Please join us for our general election 2023 endorsement meeting.
September 20, 7-9pm on Zoom
Register in advance here.
- Arrive as early as 6:30pm for credentialing.
- Meeting will be called to order at 7:00pm.
Agenda
Our primary agenda item is endorsements, so most regular business will be postponed to our normal October membership meeting.
Endorsements for Consideration
Here are the Endorsements & Candidates on deck that are eligible for our endorsement (one candidate and the ‘no’ position on the ballot did not complete an interview)
- You can find videos of all of our E-Board Interviews on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@36thDems
Ballot Measure
- Seattle Prop 1: Yes for Homes (Nimco Bulale) — the ‘no’ position did not interview
Candidates
- School Board Position 1: Liza Rankin, Debbie Carlsen
- School Board Position 3: Ben Gitenstein, Evan Briggs
- School Board Position 6: Gina Topp — her opponent did not interview
- City Council District 5: ChrisTiana ObeySumner, Cathy Moore
*eligible to vote as described in our bylaws
Executive Board Recommendations
These are only the recommendations of the board, and not endorsements themselves. They reflect the consensus of at least 2/3 of a quorum of the board, except in the case of no recommendation, where the board was unable to reach 2/3. The general body will vote on our formal endorsements and that will determine the officially endorsements of the 36th LD.
- Seattle Prop 1 (Housing Levy): Approved
- Seattle School District Director 1: No recommendation
- Seattle School District Director 3: Ben Gitenstein
- Seattle School District Director 6: Gina Topp
- Seattle City Council D5: ChrisTiana ObeySumner
Simplified “How Endorsement Votes Work”
[non-binding; for explanation purposes only; refer to bylaws and Robert’s Rules for more technical information]
For those of you attending endorsement meetings for the first time or in need of a high-level reminder, this is very simplified flow.
The board has conducted interviews with candidates and representatives for ballot measures and voted in a board meeting on recommendations for each of the races.
For more about this, see our endorsement rules, endorsement process, board code of conduct/ethics, and our 2023 Primary Endorsements (all of these will carry over to the general also).
For each candidate or ballot measure for endorsement:
1) The first step will be the E-Board recommendation. This could be one of the following:
- a sole (or dual or more) endorsement
- the board recommends that the membership vote to endorse the candidate(s) or ballot position
- no recommendation
- the board does not have a specific candidate or position to recommend, sometimes because of deadlock, if the board doesn’t feel there is enough information or time to consider, or other reasons a specific endorsement recommendation is not agreed upon by the E-Board
- no endorsement
- the board recommends that the membership does not endorse anyone in the race or the ballot measure; this could be in the case of candidates eligible for endorsement are not sufficiently aligned with our platform/values or other reasons the board does not recommend any of the candidates or ballot measure positions
2) In the case of an endorsement or recommendation of no endorsement, the E-Board recommendation will be the first motion considered; in the case of no recommendation, the floor will be open to the membership for a motion to endorse (or a motion for no endorsement)
- if there are multiple motions from the body, a straw poll will be conducted to determine the order of consideration of the motions.
3) Each motion will have (up to) three (3) speakers for and three (3) speakers against; for the board recommendation an E-Board member will be the first speaker for and will explain the reasoning behind the board’s recommendation
4) The vote will be called for the motion to endorse or no endorsement
- If passed, this will be the 36th endorsement — for candidate(s) or ballot measure; no other motions for this race/position will be considered
- If the board recommendation fails, the floor will be open to motions from the membership for endorsement or no endorsement and a straw poll conducted to determine the order of motions in the case of multiple
- if a motion from the body fails, the next motion in order from the straw poll will be considered through the same process (back to step 3)
Meeting Materials
We hope to see you there!