2004 Candidate Questionnaire

SECTION I               

BASIC CANDIDATE INFORMATION

1. Name as it will appear on the ballot

First Name	Middle Initial or Nick Name	Last Name
Edward	O	Prince

2.   Office sought (include office, jurisdiction, position/district number):

State Representative 11^th District Position 2

3.   Are you the incumbent?                  Yes              No

4.   How long have you resided in this district/city?

5 years

5.   How long have you resided in King County?

29 years

6.   Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan?         Partisan      Nonpartisan         

7.   If partisan, please indicate party:  Democrat

CAMPAIGN CONTACTS

Campaign Name:	Committee to Elect Ed Prince
Address:	14203 42^nd Ave S # 317
City/State/Zip:	Tukwila, WA 98168
Campaign Phone:	206-478-3802
Campaign Fax:	N/A
Campaign E-mail:	Eprince2004@earthlink.net
Campaign Website:

POLITICAL BACKGROUND

1.   Beginning with the most recent position, please list public offices which you have held.  Include positions on appointive Boards or Commissions.

Public Office	Elective or Appointive?	Dates Held	Leadership Role (if any)
WA State Commission on African American Affairs	Appointive	8/1/03- 1/11/04	Acting Executive Director
Foster High School Site Council	Appointive	9/02-present	Co-President for 2 terms

2.   If you ran for public office but were not elected, please list those races below:

Office Title	Year of Run
Pullman City Council	1997

SECTION III

In this section, we are seeking responses that reflect the four ratings criteria: involvement, effectiveness, character, and knowledge.  These are defined as follows:

• Involvement: What has the candidate done previously in family, neighborhood, community, volunteer work, employment or public life to suggest readiness to accomplish challenging objectives? How do these activities demonstrate readiness for the challenges unique to the office sought?

• Effectiveness: Has the candidate demonstrated promise of being productive in the office sought?  Has the candidate shown the ability to work with other people?

• Character: Do the candidate's personal traits show the ability to take on the responsibilities of campaigning for and holding the public office she or he is seeking? Is the candidate a leader, participant or observer?  Is the candidate trustworthy, reliable and candid?

• Knowledge: Has the candidate demonstrated the willingness and ability to learn and adapt?  Does the candidate understand the duties and challenges of the office sought?  Does the candidate have a firm grasp of the issues important to his or her constituency and their potential effects?

1. In a page or less, why are you running for this office?  (Note: the interview committee will be given a copy of this statement before your interview; at the beginning of your interview you will have the opportunity to expand on this statement in any way you wish.)

I am running for office because our state's health care system is broken and I believe that serving in the State Legislature is the best way to fix this problem. Recently I had an issue with a family member that showed me just how bad this system is.

2. Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.

My most important characteristics or traits that will be valuable for the legislature is the ability to listen to everyone even if I disagree with them. I believe that a good legislator should listen to all points of view because, you may disagree with someone 99.9 percent of the time but there may be that one time where you both agree on something that will benefit the people of Washington State.

The other trait that I believe will be valuable is my constant desire to learn about different issues. Legislators can't be experts on everything but I believe they can and should be willing to learn about issues outside of their area of expertise.

3. Please describe in sufficient detail, one to three accomplishments or contributions of which you are most proud.  These examples should illustrate effective skills and capabilities you think apply to the office you are seeking.  These accomplishments may have occurred at any time in your personal, professional, or public life. 

This past legislative session I worked with a coalition of people to pass SCR (Senate Concurrent Resolution) 8419. SCR 8419 created a joint select committee on Health Disparities. The goal of this committee is to look at data around different health issues and report back on how we bridge the gap on issues such as quality of care, access to medication, etc,etc. I took the lead in making sure that people from our coalition testified at hearings,met with legislators, wrote letters etc. I was in constant contact with Sen. Franklin's office (Sen. Franklin was the prime sponsor) to find out if I or the coalition could do anything else to make sure the bill kept moving and when the bill ran into a small snag I organized an effort for coalition members to e-mail their legislators and legislators in the House Health Care committee to ask them to move the bill forward. The bill finally passed both houses slightly amended without a single nay vote.

As the Acting Director of the Commission on African American Affairs I came into the job during a contentious time. The board did not get along with the previous Director and we were not living up to our mandate, which is to improve public policy services and government service delivery to the African American community. When I became Acting Director I instantly worked to improve relationships with board members and community members who felt like the Commission did not listen or respond to their needs. When I stepped down as Acting Director this past January, legislators, people inside the Governors office, board members and members of the community all across the state were impressed with how much

the culture of the Commission changed. Previously, the Director of the Commission focused his issues and the Commissioners focused on their issues by the end of my tenure we were a cohesive unit.

4. Please list or describe your current and past activities in the community in which you have acquired skills that relate to the office you seek.  Include your role in the activity and the year(s) in which you were involved.  Involvement consists of many areas such as family, neighborhood, community, employment, or public life.

Co- President Foster High School Site Council- Board member 2002, Co-President 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 (Foster High School is the high school in my neighborhood).

Seattle King County NAACP- General member 2004.

2000 Days to Excel- Boardmember, Co- Chair undoing institutional racism committee. 2000-2001.

Commission on African American Affairs- Legislative Liaison 2002-2003, Acting Director 2003-2004, Legislative Liaison/Community Outreach Coordinator 2004-present.

Taxpayers for Referendum 51- Seattle Field Director 2002-2002

Legislative Aide- Reepresentative Sharon Tomiko Santos- 2000-2001.

5. Please describe the duties of the office you seek.  Which are the most important duties and why?

Serving in Olympia during Legislative Session.

Meeting with constituents from your district.

Sponsoring or co-sponsoring legislation.

Meeting with representatives from various issue oriented organizations.

Meeting with lobbyists during session and interim.

learning about different polict issues by attending conferences (i.e. National Conference of State Legislatures or Council of State Governments.

Discussing issues with county/local governments and state agencies.

I believe that all of these are important but the two most important to me are meeting with constituents from your  district and serving in Olympia during session, in my opinion these are the two ways legislators have the biggest impact.

EDUCATION BACKGROUND SUMMARY

FOR PUBLICATION IN CANDIDATE EVALUATION REPORT

The Municipal League’s Candidate Evaluation Report is distributed to voters in print and/or on our website.  It includes a summary of the candidate’s education.  Please summarize your education in 120 characters (letters, punctuation, and space all combined).  The League will delete material that exceeds the space limit by beginning with the last entry.  Suggested order is (degree) (subject) (school) (year, if desired). 

Note: If this question is left blank the League will not include education information in your candidate profile.

Political Science, Washington State University, 1999

CIVIC INVOLVEMENT SUMMARY

FOR PUBLICATION IN CANDIDATE EVALUATION REPORT

The Municipal League’s Candidate Evaluation Report also includes a summary of each candidate’s civic involvement.  Please summarize your civic involvement in the space below.  We will make every attempt to include the information in the Candidate Evaluation Report as submitted.  Due to space restrictions in the Report, your response is limited to 500 characters (letters, punctuation, and spaces all combined).  It is important that you list your involvement beginning with the most important and ending with the least important.  If you exceed the length of response permitted, or if the League should find it necessary to shorten responses for publication purposes, deletions will be made beginning with the last item listed. 

Note: This information will appear verbatim on the League’s Candidate Evaluation Report.  If this question is left blank, the Municipal League will not include information on your civic involvement in the Report.

Check here if you would like the Municipal League to copy the first 500 characters from Question 4 to paste into this section.

Finished!

If at all possible, send your response to the Municipal League electronically as an attachment, or insert it into an e-mail message (rebecca@munileague.org).  Mail and fax numbers are listed below.  If the League has not contacted you to schedule an interview, please call the League office at your earliest convenience.

Don’t forget to send the following to the Municipal League:  a resume, a photo, campaign literature, and, if you are an incumbent, constituent newsletters and other materials.  Please use the check-off list on the cover sheet of this packet to indicate which items you have sent.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION AND GOOD LUCK IN YOUR CAMPAIGN!

THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE OF KING COUNTY

Candidate Evaluation Coordinator:  Rebecca Cooper

810 Third Avenue, Suite 224                  Phone: 206-622-8333                Email: rebecca@munileague.org

Seattle, WA 98104-1614                        Fax: 425-671-0506                        Website: www.munileague.org