Hello Readers,
Today we make the first ever WTIA candidate endorsements. This is new for WTIA. We have been politically active for many years through our Political Action Committee, through which we have made campaign contributions to legislative candidates that were supportive of the technology sector.
During this election season, though, we decided to step it up and ask candidates and incumbents to tell us if they agreed with the positions on 4 priority issues that WTIA developed. The questionnaire that we sent to the candidates is attached so you can see what we asked and the positions we have taken. These policy stances were vetted through our Government Affairs and Legislation Group and the WTIA Board of Directors. (Any WTIA member can be part of the Government Affairs and Legislation Group—just contact me if you wish to join.)
For this election our PAC contributions are not tied to the endorsements we are making. We may do so in the future but we felt it was more important to see where legislators and candidates stood on issues. We also do not want to box ourselves in politically. As you will see by the endorsements, we are endorsing some candidates who really have no chance to win or are not campaigning actively and it would be a waste of resources to make contributions to those campaigns. However, if they took the time to answer the questions and support WTIA’s top issues, it is important that WTIA recognize those candidates. The political process is rarely straightforward and logical.
It should not be surprising that most of the responses came from candidates who are challengers or are running for open seats and not incumbents. The power of incumbency cannot be understated. Once someone is elected, it is very difficult to remove them, especially since most legislative districts are pretty much either very Democrat or very Republican. There are some exceptions, mostly suburban districts in the Puget Sound region where voters are generally moderate and tend to be less ideological. This makes for a situation where only a few legislative seats are truly competitive. The “top two” primary might change that in districts where there are multiple candidates from the same party running. For example, it is likely that in Seattle’s 36th district (Ballard, Queen Anne, Magnolia) two Democrats will emerge from the primary to run against each other in November. Under the old system, the race would essentially be over next Tuesday after the primary. Of course it means if you are a Republican in a district like this, you basically have no one to support in November. The fairness of that situation is certainly up for debate and the political parties will be doing just that after the primary.
We hope that these endorsements are helpful to you. Please contact me if you have any questions, comments or tirades about this process. The document with endorsements and other information is attached. We scored the responses and are endorsing only those with the highest scores. A “4” is the highest score and we gave half points for responses that were generally in agreement with the WTIA position but are not in complete agreement. In some races, more than one candidate is endorsed. There are also some qualifying comments.
Due to technology limitations only one attachment can be posted. I will publish some of the endorsements in a post immediately following and the remainder in a subsequent post.
I mentioned the WTIA Political Action Committee above. We depend on the voluntary contributions of WTIA members to fund the PAC. Please make a contribution to the WTIA PAC today. It is one of the most effective ways for the voice of the tech sector to be heard by our elected officials. The PAC contribution form can be found on our website here: http://www.washingtontechnology.org/pages/advocacy/advocacy_wsa_pac.asp
Don’t forget to vote in the primary on August 19!
Contact information: lmcmurran@washingtontechnology.org (206) 448-3033 x101