Whatcom Women Democrats Discuss Child Protective Services

On April 9, Spring made an appearance in Bellingham, WA as the Whatcom Women Democrats held their monthly meeting at the Super Buffet off the Guide Meridian. 

A recurring topic of passionate discussion in Whatcom County is the governance of the Port of Bellingham.  According to law, the Port of Bellingham is to be run by an elected committee of five Commisioners, but in fact there an now only three.  Actually only one person has  been making the decisions that impact the Port.  Currently serving are Scott Walker, District 1, Michael McAuley District 2, and Jim Jorgensen District 3.  Website portofbellingham.com gives enlightening and informative news and notes on how the Port operates.  To participate in the process, the public is welcome to attend monthly Port meetings on the first and third Tuesday of the month at 3pm - location and details available on the above website. 

The April program featured a presentation about Child Protective Services (CPS) and the lawsuit and legislative changes designed to privatize CPS case management services.   Unionized social workers object to case management services being contracted out to for profit non-union companies without adequate testing by the State of Washington. 

South Bellingham Democratic Caucus

Sunday afternoon a robust crowd of 30+ Democrat supporters gathered at Fairhaven Middle School as one of the 20 Whatcom County district caucus meetings.  PCO Maggie Hanson opened the table for registration of all Precinct #245 (Fairhaven/Chuckanut neighborhoods loosely defined) participants.  Registration is a formal process by which a voter declares a party (Democratic) and indicate a candidate preference for president.  Among the attending voters up to 12 delegates are selected to proceed to the County Level Caucus.  Current policy only allows 15% of those 12 delegates to have undecided/undeclared status on their certification.   We had only 11 voters at the event.    Eight people registered were approved by PCO Hanson to be delegates to the Whatcom County Caucus April 28.  Of those delegates, 6 declared themselves Obama supporters and 2 were undecided.

After delegate selection the floor was opened for discussion of the 2012 Democratic Platform.  Precinct 245 was passionate about coal refining, so they included some revisions in the current Platform proposals.  In the past, Whatcom County has required a two thirds majority vote (aka a "Super-Majority") rather than just a fifty-one percent majority (aka "Simple Majority").  Given a limited time frame for revisions, (the hall was actually being dismantled as we were still meeting at our table); two broad revised proposals were approved and the delegates agreed to continue the discussions directly with the Platform Committee at the April 28 County Caucus.  The Platform Committee deadline is 11am Wednesday for inclusion April 28.  This has been an ongoing project since 2010, and updates are published every other year.

In summary, the delegates chose 3 items for closer inspection.  Environment, Education and Foreign Policy.  Delegates want to expand the scope of the Environmental Impact Studies (EIS) relating to the rail transport of coal through Whatcom County.  Delegates also want to withdraw support for Charter and Voucher schools that involve for-profit/anti union entities and maintain funding for public schools.

Congressional Candidates presentation at Whatcom Dems Monthly Meeting

   by Bonnie Chisum

On a dark and rainy evening Thursday Feb 17 at the Sons of Norway Hall off N State Street & Champion in Bellingham, the Whatcom County  Democrats held their monthly general meeting.  Roughly 100 people turned out to see candidates  for the US Congress from District 1 vie for support in the upcoming primary election.  The four Candidates Darcy Burner, Suzan DelBene, Laura Ruderman and Darshan Rauniyar were each given 5 minutes to speak on their respective platforms, followed by a 10 minute Q&A session from the audience.  The response from the audience was luke warm because they had heard many of the promises before.  

Darcy Burner is a Harvard Graduate with a BA in Computer Science emphasizing  Economics.  She worked 10 years for companies such as Lotus and Microsoft.  She helped with Howard Dean and John Kerry’s campaigns in 2004. She ran against Republican Dave Reichert in the 2006 8th Congressional District Race. Burner described  current Congressional politics as “Democrats attacking a brick wall with water balloons.”   She wrote “The Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq” which Obama used for his Presidential campaign.  In 2008, Burner became the President and Executive Director of ProgressiveCongress.org  working with the Congressional Progressive Caucus on public health, civil rights, education, environmental sustainability and economic opportunity.  

Susan DelBene holds an MBA from the University of Washington, She was a Vice-President at Microsoft and a Biotech entrepreneur.  While serving as Washington State’s Department of Revenue Director in Olympia, DelBene watched special interest groups work against the interests of the middle class.  Her campaign platform focuses on “how to improve public access to Congress”.   DelBene believes that communication channels need to be expanded by holding town halls and public debates. If elected she will  promote education, jobs and health care access for all Americans. 

Darshan Rauniyar is a small business owner who  immigrated to America from Nepal over 20 years ago.  “The American Dream is fading,” Rauniyar states, “Washington DC does not reflect who we are as Americans”.  His platform is to “Restore the American Dream” by reforming trade agreements which have allowed American jobs to be shipped overseas so that now twenty million Americans are out of work and fifteen million people lack health insurance.  Rauniyar holds that the failure to fund education has caused America to fall behind Europe and most of the industrial world educational achievement

Laura Ruderman  began: “I believe if you show up and work hard, you should expect some basic things.  You deserve a living wage.  You deserve affordable health care.  Finally you deserve the right to retire with dignity.”  As a three term State Legislator from the 45^th District, Laura Ruderman combines government experience with a background as a Program Manager at Microsoft.  She pledges to rebuild our economy by supporting key Washington State industries such as software, aerospace, biotech, and agriculture.  She proposes making Washington State an international leader in clean energy production.  Ruderman also champions the funding of post-secondary education for all students.  She believes the country should balance the budget by letting the Bush administrations tax cuts to the ultra-rich expire.