Rep. Jeannie Darneille announced today that she plans to run for Sen. Debbie Regala’s seat in 2012. Regala has announced that she will not seek re-election.

Darneille has lived in Tacoma for 32 years and served in the House of Representatives for 11. This session, she helped write the budget and was an advocate for social service programs, like General Assistance Unemployable.

For more on the decision — including her full press release — visit Jordan Scrhader’s post here.

Tags: Darneille, elections, Regala

Nora Gibson, in a photo from her website.

For this week’s Q&A, I spoke with Nora Gibson, executive director of Full Life Care, a nonprofit that provides home care services, operate small boarding homes and has five adult day health centers across King and Snohomish Counties. She estimates her nonprofit serves approximately 1,600 people.

Gibson is in favor of Initiative 1163, which would restore a training requirement for home healthcare workers.

Q: First, what does this initiative do from your perspective?

Gibson: This initiative is really an attempt to restore the components of initiative 1029 that was really focused on training and improving the quality of the long term care workforce. That initiative passed overwhelmingly in 2008 but over the last several budget years has been systematically dismantled. So 1163 attempts to go back to the people to talk about the importance of a high-quality workforce in what I will call community based long-term care. Again, trying to make sure that people get background checks , set a minimum basic training standard that would be equivalent to what you get working inside a nursing home, and lots of kind of accountability measures built into this particular initiative.

The bottom line is something I’ve observed since the 1980s, is most long term care is now provided outside of institutional settings – in adult family homes, boarding homes, and by home care workers all across the state. And they receive only a minimum amount of training – I think right now it’s 32 hours. And that’s it.

You can hire independently on your own a homecare worker and they can have a certification but the only training they’ve received is this 32 hours. (more…)

Tags: elections, home healthcare, Initiatie 1163, SEIU

We’re still wrapping up legislative coverage — you can watch our one-hour Legislative Year in Review starting Friday evening — but campaign news is already coming fast and filing week starts in just a few days.

First, if you tuned into TVW’s Sine Die coverage last week, you learned that Sen. Phil Rockefeller will be leaving his seat to take a position on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (a position he was appointed to by Gov. Chris Gregoire). But you also learned that he’s recommending Rep. Christine Rolfes for his seat. She told the Bainbridge Island Review that she’s interested in the position. The Kitsap County Democratic Central Committee will choose three candidates and the county commissioners will make the choice.

And Denny Heck has decided to run for Congress again — in a yet undetermined district. As Brad Shannon reports, his Thurston County home could end up in a new 10th Congressional District that’s being hashed out now by the bipartisan Redistricting Commission. The Redistricting Commission is traveling the state holding public hearings now, which you can watch on TVW.

And former state Rep. Laura Ruderman has decided that if U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee runs for governor, she’ll run for his seat in Congress. You can read more about that on Jerry Cornfield’s blog here. Cornfield also notes that Rep. Marko Liias announced last month that he’s forming an exploratory committee to consider a run.

Now, what about Gov. Chris Gregoire? Will she be running for re-election in 2012? She said on Sine Die that she’s given it “absolutely zero” thought.

Tags: 2012, campaigns, elections, Governor, House, Senate

The bill that aims to make it easier for overseas voters to be their ballots in on time just came back on the Senate floor.

To ease the fear of some members, Sen. Steve Hobbs said that the email would have a scanned and signed ballot attached. The signature on the ballot, he said, would have to match the signature that is on file with the state auditor. Hobbs also said that they amended the bill to remove the requirement that the signed ballot also be returned by mail before election night. He said this would help ensure that there wouldn’t be a delay in counting overseas votes.

“I appreciate the additional explanation, it would have been helpful the other day,” said Sen. Jim Hargrove.

Sen. Scott White said he was happy that the bill works to get soldiers’ votes counted. “I think that the bill now is perfected.”

“As Senator Hargrove said…I think the security of our balloting and elections process is very, very important,” said Sen. Don Benton. “In fact, the security of our voting process is one of the reasons our soldiers are fighting in other parts of the world…It is extremely important that their votes be counted.”

Sen. Benton said that the primary dates and filing dates were moved back to allow for more time to ensure that the election information get out to the soldiers. “Thank you to everyone for helping perfect this,” he said.

The bill passed 47-1. Here is TVW’s blog on yesterday’s floor debate on the topic.

Tags: elections, Senate

A bill that aims to make it easier for service members and others overseas to vote from abroad was put on hold today after debate on the topic broke out on the Senate floor.

The proposal would allow people overseas to vote by email. It would also change several dates and deadlines in the election cycle, including the date of the of the primary election and the due-date for candidates to file, in order to allow more time for election info and ballots to make it abroad.

Supporters of the measure say that by making it easier for those overseas to vote, more of their votes will be counted, making the election system more fair.

But opponents on the floor said they very concerned about what emailing votes will do the integrity of elections. Others said the bill calls for major changes that could have a significant effect on the way the political decisions are made.

Sen. Pam Roach said she is the mother of a soldier who is deployed overseas. However, she said, that does not mean that bills like these should move so quickly through the legislature. Roach said she considers herself an expert on the election system and that she would like more time to review it more carefully. “I want my son to be able to vote. I want his family to be able to vote,” she said. “The issue here is we have something before us that has not been studied.”

“The bill has been out there a number of weeks now,” said Sen. Craig Pridemore. He said the bill made it out of committee without much debate but that there was room to put it down for now.

Further consideration of the bill was deferred and could still come up for a vote. Both Senators Roach and Pridemore signed on to sponsor the bill and gave it a do pass vote out of the Senate Government Operations, Tribal Relations & Elections committee.

Tags: elections, overseas voting

A bill before the Senate Government Operations, Tribal Relations & Elections would make it a crime to put false information in a voter’s pamphlet (the one paid for by the state that arrives with your ballot).

Anyone who does this, or allows a false statement to be made on his/her behalf would be guilty of a gross misdemeanor. According to the bill’s language a “false statement of material fact” would be a statement that would lead a person of ordinary intelligence to reasonably understand the statement as conveying information that is false. The proposal would give the Public Disclosure Commission the authority to fine someone up to $5,000 for lying.

The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Pam Roach, said she spent $1,700 last year to fight false statements that another candidate put in the voters’ pamphlet. In the end, she said, the judge ruled in her favor but the candidate was not punished. According to Sen. Roach they were only scolded for not acting in a respectful way.

Thanks to a measure passed by the Legislation a couple years ago, she said, candidates have 10 days after information has been turned in the voters’ pamphlet to challenge any alleged falsehoods. According to Sen. Roach about 35 communications were received last year alerting candidates that they may want to take a look at the statement made by their opponent.

“Today we have no penalties for lying in a voters’ pamphlet statement,” said Sen. Roach. She is not talking about the mailers that candidates pay for, she said, but the information that voters pay for. “It really is an important thing. I believe that we need to look at what we’ve done so far.”

Janet Jordon, a member of the Green Party of Washington testified in favor of the bill. She said she would also like to see legislation that would give political parties a space under a candidate, who claims affiliation with the party, to say whether or not they sponsor them.

“We don’t believe that government should be in the business of determinating truth or faslehood in political speech,” said Shankar Narayan with American Civil Liberties, who oppose the proposal. In 1998 and 2007 the Washington Supreme Court ruled against two state laws that aimed to prohibit lying in campaigns. Narayan said the bill takes the same unconstitutional approach and aims it at voters pamphlets. “We believe the court would strike this bill down as well.”

“Do you recognize that there is a difference between speech that is payed for by the candidate and that that is payed for by the tax payer?” Sen. Pam Roach said to Narayan.

“This is speech that is going directly to the public that this a representation of the candidates views,” said Narayan.

Tags: elections, Legislature

Sorry for not posting this earlier — I was out sick yesterday. But: Here’s your latest election news.

- Brad Shannon has an update on legislative races here. The gist: If current results hold, House Democrats will have a 56 seat majority and Senate Democrats will hold a 27 seat majority. But there are some very close races. Stay tuned for an update this afternoon.

- Jim Camden has a report on the voter turnout. Sam Reed had said he expected two-thirds of registered voters to turn out, but the figure could be closer to 70 percent. Read all about it here.

Tags: elections

In about an hour, polls will close around Washington and we’ll be LIVE on TVW with election results, analysis and interviews. Don’t miss it.

Right now, I’m at the state Democratic party’s election night event, where the media have been set up for hours and guests are starting to file in. I’ll be reporting live from here throughout the night and Lars Peterson will be doing the same at the Republican party’s event. Jennifer Huntley will be on set interviewing winners and analysts. Greg Lane will provide on-set updates for Legislative races. And Jessica Gao will be working behind the scenes to make sure this all goes smoothly. Altogether, we’ll provide four hours of comprehensive, live elections coverage focused on Washington state.

See you there.

Tags: elections

If you haven’t voted yet, you have a little less than 8 hours to do so. Make sure your ballot is either in an official drop box or postmarked — not just dropped in the mailbox — today.

Then, go home and turn on TVW: We’ll have the most comprehensive results, interviews and analysis — all live. The show starts at 8 p.m. and continues until midnight. We’ll also have two reporters (myself included) stationed at the Republican and Democratic party headquarters to get additional interviews.

Don’t miss it!

Tags: elections, TVW, vote

1. Vote! If you haven’t done it already, tomorrow is the deadline.

2. Tune in to TVW tomorrow night at 8 p.m. and stay with us for four hours of comprehensive, live election coverage — that includes up-to-the-minute results, live interviews with winners, and live analysis. Did I mention it’s all live?

TVW’s Jennifer Huntley will be hosting the show, with in-studio guests providing news and analysis on state and U.S. races and initiatives — and what it all means for you. And: Lars Peterson and I will be providing dispatches from the Republican and Democratic party headquarters, respectively.

So: If you’re looking for the most complete, comprehensive coverage of Washington’s election available, you know where to find us. (And if you don’t know where to find us, check here.)

Tags: Decision 2010, elections