36th District Democrats

Residents of the 36th District

There are approximately 120,000 residents living within the 36th LD.  Through voter registration, residents of the 36th Legislative District become voters in the 36th LD.  The boundaries of the legislative district can be found here.  Every 10 years, a bipartisan commission will draw new boundary lines.  The next redistricting will begin in 2010 and will likely be implemented in time for the 2012 elections. 

Voters of the 36th District

As of 5/12/09 (and according to Labels and Lists), there are
approximately 83,135 registered voters within the 36th LD.  52% are female/48% male. Nearly 18,000 voters are perfect 4/4 voters (21.5%).  22% of the voters are above 60 years of age, 27% are under the age of 34.  Surprisingly, nearly 57,000 voters identify themselves as Independents in our district, although they vote overwhelmingly Democratic. Nearly 20,000 registered voters identify themselves as Democrats compared to 6800 as Republican. Through education and outreach, more voters in the district will become caucus attendees and hopefully members of the 36th District Democrats.  For more general information on the voting behavior of the 36th, please click here.

Caucus Attendees of the 36th District

In 2008, we had 18,000 people participate in our precinct caucuses.  Because of our requested donation, we doubled our membership as a result of the 2008 caucuses.  The caucuses are a great membership and activist recruiting tool and we have many new faces in the district organization as a result.  

In a midterm year, we’ve seen numbers as high as 400 people participate.  We expect significant drop off in 2010, but we hope to see caucus participation stay relatively the same as we have seen in previous midterm years.  In years where we have control of the White House and Congress, we don’t expect to see high numbers. 

Members of the 36th District Democrats 

Currently, we have approx 500 members of the district organization.  Last year, it was nearly 1200 members and we lost many of these members as a result of an at least $5 donation at the 2008 precinct caucuses who failed to renew.     

Ideally, retaining our 2008 membership levels would be ideal.  Membership dues are a significant revenue source for the district as well as critical to maintaining the influence of the district.  Knowing we will constrict after drop off in late February, our goal should be to try and recoup that number as much as possible going into the 2010 elections.

Members of the district can vote on endorsements and pass resolutions at our district meetings.  Additionally, current membership includes our monthly 'official calls', called The Alert.  Members also help pass the agenda, elect our district organizational leadership and set the goals of the district organization throughout the year.

Additionally, maintaining a diverse membership is also important.  We should set diversity goals to ensure we have a decent racial, labor, LGBT, gender, age, religious/non-religious diversity. 

Precinct Committee Officers of the 36th District

King County is divided into 2,548 neighborhoods called precincts, many are only a few blocks in size. Most precincts have a Precinct Committee Officer (PCO) who serves as the political representative for that neighborhood. PCOs walk their precinct before each election making sure their neighbors are registered voters, handing out election materials, and reminding people to vote. They also are a key player in spreading the word about Democratic candidates! PCOs are elected every two years as part of the Democratic primary.  It is also possible to be appointed as a PCO between elections, or to be appointed as an Acting PCO for a precinct in which you do not reside.

For our current PCO list, please click here. 
For more PCO resources, please click here.

Subcommittees of the 36th District Democrats 

Political Committee:  As prescribed in the district bylaws, a Political Committee is charged with membership recruitment, literature distribution and precinct caucus management.  The committee is chaired by the Vice Chair of Political Organizing and its membership automatically includes the Chair of the District and each of the five NOC organizers.  In addition to the duties outlined in the bylaws, the political committee is in charge of organizing the precinct caucuses, filling empty PCO slots, voter registration efforts, providing PCO training, assisting in newsletter distribution, creating networks to disseminate information, working with the Coordinated Campaign and any national Democratic organizations to increase GOTV efforts in the district.  

Policy Committee:  The Chair has created a Policy Committee co-chaired by the Issues Chair and the King County Legislative Action Chair.  The committee is charged with tracking legislative issues (federal, state and local) and suggesting action or advocacy of legislative issues that mesh with our platform and ideals.  The Policy Committee further is charged with reviewing the platform and recommending changes or amendments to the platform.  In addition, the Policy Committee shall schedule Programs for the agenda as well as forums, debates and other public advocacy and education around issues relevant to the 36th District Democrats.  The Policy Committee is charged with coordinating with other groups to advance these principles as well.  

Endorsements Committee:  The Chair has created an Endorsements Committee, chaired by the Vice Chair. The Endorsements Committee is charged with formalizing an endorsement process including scheduling interviews with candidates and advocates for/against ballot measures, scheduling and advertising the E-board endorsement interviews, communicating the results to the full membership and creating/formalizing a sample ballot for distribution.  The Chair, the Vice Chair for Political Organizing and the Vice Chair are all members of the Endorsements Committee and must all sign off on the sample ballot before distribution.  

Governance Committee:  The Chair has created a Governance Committee, chaired by the Vice Chair.  The Governance Committee is charged with reviewing the district bylaws and recommending changes/amendments to the full Executive board for consideration and full membership for approval.

Communications, Data and Tech Committee:  The Chair has created a Communications and Tech Committee, co-chaired by the Communications Chair and the Technology Chair.  The Data Manager and Membership Chair automatically have vote on this committee.  The CD & T Committee will be of service to other committees where there is a communications or technological need.  The CD & T Committee is charged with creating an interactive website with social networking capabilities that allows certain Executive Board members to add their content to the site, to create and distribute a regularly published newsletter to the district’s membership and to communicate to the residents of the 36th District the plans, goals, activities of the 36th District Democrats.  The Committee is charged with implementing technologies to increase participation and access to information.  Additionally, the Committee will oversee the membership data and communications strategies as it relates to credentialing, meeting sign in, mailing labels, listservs and the like.

Events Committee:  The Chair has created an Events Committee, chaired by the Events Chair. The Treasurer and Immediate Past Chair will also reside on this committee and have an automatic vote.  The Events Committee is charged with planning and executing the two district events: Summer Event and November Event.  Additionally, the Events Committee is charged with organizing social events like political happy hours and political book clubs.  The Events Committee will confirm venues for district membership, executive board meetings, public forums and debates.