A Policy Summit Preview: Larry Sabato's Predictions
Larry Sabato, who will be speaking at this year's Policy Summit (September 24-26), got nice reviews at Capitol Comments, the Council of State Governments blog.
Larry Sabato, who will be speaking at this year's Policy Summit (September 24-26), got nice reviews at Capitol Comments, the Council of State Governments blog.
We've just posted the 2008 Legislative Review and Voting Record to our website. AWB members will soon receive them with the May/June issue of Washington Business, which is in the mail now. Take a minute to review how your legislators voted on business issues in 2007 and 2008.
In the Senate, Republican Senators Jim Honeyford and Linda Parlette scored 100 percent in 2008.
Top ranking House members with 2008 scores of 96 percent were Republican Representatives Larry Crouse, Joel Kretz and Lynn Schindler.
Gov. Chris Gregoire received a 2008 score of 29 percent.
We've given our web site a new look and hope you'll stop by for a visit.
Don Brunell (President of AWB) and Gary Chandler (Vice President of Governmental Affairs for AWB) sit down with U.S. Representitive Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-Washington.) They discuss several of the hot topics including education, climate change, and water.
For more information about this, check out our website at www.awb.org.
To download: Click Here
In today's edition of The News Tribune, there's an excellent question-and-answer conversation between AWB president Don Brunell and TNT business writer John Gillie.
In a few paragraphs, the story identifies AWB's major competitiveness concerns, both in the current legislative session and in the months ahead.
After Saturday's presidential caucuses and the attendant hoopla, it's timely to look ahead to the rest of this political year. As a member-centered organization, AWB has developed a systematic process that gives our members the maximum opportunity to participate in the process for endorsing legislative and statewide candidates this fall.
Don Brunell recently reminded members of our procedures.
It is important for you to know that we have a procedure for endorsing candidates for the Legislature and statewide office. We do not endorse in federal races for the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
You will have your opportunity to provide your input at our Regional Board meetings around the state early next September. Your recommendations will be considered by the Board when it meets at the Policy Summit on September 26 to decide our endorsements for legislative races and statewide offices. We also will be publishing our legislative voting record and plan a series of podcasts (video or audio recordings available on our Web site) with those who file for the statewide offices.
The schedule for regional board meetings is here. A memo to the AWB board providing more details on the process is here .
Last week's lobby lunch podcast was a huge sucess, with more than 400 downloads as of this morning. I would like to thank y'all for making this such a success! (If you haven't listen to it, click here)
A few things:
- Don't forget to listen to the Olympia Business Review where we look over some of the hot issues of this legislative session. To listen to our latest episode, click here.
- I am currently working on a flash player to embed with our podcasts so those of you who use web browsers that do not support windows media player (such as Firefox) or Mac users can stream the podcast too. This will be coming soon.
- We want to hear from you! What do you think of our podcasts? Is there a topic you want covered? Is there an elected official or legislators who you want to see on? Let me know by sending me an old fashioned email at danb@awb.org.
Again, thanks for listening!
It's Christmas Eve and I realized I'd forgotten to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. And to say that I'll be taking a blog break through the new year.
This short article on Brad Carlson in the Columbian gives deserved recognition to this year's chairman of the board. Brad's always quick to point out the value of teamwork, as this quote demonstrates.
"It's amazing when you've got a voice there representing 6,500 business how effective they can be and how the Legislature and governor listen," Carlson said.
Carlson and the association want to make sure legislators hear the importance of keeping Washington competitive in today's global market. High on their list of things to watch is the crafting of a sustainable state budget, one that puts money away for the lean times. The membership also wants to see that infrastructure and education needs for the state are maintained.
Well said. Well done.
In my column this morning, I briefly look at some Thanksgiving history.
Sara Josepha Hale, who championed the national holiday in the 19th Century, said the late November date had more than the harvest celebration going for it.
In 1857, she noted that, by the end of the month, "the war of politics will be over for the year."
At least for me, it's over on the blog for the holiday weekend.
Happy Thanksgiving!
