Forum for Candidates for Democratic Party Chair, January 5, 2014
On Sunday January 5, 2014, the four candidates for Washington State Democratic Party Chair answered questions from the constituency caucuses at a forum held at the IAM Hall in Seattle.
The four candidates are
• Jay Clough http://www.jayforchair.com/
• Jim Kainber http://www.kainber.com/
• Dana Laurent http://danalaurent.com/
• Jaxon Ravens https://www.facebook.com/JaxonRavensforChair
Each of the party caucuses (African American, Native American, Disability, Stonewall, Hispanic/Latino, Veterans and Military Families, Progressive, Asian Pacific American, Jewish, Agricultural/Rural, Women’s Federation and Young Democrats) was allowed a single question, and each candidate got two minutes to answer. Many of the questions concerned how the chair would use the caucuses to reach out to their specific constituencies. There were a couple of questions about what the mission of the Democratic Party should be. Two questions that stood out for being different. The Young Democrats asked about microtargeting and increasing resources for VoteBuilder. All the candidates agreed that they would like to do this. The Jewish caucus brought up scheduling of party events conflicting with Jewish holidays. The candidates agreed that the state party website should have a calendar with Jewish and other religious holidays to aid local organizations in scheduling events with minimal conflicts.
The crucial decision about who will be our next state party chair will be made at the WSDCC meeting in Vancouver on February 1. The vote is solely by the state committee representatives—please check with your county and/or legislative district party organization to find out who thery are.
Other candidate forums are scheduled as follows:
• Sunday January 5th 7pm WECU Education Center, 511 E Holly St, Bellingham, WA 98225
• Wednesday January 8th 7pm, Masonic Hall, Shoreline 753 N 185th. This is the regular meeting of the 32nd LD Dems
• Saturday January 11 1-3pm Clallam County Dems, 24 -A W 1st St, Port Angeles, WA
• Saturday January.11 1-2pm Lewis County Dems, Courthouse, 351 NW North St, Chehalis, WA
(Clearly a problem with the last two events. Contact chairpersons for clarification.)
• Saturday January 18th 9:30am Spokane County Dems. For more information, call Jim Castro-Lang, Chair, Spokane County Democrats, (509)324-8525
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