This Washington
Tacoma: Case Study in Western Washington's Democratic Civil War
The race between Jake Fey, deputy mayor of Tacoma, and Laurie Jinkins, a Pierce County Public Health official, for the 27th legislative district (Tacoma and Fife) is yet another example of what is perhaps election 2010's biggest story: Intramural party squabbling. Of course, it's the family feud on the right (see Christine O'Donnell vs. Karl Rove) that's getting all the national attention, but in Washington state the phenomenon is playing out more on the Democratic side of the aisle
. In this year's races, Democratic candidates have split based on moderate or progressive positions; on the budget and the environment; and, in one of the most intractable rifts: Labor vs. education.
Unlike Democrat/Democrat contests in the 34th district (where progressives are supporting Joe Fitzgibbon and moderates are supporting Mike Heavey) and the 38th (in which incumbent state Sen. Jean Berkey was knocked out by progressive Nick Harper's multi-pronged assault from the left), the race between Fey and Jinkins, fighting for the seat vacated by retiring longtime Tacoma-area Rep. Dennis Flannigan, breaks into two different priority planks of the Democratic platform on the progressive side: social justice and the environment.
Fey, the environmental candidate, serves as Tacoma's deputy mayor (which means he also serves on the city council) and sits on the boards of Sound Transit and the Puget Sound Clean Air agency. As deputy mayor, he was the principle force behind a package of upzoning regulations, trading developers height in return for affordable housing units, improvements for pedestrians and cyclists, and bonuses for developments that set up in the city core, rather than on the cheaper metropolitan fringe. Futurewise, the prominent pro-density public interest group, cites the package as the most comprehensive set of upzoning regulations in the state .
Participants in the upzoning project say Fey was key in convincing community members, who were concerned about changes to the structure of neighborhoods in Tacoma. "It would not be any overstatement to say that [the upzoning regulations] would not have happened without Jake," says April Putney, lobbyist at Futurewise, the prominent pro-density public interest group.
In the legislature, Fey says he hopes to push for regulatory restructuring to allow local governments to have more control on transit development.
Besides no-duh endorsements and contributions from the Washington Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club, Fey has the sole endorsement of the 27th district Democrats and 27th district Senator Debbie Regala. The working-class Democrats in the 27th haven't sent a Republican to Olympia since 1963. In this year's top-two primary, five candidates ran—none as a Republican. Fey got 29 percent of the vote and Jinkins got 33.
And Jinkins, the social justice candidate, has gotten some ringing endorsements herself—including one from Governor Chris Gregoire, who did a robocall in the 27th urging voters to choose Jinkins. ("[The Governor] is supporting many candidates this cycle in various ways," Gregoire spokesperson Kelly Evans told me. "Laurie is a friend of the Governor's").
Jinkins' buzz is all about the fact that, if elected, she would be the first open lesbian in the history of the state legislature. She also co-chaired the campaign for Referendum 71 (which gave gay and lesbian couples commensurate rights with married heterosexual couples). Anne Levinson, the chief organizer of the campaign, said Jinkins spent nights and weekends organizing fundraising and get out the vote in Pierce County.
Jinkins worked for Washington State Department of Health from 1995 to 2008, ultimately rising to oversee state regulation of health care providers. She's currently deputy director at Tacoma-Pierce County Health.
Jinkins' campaign also has support from a band of education reformers, including an endorsement from the League of Education Voters and $8,000 from the powerful Stand for Children PAC, both of which push for state-wide teacher evaluation standards, a big tenet of Obama's Race for the Top program—and the source of major internal tension in the party.
Still, her campaign is quick to point out that she's garnered a slate of diverse education endorsements, including the American Federation of Teachers, the AFL-CIO affiliate, second-biggest teachers' union behind the much-bigger National Education Association. The AFT is more Race-to-the-Top and Obama-friendly than the NEA, although they have scraped a little with the Administration over how to determine teacher quality based on student evaluations.
The NEA can't stand Stand for Children (it forcefully opposes the state-wide teacher evaluation standards) but the local chapter, the Washington Education Association hasn't gone all in for Fey the way it has for others facing Stand For Children-backed candidates.
When I asked Fey if he supported the state-wide standards, he told me he wasn't ready to state a position. "Right now, we are not getting the results we need for kids and their families," he said. "I am willing to push the WEA to compromise on this issue."
Jinkins is solidly ahead in the money game: with $124,005.41 raised and $38,854.42 on hand compared to Fey's $86,621.20, with $11,507.52 on hand. Some of her largest contributions come from the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund; the health care service employees' union; and the Washington Physical Therapists Committee PAC.
Among Fey's largest contributions: the Amalgamated Transit Unions; Active in Democracy, Tacoma's politically powerful firefighters' union; Puget Sound Energy, the local energy provider; Public School Employees of Washington, the union for non-teacher school employees; and the Washington Conservation Voters.
The candidates share a lot of the same Democratic support base (Fey even serves on the board of Pierce County Health), and have each gained a handful of union endorsements (as well as a dual endorsement from the Tacoma News Tribune).
Races like this one also divide Democratic campaigners: Christian Sinderman's Northwest Passage Consulting firm is working with Jinkins, talking up the candidate's long list of priorities, including education and health care. Meanwhile, consultant Shakti Hawkins of Argo Strategies is working with Fey, nodding to the candidate's environmental cred and emphasizing Fey's experience balancing the budget in Tacoma.
(The race isn't the only one in the state to pit the two Democratic firms against one another; in the 34th, Northwest Passage is advising Joe Fitzgibbon, the progressive enviro candidate, and Argo is advising Mike Heavey, a fiscal moderate with support from education reformers (including Stand for Children).)
The deciding qualification between Fey and Jinkins may be which candidate is better suited to deal with the state's budget (which is now about $1.4 billion in the red). As assistant secretary at the state Department of Health, Jinkins advised Governors Locke and Gregoire on health care priorities in the state budget. "Balancing the budget," Jinkins told me, "is by far the most important thing for us to focus our energy on in the legislature."
As part of the Tacoma city council, Fey agreed with the rest of the council to a plan to refinance the city's debt as a way of balancing the budget. Fey has said he doesn't believe the state should cut any education funding to sustain the budget (education makes up the majority of the budget).
The election could be a statement on which voices are loudest within the electorate—the progressive, organized transit and density groups, or the social liberals, with their emphasis on education reform and social issues. Though the budget issue may take precedence, the Democrats are facing a messaging schism in the 27th.
Unlike Democrat/Democrat contests in the 34th district (where progressives are supporting Joe Fitzgibbon and moderates are supporting Mike Heavey) and the 38th (in which incumbent state Sen. Jean Berkey was knocked out by progressive Nick Harper's multi-pronged assault from the left), the race between Fey and Jinkins, fighting for the seat vacated by retiring longtime Tacoma-area Rep. Dennis Flannigan, breaks into two different priority planks of the Democratic platform on the progressive side: social justice and the environment.
Fey, the environmental candidate, serves as Tacoma's deputy mayor (which means he also serves on the city council) and sits on the boards of Sound Transit and the Puget Sound Clean Air agency. As deputy mayor, he was the principle force behind a package of upzoning regulations, trading developers height in return for affordable housing units, improvements for pedestrians and cyclists, and bonuses for developments that set up in the city core, rather than on the cheaper metropolitan fringe. Futurewise, the prominent pro-density public interest group, cites the package as the most comprehensive set of upzoning regulations in the state .
Participants in the upzoning project say Fey was key in convincing community members, who were concerned about changes to the structure of neighborhoods in Tacoma. "It would not be any overstatement to say that [the upzoning regulations] would not have happened without Jake," says April Putney, lobbyist at Futurewise, the prominent pro-density public interest group.
In the legislature, Fey says he hopes to push for regulatory restructuring to allow local governments to have more control on transit development.
Besides no-duh endorsements and contributions from the Washington Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club, Fey has the sole endorsement of the 27th district Democrats and 27th district Senator Debbie Regala. The working-class Democrats in the 27th haven't sent a Republican to Olympia since 1963. In this year's top-two primary, five candidates ran—none as a Republican. Fey got 29 percent of the vote and Jinkins got 33.
And Jinkins, the social justice candidate, has gotten some ringing endorsements herself—including one from Governor Chris Gregoire, who did a robocall in the 27th urging voters to choose Jinkins. ("[The Governor] is supporting many candidates this cycle in various ways," Gregoire spokesperson Kelly Evans told me. "Laurie is a friend of the Governor's").
Jinkins' buzz is all about the fact that, if elected, she would be the first open lesbian in the history of the state legislature. She also co-chaired the campaign for Referendum 71 (which gave gay and lesbian couples commensurate rights with married heterosexual couples). Anne Levinson, the chief organizer of the campaign, said Jinkins spent nights and weekends organizing fundraising and get out the vote in Pierce County.
Jinkins worked for Washington State Department of Health from 1995 to 2008, ultimately rising to oversee state regulation of health care providers. She's currently deputy director at Tacoma-Pierce County Health.
Jinkins' campaign also has support from a band of education reformers, including an endorsement from the League of Education Voters and $8,000 from the powerful Stand for Children PAC, both of which push for state-wide teacher evaluation standards, a big tenet of Obama's Race for the Top program—and the source of major internal tension in the party.
Still, her campaign is quick to point out that she's garnered a slate of diverse education endorsements, including the American Federation of Teachers, the AFL-CIO affiliate, second-biggest teachers' union behind the much-bigger National Education Association. The AFT is more Race-to-the-Top and Obama-friendly than the NEA, although they have scraped a little with the Administration over how to determine teacher quality based on student evaluations.
The NEA can't stand Stand for Children (it forcefully opposes the state-wide teacher evaluation standards) but the local chapter, the Washington Education Association hasn't gone all in for Fey the way it has for others facing Stand For Children-backed candidates.
When I asked Fey if he supported the state-wide standards, he told me he wasn't ready to state a position. "Right now, we are not getting the results we need for kids and their families," he said. "I am willing to push the WEA to compromise on this issue."
Jinkins is solidly ahead in the money game: with $124,005.41 raised and $38,854.42 on hand compared to Fey's $86,621.20, with $11,507.52 on hand. Some of her largest contributions come from the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund; the health care service employees' union; and the Washington Physical Therapists Committee PAC.
Among Fey's largest contributions: the Amalgamated Transit Unions; Active in Democracy, Tacoma's politically powerful firefighters' union; Puget Sound Energy, the local energy provider; Public School Employees of Washington, the union for non-teacher school employees; and the Washington Conservation Voters.
The candidates share a lot of the same Democratic support base (Fey even serves on the board of Pierce County Health), and have each gained a handful of union endorsements (as well as a dual endorsement from the Tacoma News Tribune).
Races like this one also divide Democratic campaigners: Christian Sinderman's Northwest Passage Consulting firm is working with Jinkins, talking up the candidate's long list of priorities, including education and health care. Meanwhile, consultant Shakti Hawkins of Argo Strategies is working with Fey, nodding to the candidate's environmental cred and emphasizing Fey's experience balancing the budget in Tacoma.
(The race isn't the only one in the state to pit the two Democratic firms against one another; in the 34th, Northwest Passage is advising Joe Fitzgibbon, the progressive enviro candidate, and Argo is advising Mike Heavey, a fiscal moderate with support from education reformers (including Stand for Children).)
The deciding qualification between Fey and Jinkins may be which candidate is better suited to deal with the state's budget (which is now about $1.4 billion in the red). As assistant secretary at the state Department of Health, Jinkins advised Governors Locke and Gregoire on health care priorities in the state budget. "Balancing the budget," Jinkins told me, "is by far the most important thing for us to focus our energy on in the legislature."
As part of the Tacoma city council, Fey agreed with the rest of the council to a plan to refinance the city's debt as a way of balancing the budget. Fey has said he doesn't believe the state should cut any education funding to sustain the budget (education makes up the majority of the budget).
The election could be a statement on which voices are loudest within the electorate—the progressive, organized transit and density groups, or the social liberals, with their emphasis on education reform and social issues. Though the budget issue may take precedence, the Democrats are facing a messaging schism in the 27th.
