1. Name as it will appear on the ballot
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First Name |
Middle Initial or Nick Name |
Last Name |
2. Office sought (include office, jurisdiction, position/district number):
3. Are you the incumbent? Yes No
4. How long have you resided in this district/city?
5. How long have you resided in King County?
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29 Years |
6. Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan? Partisan Nonpartisan
CAMPAIGN CONTACTS
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Campaign Name: |
Friends of Alice Woldt |
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1. Beginning with the most recent position, please list public offices which you have held. Include positions on appointive Boards or Commissions.
2. If you ran for public office but were not elected, please list those races below:
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In this section, we are seeking responses that reflect the four ratings criteria: involvement, effectiveness, character, and knowledge. These are defined as follows:
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.)
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I am running to end the pessimism eroding our citizen’s basic trust in government. Yes, we have big challenges. Our public schools are struggling, our social safety net is frayed and our workers are struggling to find and keep family wage jobs with decent benefits (especially affordable and accessible health care). We have to do a better job. We have the eighth highest unemployment in the states. Our class sizes are some of the largest in the country. Our social service agencies are facing steep cuts at the federal, state and local levels.
We can continue to wallow in the misery of these statistics or we can start delivering results. We can continue to say “it can’t be done” or we can roll up our sleeves and get to work.
This is a campaign defined by it’s political courage. As you know, I am running against a 32 year Democratic incumbent who chairs the Appropriations Committee. She is known for her ability to say “No”. She negotiated a budget which cut funding for teacher’s salaries and reduced class sizes. Her budget cut 26,000 children off the basic health care plan. She voted to cut unemployment insurance in the middle of the recession. She also voted to reduce funding in the final 2003 budget for a critical program dedicated to control persistent toxic chemicals in our environment. Sommers also wrote a budget that denied home care services to some vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities and created a waiting list for home care services.
Frankly, this is unacceptable.
More importantly, the state budget enacted by my opponent flies in the face of the Democratic values of the 36th District. After receiving tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Philip Morris, drug companies, insurance companies, banks and timber interests, Helen Sommers supported $250 million in increased corporate tax loopholes just 8 months after voting for deep cuts in health care, education and the environment.
These are not the priorities of the 36th District. These are not my priorities either.
I have worked my whole life on these tough issues. I started my career as a schoolteacher and a leader in education. For most of my working life, I have dedicated my energy to non-profits that championed human services, peace, working families and the environment. Currently, I am the executive director of S.A.G.E (Seattle Alliance for Good Jobs and Housing for Everyone), which is a broad coalition of labor, environmental, low-income housing and religious organizations working to keep Seattle’s quality of life.
I believe I have the experience and the optimism to make a difference at the state level. At the very least, we can strike a blow against the pessimism and defeatism clouding our state legislature and stand up for basic Democratic values. I promise to roll up my sleeves and tackle these problems head-on not just be a naysayer who believes nothing can be done. |
2. Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.
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I’ve had a life long committment to our communtity. From my 17 years on staff of the Church Council of Greater Seattle, to my current position as Executive Director of the Seattle Alliance for Good jobs and housing for Everyone (SAGE), I've spent my career bringing different groups together to work on a wide range of problems. My most important personal characteristics for this office come from this committment and include both the creative energy and the ablity to bring people together to solve a problem. I am recognized as a fair, open-minded and inclusive person that acts with integrity. |
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.
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.
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My current position is Executive Director of the Seattle Alliance for Good jobs and housing for Everyone. SAGE is a coalition of labor, low-income housing, and environmental and faith-based organizations. Through my work with SAGE I work to connect the dots for good jobs, smart growth and development of low-income housing in the urban area. My role includes coalition building, public policy research and analysis, community leadership and administrative tasks.
My work with the Church Council of Greater Seattle included three different executive positions: director of administration and finance, director of public policy and public witness and executive director. The positions required supervision and evaluation of program and staff, development and management of multi-million dollar, multi-resourced budgets, development of public policy and organizing and lobbying for legislation, short-term and long range strategic planning and being the public face and voice of the Council.
I served as Chair of the King County Democratic Party. In this capacity and since, I've worked on numerous issue and candidate campaigns including; the Seattle Housing levies, the Family and Education levies, numerous school levies, the minimum wage, and against anti-affirmative action campaigns.
I taught pre-school and K-6 in Illinois public schools where I was a community leader and teacher organizer. I grew up on a farm in South Dakota and graduated from South Dakota State University.
I received my MPA from Seattle University and throughout my career I've manged large and small non-profits, created and met budgets, managed staff, and organized diverse communities. It is this kind of leadership and real experince that is key to being an effective leader in our State Legislature.
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The most important duty is to represent the interests and values of my district. With that in mind, I will strongly support public education, health care affordability and accessibility, human service needs and family wage jobs with benefits.
I know that each legislator needs 50 other votes to get anything done and am ready to work with other members of my Democratic caucus and across party lines to represent my district.
I will use my background on education and social service issues to bring an optimistic, fresh and real world experience to Olympia to fight for my constituents. |
EDUCATION BACKGROUND SUMMARY
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.
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MPA Seattle U, Institute for Public Service Elem Ed Grad Studies Northern Illinois U BS Child Development So Dak State U |
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.
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Executive Director, SAGE (Seattle Alliance for Good jobs & housing for Everyone) Executive Staff and Director, Church Council of Greater Seattle Human Services & Housing Now PAC Families and Education Levy Community Advisory Comm Sea/KC Homelessness Advisory Grp Campaign Director, Seattle Housing Levy Chair, King County Democratic Party Research Analyst, Seattle School Dist Preschool and K-6 public school teacher Plymouth Congregational Church Sound Nonviolent Opponents to War NARAL Jobs With Justice WA State, King County & 36th Dist Democrats |
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.
Candidate Evaluation Coordinator: Rebecca Cooper
Seattle, WA 98104-1614 Fax: 425-671-0506 Website: www.munileague.org