About Us

A Brief History

How did you get started?

After the Democratic National Convention in July, 2004 several progressives returned to Washington State energized about the newly-formed Progressive Democrats of America (www.pdamerica.org). Several of them wanted to form a Progressive Caucus within the Democratic Party here in Washington State. They put together a proposal for the Progressive Democratic Caucuses of Washington and shopped it around to former Kucinich and Dean supporters they had met during the 2004 Presidential Primary campaign.

Concurrently several members of the 46th Legislative District Democrats had also been meeting over the summer and early fall to discuss ways to make the local party organization more transparent and more responsive to the progressive platform and to grassroots concerns at the district level.

Meanwhile the first group was receiving somewhat contradictory pieces of feedback. The organization should function outside of any political party, and the organization should function as a caucus within the Democratic Party.

Both groups came together in November 2004, meeting at the home of Jim Mullins, sometimes as a single group, sometimes back-to-back, and sometimes individually. But the collective wisdom was effectively to endorse the motto of the old San Francisco jazz club - the Both/And. The group that functions outside of any political party has morphed into Progressive Change for Washington (www.pcfw.org).

Progressives who wanted to work on as a caucus within the Democratic Party were almost all members of the 46th Legislative District (at least that we knew of), and formed the Progressive Democratic Caucus of the 46th Legislative District, or PDCW46. Here supporters of Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich and other activists are finding common ground in our goal to maintain the new energy of the Democratic Party. Members of other Puget Sound Legislative Districts have been dropping by the PDCW46 meetings, in order to learn how to form similar caucuses in their own district.

What are the activities of the Caucus? In what ways are you interfacing with the Democratic Party to influence its policies?

The first three meetings focused on two things:

1. Articulating what it meant to us to be Progressive. This discussion crystallized into our mission statement.
2. Planning for our re-organization meeting, learning what the process was going to be, figuring out who was interested in running for which position, being sure they had people to nominate and second them, and turning people out to the re-org meeting so that we could get progressives elected. Our members now hold 7 of 19 positions on our Executive Board. We also organized to get a resolution on the Counting and Certification of the Presidential Election passed in the 46th LD and then at the King County re-org meeting. That resolution is posted here. And one of our members is on the Executive Board for the King County Democrats.

Our next project is arranging and hosting a forum with Jim McDermott on January 30, 2005. It was designed to be a call to action for progressives, as well as to energize Jim McDermott in Washington DC. Other goals and agenda items include revision of our LD by-laws to allow more transparency, dialog, and communication within the party, assessing the by-laws of the King County Democrats and giving feedback to our KCDCC reps, discussion and maybe endorsement for the Washington State Democrats Chair race, hosting a forum with Maria Cantwell to begin a dialog with her.

We feel that having progressives on the Executive Boards at the LD, County, and State level will make it easier for us to have an influence on our Party in the future. Getting progressive topics on the agenda at meetings, such as having a program about IRV, getting the general meeting and Executive Board meeting minutes posted on the various Democratic Party websites so we know what decisions are being made, and by whom. One of the things we want to pay attention to is holding our elected representatives and senators, etc. accountable to the platform of our district, county, and state. We don't want to only sit and listen to them talk at us, we want to dialog with them. We want to be able to thank them when they stand up for Progressive issues, but also to ask the tough questions when they don't, not have them assume our support just because they are a Democrat.

What plans do you have for the future? What ideas do you have to build the Democratic and/or Progressive infrastructure within our state?

Within the Democratic Party, the best place to start is the Precinct Committee Officer (PCO). The PCO is the most grassroots oriented elected representative in our state's political structure. Most of the members of the PDCW caucus in the 46th are PCOs, or acted to support the PCO in their precinct or a precinct near where they live during this last election. We feel that there is much that can be done to encourage the development of PCOs and the work they do in the Democratic Party.

You can read the PCO Handbook online on the Democracy for Washington website.

The PCO votes in LD and County Party elections, and is the voice of their precinct throughout the year. Find out who your PCO is and let them know what issues you care about and what you want your elected representatives to do about them.

The LD and County party organizations need your voice as much as the candidates need your vote. Find out when your local organization meets, and find out how you can help!

On the state level, there is a group that has formed to push the progressive message to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee. This is a newly formed caucus within the party, and you can read more about this group and the activities we are coordinating here.

Do you have ideas for action I can take here in my LD -- and also for finding other people who may be interested in advocating within the Democratic party?

We encourage you to coalesce a PDCW caucus for your Legislative District or County! One of the great things about having a PDCW in each LD would be to share ideas, to share materials that are developed, share resolutions to be passed, share the work of holding our Federal Representatives and Senators accountable for their votes. Our experience is that you'll generally find that people who were formerly Dean or Kucinich supporters during the 2004 Presidential Primaries will probably be interested in having an influence in the future of the Democratic Party. Contact us, we might be able to find a list of all the delegates elected at the your LD Caucus during the 2004 primary caucus cycle. You could use that to contact Dean and Kucinich delegates and see who else is interested.

For more information about forming a local Progressive Caucus, visit our LD page.

Keep in touch, and let's keep the dialog and the connections going!

Comments welcome!