.net
Jeanne Passarelli 455-0422 j.passarelli@comcast.net
Education and Forums (Social Security Forum) - Develop and manage events and forums that will help educate the Thurston County Democrats and our community on issues that are important to Democrats.
Roger Erskine 709-2445 rogererskine35@hotmail.com
Sunshine Fund - Donate a monthly door prize to be given away at each Thurston County Democrat Central Committee meeting. Funds collected will be used for condolence cards, flowers and other appropriate recognitions for Democrats in our community who have experienced a loss, illness or other event.
Chris Garst 491-4969 cbgarst@aol.com
Communications - Do you have experience writing for publication? Do you have experience producing a regular newsletter? Do you know how to do publicity for events? Are you interested in working on websites? This is the committee for you. We're looking for folks to help pull together the monthly newsletter, keep the website up-to-date and help us publicize Thurston County Democrat events and activities.
Christi McGinley 459-4024 christi@beaudesigns.com
Data & Information - This committee will be looking at what data is needed, where data is coming from, and how it should be used to further Thurston County Democrat goals and objectives.
Jeff Holcomb 943-7939 mapmaker98502@yahoo.com
Historical Records - This committee will begin the important task of documenting the "institutional knowledge" within the Thurston County Democrat organization. There are many who have been around the organization for years who have valuable information that should be collected for current and future reference so we don't unnecessarily reinvent the wheel.
Jeff Holcomb 943-7939 mapmaker98502@yahoo.com
March 7th - Thurston County Food Bank
220 Thurston St. NE
Shifts: 8:30-noon or 12:30-3:00
TCD has scheduled the 1st Monday of every month to volunteer at the Thurston County Food Bank. Volunteers are welcome to bring friends as long as they are willing to be associated with Democrats!
The first Mondays are Federal Commodities day so there are many different jobs to accommodate those with less strong backs but willing hands and hearts.
For more information contact Elizabeth at 943-9448 or email here at: jemn1@earthlink.net.
Quick Glance Calendar through April 2005
March 4 – "Wave Aid" (tsunami) Benefit Dance & Silent Auction – 6:00pm – Eagles Hall (4th Ave. & Plum St.) Proceeds will go to the Red Cross. Contact Pamela Turlove turlove@scattercreek.com
March 6 – International Women's Day Celebration - 1:00-4:00pm - Lacey Timberland Regional Library. Contact Linda Malanchuk-Finnan 357-7272 or iryh@hotmail.com
March 7 – TCD Executive Committee meeting – 6:00pm – Thurston County Courthouse, Building. 2, Room 129 (Note location change!)
March 12 – “Feminist Summit” – 10:00am–3:00pm – First Christian Church
March 12 - Pacific County Crab Feed - 5:00pm Social Hour, 6:00pm Crab Feed - South Bend Chamber (1st and Alder)
March 28 – TCD Central Committee Meeting – 6:30pm Social Time, Meeting 7:00pm – Thurston County Courthouse, Building. 2, Room 129 (Note location change!)
April 4 – TCD Executive Committee Meeting – 7:00pm – TC Courthouse, Bldg. 1, Room 152
April 25 – TCD Central Committee Meeting – 6:30pm Social Time, Meeting 7:00pm – Thurston County Courthouse, Bldg. 1, Room 152
Precinct Committee Officer and Proxy Email Lists
If you are a PCO or Proxy we encourage you to sign up for the TCD Announcements email list. This list is used for official TCD administrative communication only such as official meeting dates or agendas, draft policies or resolutions, or TCD sponsored events. This is not a discussion list. Only moderators will be allowed to send email to you from this list.
To subscribe, send an email to TCDannounce-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and if you are a current PCO or Proxy, you will be added to this list.
If you would like to be part of a PCO discussion list we encouraged to subscribe to the TCDPCO email list. This list should be used to energize and encourage each other, strategize and brainstorm activities for your precincts, and organize to make it all happen.
To subscribe, send an email to TCDPCO-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and if you are a current PCO or Proxy, you will be added to this list.
It's a good day to exercise...democracy!
Comments or questions about TCD or this newsletter can be sent to info@thurstondemocrats.org