Category: Democracy, democratic process

Endorsement FAQ

eowynjesse

General

Why does Riveters Collective make endorsements?

  • To support the candidates who will best advance our platform.
  • To build political power and relationships with elected officials.
  • To provide the community more information about candidates.

Why does Riveters Collective endorse in the primary election?

  • The RC endorsement process utilizes a committee rather than a vote of the members.  The committee has access to extensive information about the candidates gathered via in person and written interviews. Each position has questions carefully crafted by endorsement teams surrounding current issues and needs of each elected position.
  • We want candidates who best align with our platform to win.  That means they need our support first in the primary election in order to make it to the general election.

How does being endorsed by Riveters Collective help candidates?

  • Endorsed candidates benefit from public support from RC, including social media and website posts, as well as volunteer support from RC members.
  • RC may choose to use PAC funds to print slate cards.
  • RC may choose to undertake an independent expenditure campaign through the PAC in support of endorsed candidates.
  • All candidates who participate in the RC endorsement process will have their questionnaires and interviews shared publicly.

In which races does Riveters Collective make endorsements?

  • RC endorses in local races, from school board up to state legislators.  We focus primarily on races in Whatcom County and Bellingham, but will endorse in smaller cities and Skagit and San Juan counties as our endorsement committee capacity allows.

 

Process

How are members of the endorsement committee selected?

  • We post an application form for the committee to our Facebook group and page, send to our email list, post on Twitter and Instagram.
  • Qualifications for committee members:
    -Live in Whatcom, Skagit, or San Juan county.
    -Work collaboratively with positive intent to identify candidates who align with the  RC platform.
    -Commit to attending meetings and communicating with the committee March-early June.
    -Commit to making time outside of meetings for question development, editing, response review and scoring, and communication with the committee.
    -Anyone who is an officer, committee member, or employee of a political party, or who is already working on a campaign for which we plan to endorse is not eligible for the endorsement committee. Committee members will refrain from involvement in campaigns until endorsements are made in early June.

How does the endorsement committee evaluate candidates?

  • The committee is tasked with identifying which candidates will best advance the vision described in the Riveters Collective platform. We ask them to attempt to endorse one candidate in each race, but dual endorsements or no endorsement is allowed at their discretion.
  • Candidates are evaluated based on their responses to questions about campaign viability, issues and experience questions, and an in-person interview.  The committee scores how well their responses map to the RC platform, but is also encouraged to consider the person’s record, life experience, and vision.

How should candidates seek endorsement from Riveters Collective?

  • After filing closes, the committee sends an invitation to be considered for endorsement including instructions and a questionnaire to all candidates.  The endorsement committee may decide to exclude candidates with antithetical views. We use the email address provided by the candidate and available on the county auditor’s page.
  • To be considered for endorsement, the candidate should complete the candidate information sheet and the written questionnaire, and email them to riveterscollective@gmail.com prior to the deadline. Candidates returning their written questionnaire before the deadline will be invited to schedule an interview.  Candidates seeking our endorsement are also required to use a code of conduct in their campaigns.

How does the endorsement committee decide what questions to ask candidates?

  • Typically, the committee wants to ask each candidate 30 questions, but we ask them to narrow the list to 10. That requires negotiation and tough decisions.
  • Race subcommittees meet in person and online multiple times to formulate questions for each race that relate to the RC platform. Once drafted, the wider committee is invited to review and make comments/suggestions on each race’s questions.

How does the endorsement committee decide which candidates to recommend for endorsement?

  • Committee members score replies to the written questionnaire and in-person interview based on a rubric, outlining higher scores for ideal answers based on the Riveter’s platform of ideals.
  • The committee is also encouraged to consider the person’s record, life experience, and vision.
  • At the committee’s final meeting, they discuss and decide the final recommendations they will make to the the RC board of directors.

What about dual endorsements?

  • Since the goal is to provide clear guidance to voters, we ask the committee to use dual endorsements sparingly.  
  • Still, we’ve had one dual endorsement each year we’ve endorsed.

How is the final endorsement decision made?

  • The endorsement committee presents recommendations to the board of directors.
  • Usually the board votes to endorse all recommended candidates, but it is possible for the board to vote in a way that’s inconsistent with a committee recommendation.

Can an endorsement be revoked?

  • Revoking an endorsement requires a vote of the RC board of directors.  The directors will consult the endorsement committee chair prior to such a vote.
  • We would consider revoking for a code of conduct violation, if we learned that the candidate had intentionally falsified their endorsement materials, or other unethical or inconsistent behavior on the part of the candidate, at the discretion of the directors.

 

Campaign Training for Everyone Resources

eowynjesse

Whether or not you attended our Campaign Training for All event, here are some links to help you make your make your campaign inclusive and get started on the right track.

Inclusivity

ASL Voter Assistance Hotline:
https://www.nad.org/asl-voter-hotline/

Communicating with a Deaf or Hard of Hearing Person:
https://dhcc.org/dhcc-outreach/communication-info/

Including People with Disabilities in Your Political Campaign: A Guide for Campaign Staff:
https://www.ncil.org/campaign-guide/

Issues that matter to Disability Community:
https://www.aapd.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/2018-REV-UP-Issues-Guide-Print.pdf

Getting started

WA Secretary of State guide for candidates https://www.sos.wa.gov/_assets/elections/candidates/state-candidates-guide-2019.pdf

NGPVan How to Run for Local Office https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/661521/How%20to%20Run%20for%20Local%20Office.pdf

WA Democrats Rise and Run resources:
https://www.wa-democrats.org/riseandrun

Campaign Code of Conduct & Ethical Behavior Policy

Elizabeth

Civic spaces should be welcoming and safe for all members of our community, and the Riveters Collective is committed to systemic change toward this goal.  Campaigns – as pop-up, temporary, high-intensity workplaces – are especially vulnerable to abuses of power. In 2018, the Riveters Collective PAC Pledge to Vote Campaign followed the lead of Tim Ballew II’s campaign for state senate (led by Tim Ballew II’s 2018 State Senate campaign, written by Tim’s field manager, Michael Peñuelas) in requiring all campaign workers sign a code of conduct, and in designating external reporting contacts.

In 2019, implementing a code of conduct will be a prerequisite for any campaign to be endorsed by the Riveters Collective. To make this easy for campaigns, we’ve provided a model code. We will accept a campaign’s code of conduct provided it meets the following criteria.

  • Asking all candidates, paid staff and contractors to commit to a workplace that is free of harassment, bullying or intimidation;

  • Making this code of conduct visible to volunteers;

  • A zero-tolerance policy for sexual assault and harassment;

  • And importantly, identifies a point person, aside from campaign leadership, who can be contacted with concerns.

Beyond our endorsement process, we have advanced this issue by proposing and passing a similar requirement for the Whatcom Democrats endorsement process, and we are working with people at the state level to implement codes of conduct at a state-wide level.

Endorsement Process 2019

eowynjesse

Follow along here as we share each step of our endorsement process.  We will update this post from now until we announce our endorsements in June.

June

  • Candidate interviews were held the first week of June, 32 in total!  Interviews were recorded via Facebook live.
  • Committee members scored the interviews using rubrics and discussed the candidates.
  • At the end of interview week, the committee discussed all of the candidates and decided on their final recommendations to the board.
  • The committee presented their recommendations to the board on Monday, June 10th.
  • The board voted unanimously to endorse as recommended by the committee.  Note: Kris Lytton and Michael Peñuelas abstained from voting on endorsements in the 40th legislative district Senate race.  Beth Hartsoch, Eowyn Savela, and Suzanne Munson abstained from voting in the Bellingham City Council Ward 1 race.

May

  • We asked Dena Jensen to research incumbents’ records to see how they compare to the Riveters Collective platform.  We tasked Dena with identifying top three and bottom three positions/decisions for anyone running who has previously held public office, no matter if they are running for a different position this election.  This is a big job and we know info may be difficult to find for some positions, but we think it is worth attempting.
  • Questionnaires were prepped for distribution to candidates.
  • Subcommittees met to work on rubrics.
  • Questionnaires were posted on our website on May 13th and emailed to candidates on May 17th.  Candidates must return completed questionnaires by May 24th to be considered for endorsement.
  • The committee reviewed and scored the questionnaires.  Unfortunately, no candidates from Blaine or Lynden returned questionnaires.
  • Dena reported in that it was challenging-to-insurmountable to accomplish the task we gave her in a fair way.  Instead, she proposed she serve as a researcher to verify or look up electeds’ records as requested by the committee.

April

  • The full committee met again to share progress on question development and learn how to make rubrics that will allow them to score how well question responses align with our platform.
  • Subcommittees finalized questions and started to build the rubrics.

March

  • 19 people applied to be on the committee and we invited all of them to join.  One person was not able to commit to the meetings and so declined to participate in the committee.  Committee members: Alex Ramel, Alicia Rule, Amanda Zimmerman, Colleen Harper, Darlene Giblin, Debbi Anderson-Frey, Eddy Ury, Jennifer Wright, Kris Lytton, Krystal Rodriguez, Lisa Van Doren, Loretta Sheldon, Maggie Davis-Bower, Margie Overhauser, Mehar Singh, Misty Manherz, Rosalinda Guillen, Sarabeth Bede, Stephanie Allen, and Stephanie McDonald.
  • The committee met for the first time to get to know each other, learn some background of Riveters Collective and learn why we make endorsements, discuss the races and decide which races we can cover, decide who will work on which races, discuss writing questions and using rubrics to rate answers against the Riveters Collective platform, and learn about the online collaboration tools we use to work.
  • The committee divided into subcommittees working on Blaine and Lynden races, Ferndale races, Bellingham races, and Whatcom County races.  The subcommittees worked to research positions and draft questions based on our platform for the written questionnaires and interviews.

February

  • We asked Riveters Collective board members and endorsement committee veterans Debbi Anderson-Frey and Lisa Van Doren to chair the committee.  We also invited Alicia Rule from Blaine to co-chair to help us expand our endorsement capacity to the smaller cities.
  • We asked for input to help plan which races we should endorse include in our endorsements.
  • Our endorsement committee consists of volunteers from the community. We used a Google form to recruit endorsement committee members and shared it in our Facebook group, on our Facebook page, to our mailing list, and on our other social media channels. Qualifications for committee members:
    -Live in Whatcom, Skagit, or San Juan county.
    -Work collaboratively with positive intent to identify candidates who align with the  RC platform.
    -Commit to attending meetings and communicating with the committee March-early June.
    -Commit to making time outside of meetings for question development, editing, response review and scoring, and communication with the committee.
    -Anyone who is an officer, committee member, or employee of a political party, or who is already working on a campaign for which we plan to endorse is not eligible for the endorsement committee. Committee members will refrain from involvement in campaigns until endorsements are made in early June.

Good Neighbor Election Pledge

eowynjesse

The 2019 Elections are already taking shape. With several key local elected positions opening up, many fine progressive candidates will put their lives on hold to do the hard work of campaigning this year. Maybe even you! Or maybe you’ll work or volunteer for a campaign, or be a thoughtful, informed voter. It is all vital, consequential work. Let’s do the work in way that encourages participation and removes barriers to involvement, and let’s do it with grace.

 

Local political activists and community members, will you take this pledge with us?

 

I pledge to participate in elections by:

  • Acting in good faith when participating in political discussions and events.
  • Assuming positive intent of all participants in the electoral process.
  • Campaigning on issues and not on the shortcomings of opponents.
  • Refusing to spread rumors. Rumors are harmful. They waste time and energy, damage relationships, and discourage people from participating in campaigns and electoral politics. I pledge to research and verify claims made about candidates, campaigns, and supporters, including speaking directly with the people about whom the claims are made, before sharing such claims.
  • Informing myself on issues and policies so that I can make the most educated choice when choosing which candidates to support with my time, money and vote.
  • Agreeing to offer my support to progressive candidates on the ballot in both the primary and general elections.
  • Refusing to work with, or support, candidates or campaigns that commit or tolerate sexual harassment/assault, and committing to believing victims and survivors of sexual harassment/assault.
  • Rejecting the assumption that politics includes winning at all costs. Instead, I pledge to support the idea that in our community candidates only truly win when they are elected on the strength of their values, communications, character, and hard work.

Sign your name above to be added to the list of neighbors who have pledged:

Eowyn Savela

Nathan Carnes

Stephanie Allen

Kris Lytton

Karlee Deatherage

Mike Estes

Carol Frazey

Michael Peñuelas

Teizeen Mohamedali

Towhee Wean

Dena Jensen

Valeri Wade

Steve Hansen

Naomi Bunis

Suzanne Munson

Jon Humphrey

Loretta Sheldon

Cheryl Robison

Alicia Rule

Colleen Harper

Genevieve Jones

Amanda Zimmerman

Amber Hixson

Jaime Arnett

Satpal Sidhu

Kelly Bashaw

Makenzie Graham

April Barker

Kristen McLewin

Bob Burr

Ashanti Monts-Tréviska

Arrissia Owen Turner

Susan Mulligan

Sarah Watts

Jace Cotton

Jonathan Scanlon

Kai Rapaport

2019 Riveters Collective Platform

eowynjesse

Riveters, we are proud to announce our 2019 platform!  Our platform states where we stand on the issues. It guides our collective actions and focuses our expectations of elected officials.  

We revise our platform annually and in December, we asked the group what changes we should make for 2019.  We also reached out to community organizations and invited them to make suggestions.  We were surprised and thrilled to receive over 60 comments and ideas!  The board has been carefully considering your feedback over the last few months and we have done our best to incorporate your ideas.  Is it perfect? Nope. Our platform is a living document that will always be in a draft state. We will keep refining it each year, making adjustments to reflect the changing needs of our community.  If you have ideas for future revisions, please email us at riveterscollective@gmail.com and we’ll keep them on file for next year’s edit round.

Click here to read our 2019 Platform.

In Response to Sen. Ranker’s Resignation

eowynjesse

Today, Senator Kevin Ranker resigned his position as state senator for Washington’s 40th Legislative District. Riveters Collective believes that resignation was the right decision, as we can no longer tolerate abuse of power at the expense of women’s safety, well-being, and professional advancement, and we also believe that the ongoing investigations of Ranker would impact his ability to serve his constituents.

Communities across our country are grappling with new ways to reconcile after sexual harassment and abuse allegations surface. We do not know the perfect answer, but we believe it starts with listening, learning, and apologizing without excuses. We are grateful to Ann Larson for coming forward and speaking her truth in the face of immense of personal and political risk. We are grateful to the people who listened to and believed Ann. We are grateful that Kevin recognized the harm his actions have caused and decided to step aside.

The events at the center of Ranker’s resignation remind us that much work remains to be done to ensure our State is a safe place for women, and Riveters Collective will continue to be active in calling for change.

First, we call on the Legislature to do more to protect victims of sexual harassment. Ranker’s appointment in the Fall to multiple major leadership positions, while Senate leadership was aware of formal sexual harassment allegations, casts doubt on whether their new respectful workplace policy and the addition of a Human Resources Officer are sufficient. The recently implemented policy and staffing resulted from the efforts of 170 women and their allies who asked that the legislature make a “tangible commitment to end sexual harassment in all its forms in Olympia”. Based on how Ann’s sexual harassment allegations were handled, it seems clear that the steps taken are inadequate. At a minimum, credible allegations of mistreating subordinates should be disqualifying for leadership positions.

Riveters Collective also expects that the person that is selected to replace Ranker firmly believes in advocating for better workplace culture, standards, and a grievance process to build a culture of respect for everyone working in the State capital.

Ann Larson has reaffirmed that one woman can change the world by speaking her truth. She is doing it. Let’s do it with her.

Signed,
Riveters Collective Board of Directors

Forget the “Blue Wave:” We Did It

eowynjesse

A reflection on the 2018 election

by Morgan Steele, Campaign Manager for the Riveters Collective Pledge to Vote campaign

As you watch the recount for the 42nd State Senate seat, don’t attribute the historic closeness of this election to the “blue wave.” It was us: the everyday people of Whatcom and Skagit Counties who stood up, got organized, and fought for change. We didn’t oust Sen. Doug Ericksen like we intended, but we won in many other ways.

 

As the Campaign Manager for the Riveters Collective, I saw it firsthand. The Riveters Collective is a women-led grassroots group with over 4,000 members. Most of us are moms with full time jobs that we balance in addition to the 40+ hours a week we put into building a culture of civic engagement in our community. We were mobilized to action when our local politics ran headlong into the Trump Administration as Ericksen took a second job working for Trump’s EPA.

This fall, the Riveters launched an innovative voter contact program that involved the painstaking work of building relationships with over 15,000 infrequent voters and aiding them throughout the entire electoral process. Most of the voters we talked to were completely unaware there was an election happening, much less an election about the issues most affecting their lives.

For example, one young man we spoke to didn’t know about the election and said he was disinclined to vote. After a conversation with our canvassers, he agreed to take the time to cast his ballot. When our reminder-to-vote postcard showed up in his mailbox a week before the election, he remembered our conversation and voted right away. We met him again at our election night party, where he showed up in person to thank us. Without us, he said, he would never have known how much of a difference one vote could make.

Evan, who voted because we canvassed him.

Our hard work paid off: Our data show that voters we reached were almost 2 times more likely to vote than those we didn’t. We saw dozens of volunteers step out from behind their computers and engage in the nitty-gritty of the electoral process for the first time. To us, this proves that the historic level of voter turnout in the 42nd LD wasn’t due to some intangible “blue wave,” but due to the hard work of everyday people stepping up to lead.

This trend was reflected in the diversity of first-time candidates stepping up to run for office. Riveters Collective held a candidate recruitment event in May to encourage more women and people of color to run. Of the dozen attendees, half decided to compete in 2018 elections. Notably, one of them flipped a historically Republican seat in the State House: Representative-Elect Sharon Shewmake, the economist, mom, and professor who is also our new state representative in the 42nd Legislative District.

Our community’s effort wasn’t just reflected in who we sent to Olympia (a notably more diverse cohort including Debra Lekanoff, the first Native American woman elected to our state legislature), but also in what principles we supported. Our values are clear: we want progressive leadership on the issues affecting our lives. A whopping 66.8% of Bellingham voters chose to tax ourselves in order to bring more affordable housing to our city. Whatcom County voted overwhelmingly in favor of common sense gun control, as 60.2% voted for I-1639. We supported accountable policing with 58.89% voting for I-940. Bellingham voted overwhelmingly in favor of the climate change action at about 54% supporting I-1631.

Ericksen is trying to spin the fact that he hung onto his seat by the skin of his teeth as some kind of victory of people power over big money in elections. He’s right, but not for the reason he thinks: it wasn’t “big money” that brought Justin Boneau within 80 votes of snatching Rep. Luanne Van Werven’s seat in Olympia. Boneau raised less than a third of the donations Van Werven received. It was voters’ thirst for genuine candidates who look and live like us and who will champion the most pressing issues.

When you look back at these elections, don’t see 2018 as “a wave year.” See it as the year everyday folks decided enough was enough. See it as the year Riveters Collective and other local progressives joined forces to build lasting grassroots power. See it as the year we used that power to elect progressive champions at all levels of government.

Then, when you look forward to the upcoming city and countywide elections in 2019, know that we’re just getting started.

Thank you

eowynjesse

After countless doors knocked, donations tallied, texts sent, and vote after vote sought, pledged and returned, and so many races yet to be called, there’s only one thing left for the board of directors to say to you, the Riveters Collective.

Thank you.

Thank you for your time, your efforts, your voices, and your bravery.

Thank you to every person who ran for office—who braved campaigning and forums, who earnestly listened to a cacophony of differing opinions, and made the choice to offer your leadership to our community. No matter the outcome of your race, thank you for your willingness to serve.

Thank you to all who served on our endorsement committee and gave hours of your time vetting candidates, not to determine who was the most enigmatic choice, but to determine the candidates you believed most capable of accomplishing the goals of the Riveters’ platform.

Thank you to everyone who showed up to a candidate forum and asked tough questions. Thank you to everyone who wrote a letter to the editor, attended a rally or a protest, joined a new group, donated to a campaign or cause you believed in, or simply engaged in the type of political conversation you would have shied away from 3 years ago.

Thank you to everyone who sat still and listened. Who paused to examine their own privilege, had uncomfortable conversations, and read and learned and discussed new views on intersections and identity.

Thank you to everyone who knocked on doors and made calls and sent mail (both e- and snail) to their fellow voters and our elected representatives. Thank you for holding our government officials accountable. Thank you for helping to crush turnout records. And thank you for inspiring so many others to join in our work.

Two years ago, in the wake of an election that shattered so many of us, the seeds of a movement were planted in our ever-fertile Northwest corner of Washington. Riveters was born out of moxie and collaboration, when a group of ordinary people—women, parents, perfectly average individuals—stopped waiting for those in power to fix things. Although so many of our members would still consider themselves unremarkable, together we’ve accomplished the exceptional, simply through our commitment to doing the work at hand—work that too many of us have neglected for too long.

It’s work we’ve not done perfectly, with plenty of missteps and painful lessons learned. There have been times when we’ve been blind to our privilege and had our edges painfully stretched. We’ve experienced a taste of the personal attacks that too often are directed at any woman in the public sphere. We’ve learned, we’ve grown, and we’ve persisted.

In these election results there are wins and not-wins, and lots of continued nail-biting and challenges to act upon. But what we’re building is not an event or a single election, it’s a habit. It’s an acceptance of our responsibility to one another and the world we live in. We’re reclaiming our space in civic life.

At our election celebration, board member Marissa McGrath quoted Henry Rollins and said “The only thing worse than complacency is complacency.” With all that you’ve made happen these last weeks, months and years, we know that as a community and group, we’ll never be complacent again. So today we celebrate our wins and grieve our losses, and then we get back to the practice of civics. There’s a platform to revise, a candidate bench to build, and so much more to do to nurture our community and democracy. However, one thing is abundantly clear: however much work there is to do, we ARE doing it.

Thank you for all that you do.
The Riveters Club Board of Directors

Bellingham City Council At-Large Position

eowynjesse

Earlier this summer, Councilmember Roxanne Murphy announced her resignation from the Bellingham City Council.  This initiated an appointment process to fill the vacancy.  The council will meet on Monday, October 1st to hear from the applicants and vote to appoint an interim council member who will serve out the remainder of the term, ending November 2019.

The Riveters Collective has, with input from a number of community groups, crafted a 10-question questionnaire as a way to collectively get to know the applicants. We are sharing the responses we received so that you can:

  • Learn more about the applicants and their positions.
  • Evaluate how well each applicant aligns with our platform.
  • Email the Bellingham City Council and urge them to vote for the candidate you think would best represent you.  You must do this before 6:00 pm Monday, Oct 1st.

Please note that we did not receive questionnaire responses from all applicants. It was difficult to share our questionnaire with all applicants because the city removed the contact info from their applications before posting them online. Click here to view the 12 responses we received.

You can view more information about all of the applicants, including those who did not complete our questionnaire, by going here and viewing the “special meeting packet”, linked in the Final Candidate Applications section.

Email contacts for Bellingham City Council (use individual emails AND group email for best results).

ccmail@cob.org  (all 6 Council Members)

gknutson@cob.org (2nd ward) Gene Knutson

abarker@cob.org (1st ward) April Barker

mlilliquist@cob.org (6th ward) Michael Lilliquist

ptmvargas@cob.org (4th ward) Pinky Vargas

tbornemann@cob.org (5th ward) Terry Bornemann

dchammill@cob.org (3rd ward) Dan Hammill