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ISLAND COUNTY DEMOCRATS: October 2022 Newsletter

Island County Democrats
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Island County Democrats

The Island County Democrats publish a monthly newsletter, which we are posting here. We believe that the statements made by the leadership of each party is of general public interest.

Message from ICD Chair, Joseph Busig

Dear ICD,

Ballots are out and voting has begun! If you have not yet received your ballot, please contact the Island County Elections Office as soon as possible. You can also arrange ADA compliant voting, request a large print ballot, get a replacement ballot, and register to vote until Election Day (Nov. 8) as needed.

Our endorsed and preferred candidates will need all the help they can get in the last two weeks before Election Day. Please visit our 2022 Endorsements Page to find our endorsed and preferred candidates’ websites where you can reach out and help. Donations, sign-waving, postcards, door-knocking, writing a letter to the editor, sharing posts on social media, and promoting candidates are all ways you can make a difference.

I want to encourage people to vote as early as possible. Get at least ten of your friends, family members, neighbors, coworkers, classmates, or just others you know to vote too. Turnout is crucial to pushing our endorsed and preferred candidates over the edge. If you want to vote by mail, you must have your ballot postmarked by Election Day or it will not be counted. It is recommended that, if you are voting by mail, to have mailed your ballot by the week prior to Election Day. Another way to vote is by using your nearest Official Ballot Drop-Box which are located in the following areas:

  • Island County Elections Office – 400 N. Main St., Coupeville, WA
  • Trinity Lutheran Church – 18341 SR 525, Freeland, WA
  • Ken’s Korner Shopping Center – 4141 SR 525, Clinton, WA
  • Island County Camano Annex – 121 N.E. Camano Dr., Camano Island, WA
  • Oak Harbor City Hall – 865 S.E. Barrington Dr., Oak Harbor, WA
  • Langley USPS Post Office – 115 2ndSt., Langley, WA

Here are some helpful websites to use when voting or finding information about what’s on your ballot:

Thank you to all of our volunteers, organizational partners, Members, and PCOs that have helped during this campaign season. Your commitment to our community is inspiring, and the change you actively make is meaningful. I wish all the best to our candidates going forward.

Stay safe and stay well!

Respectfully,

Joseph J. Busig

Chair, ICDCC

News from ICD

Representative Rick Larsen and State Representative Dave Paul will be there as well.

Here’s a link for people to confirm their attendance. There, you can choose whether or not you’re an attendee, a phone/text banker, or a canvasser. This will help better prepare for the rally ahead of the day of action. 

Here is the link: https://secure.ngpvan.com/zB8wCTGeQ0iDNuv_W1qiOQ2 

This is a good opportunity for us to get out the vote for our endorsed and preferred candidates! Especially as Election Day is right around the corner! 

—

Next E-Board meeting

Next ICD E-Board meeting is Thursday Nov10 at 7:00pm via Zoom. Contact Chair, Joseph Busig for an invite icdchair@gmail.com.

Message from Island County Commissioner, Janet St Clair

November 8th is now only days away.  As I write this note, it is precisely 18 days…not that I’m counting.  I want to take a moment to thank all the candidates who have stepped up.  Whether Republican, Democrat or Independent, all who have the fortitude to put themselves and their vision in front of the public deserve our respect and consideration.  October is Civility Month.  Civility First encourages us to honor the words of Abraham Lincoln – “We must not be enemies.  Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.”   After the ballots are in, we must work together for the good of our communities, listening to all voices. 

The future of our communities is at stake.  I respectfully ask you to listen carefully and do the research on each candidate.  Look at experience, integrity and vision.  These are the leadership values that matter, not just to our future but the future of our children and grandchildren.  I have demonstrated results in addressing the housing crisis and support for working families.  I have worked for climate resiliency and to protect our forests, farms and shorelines.  I have worked to improve broadband, transportation and infrastructure in Island County.  Finally, I am committed to health and human services that assures we all thrive.  I ask for your vote for four more years to continue my leadership in these areas and my efforts to make local government responsible, transparent and accessible.  Thank you for your support. Please vote by Nov 8th and encourage friends and family to vote.

Janet St Clair, Island County Commissioner

Message from Island County Commissioner, Melanie Bacon

Voting doesn’t end after you drop off your ballot. Unfortunately, we also have to make our presence felt at the elections office where ballots are verified, separated from their envelopes, scanned into the computer, and tabulated, a tedious process that can take a week or more to complete. Citizen observers are welcome to watch at every part of the process, and that’s what I am asking you to do.

The Island County Elections Office is located in Coupeville, 400 North Main Street. Election Day is Tuesday November 8, but the election workers will start verifying, separating, and scanning ballots several days before that date; and will begin tabulating votes at 8 pm on election day, continuing throughout the week as long as the Post Office continues to deliver ballots postmarked in time. At every stage of this, Democrats have to be present in the room, watching. Because Republicans are there. And they are often menacing in their attitude and words. 

I spent quite a few hours at our elections office during the vote count for the August primaries, observing different stations on different days. There were always other citizen observers there. Every single one of the other observers, each time I went, was a conservative. Some were perfectly nice. But others were angry and antagonistic, asking hostile questions and glaring at the dedicated public servants who work so hard to ensure our elections are 100% honest and accurate.

Our democracy is very fragile right now. Our presence is necessary in the room.

Melanie Bacon

Message from State Representative, Dave Paul

Friends,

We are quickly approaching Election Day, and we know voter turnout will be high and this will be a close contest.

So my question is: have you voted? If you have: thank you!

Even though we are close to the finish line, we have lots of work to do  to win this election. Please consider volunteering in any way you can–we only have a few days left!

Doorbelling: We’ll be out in the community knocking on doors until Election Day–but Beth and I need doorbelling buddies. Can you sign up for one shift between now and Nov. 8th? Email Beth at [Ed. Note: email link omitted] to sign up!

Phone banking: You know how rural the 10th District is. For those voters we can’t reach at the doors, we’ll be calling them instead. Check out the calendar below for our GOTV phone banking schedule with Clyde Shavers and Janet St. Clair. Email [Ed. Note: email link omitted] to join!

Sign waving: We have lots of sign waving events scheduled, and you can check them out on our website to find one near you!

Thanks to everyone who has already voted—and to everyone who has helped our campaign so that we can continue to represent our community in Olympia. I truly appreciate your support!

Message from Congressman, Rick Larsen

Voters on both sides of the aisle tell me every day the issues they care about most: healthcare, the economy, taking care of our veterans, and keeping our communities safe. This past term, Democrats focused on exactly these priorities and made incredible progress. 

We capped the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare at $35 per month. We gave Medicare the negotiating power to lower prescription drug prices. We capped out-of-pocket medical costs for seniors at $2,000 month. And we capped health care premiums, which will save the average Washington family up to $3,400 per year.

We saved an economy in freefall, turning a loss of 20 million jobs into one with historically low unemployment and stronger growth than China for the first time in five decades. And we passed three landmark bills investing in the construction jobs needed to rebuild our infrastructure, the manufacturing jobs needed to power our technology, and the clean energy jobs needed to grow a renewable energy economy.

We made sure that veterans impacted by toxic exposures and their families get the comprehensive care and benefits they earned and deserve by passing the PACT Act, the largest single bill to address our service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins in American history.  

We reauthorized and strengthened the Violence Against Women Act, made the largest single-year commitment of federal resources for state and local law enforcement on record, and passed the first federal gun safety legislation in three decades.

Voters should feel confident that they know what Democrats would do in the next term, which is remain focused on their priorities.

By contrast, we do not actually know what Republicans would do. We know what they would undo, of course – the right to privacy, the right to choose, the right to vote. We know this because they have told us – and we have listened. At the same time, I have yet to hear from any voters that their biggest concern in this election is that Americans have too many freedoms. So in addition to staying focused on voters’ priorities, my fellow Democrats and I will also be working hard to protect their freedoms – and, indeed, our very democracy.

My team and I are focused on winning in November and keeping not just the Second Congressional District blue but keeping Congress blue so we can keep making critical progress on behalf of working families here in Northwest Washington and throughout the country. I invite you to join us. 

Rick Larsen

Message from Candidates

Thank you to the Island County Democratic Party for making me one of your preferred candidates.  With just a few weeks left until the November 8th General Election I’d like to give an update on my campaign.  One of my top priorities as your next county assessor is lobbying for sensible legislation for our senior exemptions program.  Income thresholds are reevaluated every five years by the State Legislature and the next adjustment will be made in 2024, which means that in 2023 we need to get the changes we need to protect our seniors who are in the program as well as those that will be eligible in the coming years.  Currently, Island County senior exemptions are set at $40k of annual income to qualify.  In comparison, Snohomish County threshold is $60k annual income to qualify.  As a member of the Washington State Association of County Assessor’s, I plan to sit on the Legislative Committee to lobby our state legislature to equalize income requirements across similarly impacted economic areas.  This effort would hopefully equalize the threshold of Island County with that of neighboring Snohomish County thus lowering the tax burden on our seniors who are increasingly being taxed out of their homes. 

I am happy to see our seniors getting a large Social Security increase for the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA), however the large increase in social security payments WILL have a large impact on our seniors, including many who are already very close to the income thresholds. What I would like to see is these thresholds tied to the Social Security COLA increases that seniors receive every year.  This would ensure that those COLA increases would never price our seniors out of the program.  Getting this type of legislation on the 2023 legislative agenda is extremely important as we need a fail safe for times like these where we see inflation at 8.7% and the largest COLA increase for social security in decades.  Without this legislation, we in the assessor’s office will have no way to remedy any senior who breaks the threshold and is taken out of the program.   

I am going to work this issue on two fronts: 1) directly through our state lawmakers and 2) through legislative proposals emanating out of the Washington State Association of County Assessors. For the former, I will be partnering directly with each legislator to show them the data and impact in the field of our county’s low threshold (we along with over half of the counties in the state are at the minimum income threshold but are one of the few on the west side of the mountains where home values are so much higher). I will also team with Janet St. Clair on this effort, we have already met on this issue, and this is a high priority issue for both of us.

Thank you for your support.  I’m excited to get to work representing you as your next island county assessor.  Please see my website for more information tjkubisiak.com

Theodore James Kubisiak

Candidate, Island County Assessor

Donate

Your generous contributions will directly help ICD:

  • Host local community education and information events
  • Coordinate local Democratic Party volunteers activities
  • Train and inspire PCOs to action
  • Provide tools, materials and space for local Democratic Party planning and organizing

For the biggest bang for your buck, mail your checks to:

[Ed. Note: donation information omitted]

[Editorial Policy: The Voter Interests Project is a non-partisan organization. Part of our mission is to keep voters informed about the activities of elected officials and candidates for public office. We do not endorse or support any particular candidates; therefore, we omit all email links and donation links from candidate communications to supporters. If you are interested in supporting a candidate, we recommend you contact the candidate or their campaign directly.]

  • October 27, 2022

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