Our 2018 Questionnaire Committee has come up with the following three updated Questionnaires.

• The Legislative Questionnaire will be given to candidates for State Senate and State House seeking our endorsement.
• The Judicial Questionnaire will be given to Judicial Position candidates seeking our endorsement.
• The Municipal/Other Questionnaire will be given to all other candidates seeking our endorsement.

We will be voting on whether to adopt these questionnaires at our February 28 meeting; please take a moment to familiarize yourself with them!

Legislative Questionnaire:

Part I – Candidate Background

1. Please briefly describe your qualifications, education, employment, community and civic activity, union affiliation, prior political activity, and other relevant experience.
2. What prompted you to run for this office? What are your campaign’s most important themes, issues, or priorities (three to five)?
3. What steps are you taking to run a successful campaign?

Part II – Local and State Issues (Yes/No/Qualify Your Response)

1. Do you support Initiative Measure No. 940 (“De-escalate Washington,” requiring, among other things, that law enforcement officers be required to obtain violence de-escalation and mental health training, so that officers will have greater skills to resolve conflicts without the use of physical or deadly force)?
2. Do you support the right of public workers, excluding military, to bargain and strike?
3. Would you support a statewide “Ban the Box” law, prohibiting employers from asking about job applicants’ criminal history until after an initial screening or interview?
4. Do you support legislation that reimburses the cost of reproductive health care services, such as SB 6105, the Reproductive Health Access for All Act?
5. Would you support an automatic voter registration act such as HB 2595 (Automatic Voter Registration Act of 2018), streamlining procedures in order to automatically register citizens to vote?
6. Would you support a bill that would enable the state of WA to create a single health financing entity to provide health care financing for all Washington residents, independent from employment, such as the WA Apple Care Trust?

Part III – Free Response

1. Why are you running as a Democrat? What aspects of the Democratic platform most resonate with you?
2. In the past, many Democrat-sponsored bills have died in the Republican-controlled Senate. Please list three failed bills from the past legislative session that you will champion when elected.
3. What important state and local issues have you worked on (or taken an interest in) that you feel aren’t getting enough attention from elected leaders and the media?
4. Do you think Washington public schools are adequately funded? If not, what minimum requirements should be met in an adequately funded public school system? What specific forms of taxation would you support to attain that funding?
5. What are some obstacles inherent in proposed legislative solutions to climate change? How would you approach those obstacles in order to best overcome or minimize any negative effects?
6. What are some obstacles inherent in proposed approaches to tax reform in Washington State? How would you approach those obstacles in order to best overcome or minimize any negative effects?
7. Do you support the voter-approved call for a Constitutional Amendment to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court decision (I-735), and if so, how do you propose to work toward that goal?

 

Municipal/Other Questionnaire:

Part I – Candidate Background

1. Please briefly describe your qualifications, education, employment, community and civic activity, union affiliation, prior political activity, and other relevant experience.
2. What prompted you to run for this office? What are your campaign’s most important themes, issues, or priorities (three to five)?
3. What steps are you taking to run a successful campaign?

Part II – Local Issues (Yes/No/Qualify Your Response):

1. Would you support the establishment of a safe injection site in your district?
2. Would you support the administration and police force in your jurisdiction adopting a sanctuary policy, forbidding the sharing of local resources and labor with ICE?
3. Do you support raising revenue at the city level to expand transit service?
4. Should transportation policy discourage the use of private automobiles and encourage the use of public-transit?
5. Do you support building a municipally owned and operated broadband system in your city or jurisdiction?
6. Do you support requiring police officers in your jurisdiction to wear body cameras?
7. Do you support repealing Tim Eyman’s I-747, which artificially limits property tax increases to 1% per year, regardless of population growth, inflation, and need?
8. Should government assist individuals, and families who are without sufficient food, shelter, or basic necessities through no fault of their own?
9. Should the wages paid to workers in Washington State be raised incrementally towards the goal of living wages?
10. Will you seek opportunities to mitigate the human activities that are contributing to disastrous climate change?

Part III – Free Response

1. Why are you requesting Democratic endorsement? What aspects of the Democratic platform most resonate with you?
2. What important local issues have you worked on (or taken an interest in) that you feel aren’t getting enough attention from elected leaders and the media?
3. Please list up to three specific, concrete actions you would support to ease the homelessness crisis.
4. What are the barriers to economic prosperity faced by residents in your jurisdiction, and how do you plan to address them?
5. What are the transportation/transit challenges which face this jurisdiction and how would you address them?  What role does rail play in your proposed solutions?
6. What are your jurisdiction’s environmental issues, which ones are urgent and what will you do to address them?
7. Does your district have a taxing authority or propose levies and what changes, if any, would you seek?
8. What safety, law, or justice issues are facing your jurisdiction, and how will you address them?

 

Judicial Questionnaire:

Part I – Candidate Background

1. Please briefly describe your qualifications, education, employment, community and civic activity, union affiliation, prior political activity, and other relevant experience.
2. What law firms or public law offices (i.e. King County Prosecutor’s Office) have you worked for? Have you served as a prosecutor or a public defender? Please include dates, and title for each position that you have held, as well as areas of law practiced.
3. Have you ever served as a mediator or arbitrator? (If so, please describe your experiences.)  If you are an incumbent, do you perform settlement conferences?
4. Have you been a judge pro-tem? If so, what was that experience like? What did you learn from it?
5. What do you believe are the most important qualifications for a judge or justice?
6. What prompted you to run for this office? What priorities are you seeking to address with your campaign?
7. What steps are you taking to run a successful campaign?

Part II – Position-specific

1. Do you support making it easier for Washingtonians who are not members of the bar to access public records, particularly at the Superior/District court levels, where per-page fees are charged?
2. Do you have any thoughts on how our courts should address the growing use of smartphones during court proceedings, particularly by jurors?
3. Is Washington relying too much on court fees to cover the cost of operating our judicial system? How do you believe our courts should be funded?

Part III – Access to Justice

1. If elected, how will you work to improve access to justice, particularly for communities and constituencies that do not understand the American legal system?
2. What does the phrase Black Lives Matter mean to you as a judicial candidate?
3. What ideas can you offer to make our judicial system more open, transparent, and responsive?