1. While Democratic party regulars like the ACLU and the the Service Employees International Union have decided not to back the marijuana legalization initiative, Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz said in an email  that the Democrats will endorse the initiative at their convention in Vancouver this weekend.

Pelz sent out an email last week urging party members to get behind I-1098, the high-earners income tax, and in a follow-up email with one party member, he indicated that I-1068, the legalization measure, will get the party's endorsement.

From: xxxx
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 12:07 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: ACTION ALERT: Middle class tax reform

Dear Mr. Chairman,

Thank you for the information on I-1098. I strongly urge you to also send out an email promoting I-1068, The Marijuana Reform Act initiative. This issue is clearly extremely important to a large proportion of Democratic voters and certainly it would have a far wider-reaching impact than I-1098 on promulgating cornerstone Democratic ideals relating to race and social justice, sustainability, public health and safety, harm reduction, etc.

If the state committee feels that it cannot (for reasons I could not fathom) endorse I-1068, it seems that in all fairness people on this statewide email list should at least be encouraged to make an informed decision and notified that numerous local Democratic groups are formally endorsing this initiative. Currently, I-1068 is endorsed by the King County Democratic Central Committee, the Whatcom County Democrats, the Fidalgo Democrats, and the 23, 30, 37, 39th and 41st District Democrats!

Thank you for your attention.

From: [email protected]
To: xxxxx
Subject: RE: ACTION ALERT: Middle class tax reform
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:54:58 -0700

We are holding our convention next week, and I anticipate endorsement of 1068.

Dwight

2. We missed this on Friday: The Seattle Times blog interviewed U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA, 8 ) and his Democratic challenger, Suzan DelBene about the BP spill: Did they support President Obama's call for BP to set up a $20 billion escrow account; did they support raising the oil spill liability cap; and did they support a moratorium on offshore drilling?

Here's the Times' report.

3. The Northwest Women's Political Caucus is hosting an event tonight in Seattle where you can meet the seven candidates they're prioritizing in some of this year's local races, including: Debbie Mealey, running to be the first female sheriff in Thurston County; Lillian Kaufer, a Democrat who's challenging an incumbent state Senate Democrat (Steve Hobbs) in the 44th Legislative District (Southwest Snohomish County); and 34th District (W. Seattle) state House candidate Marcee Stone "an experienced woman running against two young men, running a 'clean campaign', not taking any PAC money," boasts the NWPC invite.

4. Speaking of the 44th District race between Democratic insurgent Lillian Kaufer and conservative incumbent Democratic Sen. Steve Hobbs: Hobbs did some phone polling this weekend to see how voters feel about big labor (Kaufler got the state labor endorsement) and to see how voters feel about her supposed Price Club card debt.