Preparing for 2021 with election results pending

Washington’s vote-by-mail system is convenient, especially during a pandemic, but we know it requires voters to be patient while waiting for final election results.

In statewide offices up for election, all the incumbents are likely to return except for State Treasurer Duane Davidson who is trailing Rep. Mike Pellicciotti. The open seat for Lt. Governor will likely be filled by retiring Congressman Denny Heck. Governor Jay Inslee will be returning for a third term.

It appears there will be a handful of new faces, but no major changes to the makeup of our State Legislature. There were some open seats, a few close races playing out, and a couple of districts that may flip parties. Overall, the Democrats will retain control of both houses and may add a seat or two to their majorities.

A trend we are watching is potential party preference shifts in two Washington Legislative Districts:

• District 10 has two incumbent Republicans (Senate and House Position 1) and one incumbent Democrat, all in tight races. The three incumbents have small leads at this time. These tight races seem to signal a trend towards a party shift in the district; and
• District 19 is moving from a more Democratic held district towards a Republican district, with Republicans leading the three legislative seats. It’s looking likely that the two incumbent Democrats (Senate and House Position 2) could be unseated.

A few close seats to watch:

• The Senate seat in District 28 where the Democratic challenger is leading the Republican incumbent; and
• House seats in Districts 17 and 42 where Democratic challengers are in very close races with the Republican incumbents.

And in King County, we are watching two different legislative races between Democrats:

• In the District 11 House race the more progressive challenger is leading the more moderate incumbent; and
• In the District 5 Senate race the candidates are now separated by fewer than 100 votes.

Now is the time to reach out to your newly elected legislator, congratulate them, and begin building a relationship to increase their understanding of the issues that are important to your city. Remember to make your stories relatable. Don’t limit yourself to talking about numbers—tell your legislators about the local stories impacting your residents.

Don’t limit yourself to talking about numbers—tell your legislators about the local stories impacting your residents.

Preparing for 2021 – Cities are engaged in more than our priority issues

The 2021 legislative session will be here before we know it. The session kicks off on January 11, only two months from now. And with the holidays thrown in the mix, it goes by fast! In October we shared AWC’s 2021 City Legislative Priorities. We have also produced fact sheets for each priority and we encourage you to use them when discussing the issues with your legislators and residents.

In addition to the priorities, several AWC issues fit into the category we call “significant.” These are issues important to cities that fall just below the priority level. Often, they are policy areas where we are part of a larger coalition working on legislation. For 2021 we identified 12 significant issues, a higher number than usual. To give an idea of the other areas we will work on next year, we have shared some of them here:

• Broadband
  Support policies and funding that provide greater access and equity for broadband services, including the potential expansion of authority to cities and other public entities.
• Public Works Trust Fund (PWTF)
  

  Continue to pursue full funding for the PWTF and defend against the redirection of PWTF program funds.

• Tax Increment Financing (TIF)
  Authorize property tax‐based tax increment financing to support economic development efforts.
• Revenue options
  Support efforts to review and revise both state and local tax structures such that they rely less on regressive revenue options. The state and local governments need adequate revenue to support necessary services. Changes to the state tax structure should have a positive impact on cities.
• Law enforcement training
  Support additional training requirements including adequate state funding for any training mandates and full funding for the Criminal Justice Training Commission and Basic Law Enforcement Academy.
• Culverts
  Support state resources for locally owned culverts as a part of the state’s overall resolution to the culvert injunction.
• Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA)
  Support a permanent policy that allows greater flexibility for local governments to hold virtual meetings without a physical location during an emergency.

These and other items will keep your AWC Government Relations team very busy in the coming year. We anxiously await word on the Legislature’s plan to manage what is likely to be an online legislative session that relies on Zoom meetings and other internet platforms. We will get a flavor of this with the upcoming House and Senate Committee Assembly Days set to run November 30 through December 4. If you are interested in seeing which committees are meeting that week and even watching one, look for the meeting schedule on the Legislature’s homepage.

In the meantime, schedule a meeting with your legislator and if you haven’t already done so, adopt your city’s legislative agenda.

If you need anything or have questions about preparing for session, please reach out to anyone on our team. You can meet us all in this short video.

Wishing you a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!