Washington Indivisible Podcast

This week, how to get to universal healthcare coverage in Washington State, with one of the lead sponsors of new legislation aimed at finding the right path forward. Emily Randall is a first-year senator representing the 26th district, and we talk with her about senate bill 5822, which will investigate how to get every Washingtonian covered.

Then, following a series of racist graffiti in the Klahanie neighborhood, Sammamish residents gather for a vigil.

And we will also have our weekly call to action with research team leader Stephen Wilhelm.

Links:

http://www.leg.wa.gov

This week, we talk with two former campaign staffers for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have just launched an online training program that teaches people how to be more effective campaigners, and can even train you to be a high-level staffer yourself. It’s called Movement School, and we learn all about it with founders Gabe Tobias and Ilona Duverge.

On our week in review, we discuss Trump’s emergency declaration and Bernie Sanders’ entrance in the 2020 race, with Indivisible Washington’s 8th’s Chris Petzold, and the chair of the King County Democrats, Shasti Conrad.

We also have our weekly call to action with research team leader Stephen Wilhelm.

Links: http://www.movementschool.us

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: https://lwvwa.org/event-3100942

LWVWA Issue Paper: "ELECTIONS, CAMPAIGN FINANCE, GOVERNMENT ETHICS": https://lwvwa.org/resources/Documents/2019_IssuePapers/2019%20Elections%20IP.pdf

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

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

Washington's Paramount Duty: http://paramountduty.org/

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

Indivisibles will be heading to Olympia on February 15th for a day of learning about how to lobby, and then putting that knowledge to use by going to the state capitol and lobbying our legislators on an array of issues. We talk with the lead organizer of Lobby Day 2019, Carolyn Barclift.

(16:38) Then, we discuss the SOTU and the Democratic response, as well as Howard Schultz's potential independent presidential bid in our new week-in-review segment, with panelists Chris Petzold (head of Indivisible Washington's 8th District) and Shasti Conrad (chair of the King County Democrats).

(44:36) We also have our weekly call to action with research team leader, Stephen Wilhelm.

Links:

All about Lobby Day: https://www.olympiaindivisible.com/washington-state-indivisible-coalition.html

WaSIC's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WaSICTeam

WaSIC's email address: [email protected]

http:www.leg.wa.gov

SB 5116: https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?

HB 1068

HB 1739

HB 1319

Changing political hearts and minds on climate change is tough, but it's possible. And for today's young people, it may be a matter of life and death, as storms, wildfires, and even our seasons grow more intense.

The Sunrise Movement is a political action group made up primarily of young people, and is focused on nationwide efforts to pressure lawmakers to take action on climate change (you may recall their occupation of Nancy Pelosi's congressional office after the midterm elections).

We're joined this week by Sunrise co-founder Stephen O'Hanlon to learn about how this group is approaching the fight of their lives.

Also, in the wake of former Starbucks' CEO Howard Schultz's announcement that he intends to run for president as an independent, we learn more about the protest rallies forming in cities around Schultz's book tour, beginning Thursday night in Seattle.

Links:

https://www.sunrisemovement.org/

About Stephen O'Hanlon:

http://www.broweryouthawards.org/winner/stephen-ohanlon/

Information about Seattle's Howard Schultz Protest: https://www.facebook.com/events/2252725728092583/

This week, with a new Democratic majority in the House and a continuing government shutdown, we revisit our interview with David Faris, author of the book, “It’s Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics.” Faris says it’s time for Democrats to do what it takes to level the playing field in DC, with strategies like statehood for Puerto Rico and DC, eliminating the filibuster, and much more.

This week's show is all about lobbying at the state level with the author of the Indivisible States Guide, Jiggy Athilingam. She is the the state and local policy manager for Indivisible, and she joins us to break down how to get everything we can out of this year’s legislative session.

We also have a preview of the 2019 Seattle Women’s March with the co-lead of the programming committee, Liberty Harrington.

And we close out the show with our weekly calls to action with Indivisible WA 8 team leader Stephen Wilhelm.

Links:

Indivisible States Guide: https://indivisible.org/resource/indivisible-states-introduction

Go here to report on your group's state lobbying action: https://act.indivisible.org/event/local-actions/create/

Democracy 101 workshop:

Sunday, February 20th at 10 AM

King County Library Service Center

960 Newport Way NW, Issaquah, WA 98027

https://www.facebook.com/events/267001987299365/

https://www.seattlewomxnmarchingforward.org/

Donate to the Seattle Womxn's March by texting SEATTLE to 44-321

Or donate to the GoFundMe site at: https://www.gofundme.com/womxn039s-march-seattle-2019

https://www.seattlemlkcoalition.org/

Log your calls to members of Congress about Trump's wall here: https://act.indivisible.org/call/cr-reject-trumps-deportation-machine-and-wall/?action_id=3286049&akid=40495.195875.Bx4tVz&ar=1&rd=1&source=email_20190113&taf=1

Congresswoman Kim Schrier's DC office: 202-225-7761

This week, we get an up-close look at the humanitarian crisis happening at the Mexico border with Jennifer Podkul. She is the Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy for the DC based group, Kids in Need of Defense, or KIND, and she recently traveled to Tijuana to investigate the conditions for immigrant children there. She joins us to talk about what she saw, and about what can be done.

In the second half of the show, we will have our weekly calls to action with Indivisible WA 8 team leader Stephen Wilhelm.

Links:

Jennifer Podkul's report: https://supportkind.org/resources/the-protection-gauntlet-how-the-united-states-is-blocking-access-to-asylum-seekers-and-endangering-the-lives-of-children-at-the-u-s-border/

Donate to KIND: https://donate.supportkind.org/give/188892/#!/donation/checkout

Just a quick reminder about Indivisible's national Day of Action, happening Thursday, January 3rd.

As part of Indivisible's strategy of shifting to offense, we'll be gathering at various locations across the state to let our members of Congress know that we're here, we're paying attention, and we'll be holding them to account to pass bold, progressive legislation, starting with HR 1.

indivisible.org/resource/hr-1-str…ing-our-democracy

Ask your Indivisible group leaders about an event near you, or you can go to indivisible.org/events to find out more.

We'll be back with a full show next week. Hope to see you out there on Thursday!

For our last show of the year, we talk with leaders from across the state, to hear about what they've learned over the past two years, what their plans and strategies are for 2019 and beyond, and about what they have planned for the Day of Action on January 3rd.

Joining us are:

- Chris Petzold, Indivisible Washington's 8th District

- Kelly Anderson and Lael Isola, Indivisible Wenatchee

- Sheril Bechard, Ellensburg Indivisible

- Cynthia Hamilton, Indivisible Spokane

- Tyna Ek, Seattle Indivisible

And we close the show with a special holiday treat!