River C-S (Kitsap River)

Name:	River C-S (Kitsap River)
Location:	Port Orchard, WA

My personal volunteering highlight:

I took the DFA 2-day training when it was offered here in February 2008; another activist from Port Orchard did so as well. We wound up running the Port Orchard phone banks for the Obama campaign and the coordinated campaign in late 2008, and we were given bad phone lists. Very bad. Demoralizingly bad, for our volunteers who were making call after call and getting Republicans, fax machines, and hang-ups mere weeks before the election. The other volunteer and I rebelled, and took the phone banks out of the hands of the coordinated campaign. We continued to make phone calls for local candidates as well as the governor and Obama, but using a universe that we had defined as our target group (everything from Lean Democrat to Strong Democrat voters) instead of the bad lists we were given. We used our DFA training to define our universe and worked with a county commissioner candidate to get the voter lists we needed, and created our own scripts.

Our commissioner candidate was elected. Our governor was re-elected, including in our area, which is very much a swing district. And our Democratic state representative was also re-elected. (Our Congressional representative's election was never in doubt.)

More about my volunteering with DFA:

I'm on the list, write letters and make phone calls whenever requested, and wear a DFA pin to let people know of my affiliation with DFA. We also have CREDO Mobile's DFA Wireless, so DFA gets money from our cell phone bill every month.

More about my volunteering with progressive organizations:

I am very active with the 26th Legislative District Democrats and the Kitsap County Democratic Central Commitee. I am the Kitsap Vice-Chair of the 26th LD Democrats and a member of the executive board of the Kitsap County Democrats. I am a proud member of Progressive Democrats of America and keep a close eye on any campaigns they are addressing. I am also a member of FUSE Washington and will call my representatives whenever needed to drive a particular issue. I have spent many, many hours phonebanking and doorbelling for local candidates including a progressive county commissioner candidate and candidates for the state legislature and state senate.

I am a member of the board of the Washington State Stonewall Democrats and have often gone out doorbelling on behalf of candidates endorsed by the Stonewall Democrats.

I hold organizing meetings for things like Organizing for America.

More about my work on current campaigns and issues:

I'm working on getting my legislators to sponsor legislation making Washington the nation's first opt-out state for organ donation. Instead of having to opt in on your driver's license and being assumed not to be a donor unless you specifically opt in, this would work exactly the other way: you'd opt out or be assumed to be a donor. The person who chose to opt out would receive no opprobrium from the DOL clerk and could do so with a minimum of hassle.

My most recent discussion with my state representative about this issue, which I've been pushing for several months, led him to ask me to write up something for him about this. I am currently researching the Revised Code of Washington to determine exactly what needs to be changed and will send him sample legislation to use if he likes it or modify if he chooses. Making the state opt-out would dramatically increase the supply of vital organs available for transplantation in the state, which benefits the state by enabling more people to return to productivity in the workforce instead of having to go to dialysis, and will give many Washingtonians who otherwise have (often fatal) long waits for organs, in particular kidneys, an opportunity to get their lives back.

I became involved in this issue before I needed a kidney myself and have continued to drive the issue even more now that I do need one.

What motivates me:

I grew up in Berkeley in the 1960s and 1970s and was politically active from a very young age (at least age 8). I tell people that I have never lived outside the borders of the continental United States and yet I know what it is like to live under martial law. It's true! I remember well the armed soldiers marching down Berkeley streets. I remember seeing them arrest a father for walking down the sidewalk with his family. I remember them teargassing my sister's nursery school. You do not forget things like this. It's made me a life-long progressive.

How I try to motivate others:

When it comes to my partner, I just draft him. :-)

When it comes to others to whom I'm not married, I remind them of what's at stake, share my personal stories if I think it will help, let them know the difference one vote, one voice, one phone call, one letter, or one donation can make to get something accomplished. I find out what they're most interested in and make the work to which I encourage them something that ties in with those interests. I find out what their concerns are in the current electoral cycle or state of affairs and make my encouragement and motivation personal to them.

Where I see myself in five years:

Five years from now? Studying! Studying in a bachelor of nursing program, and exhorting my fellow students to work in underserved areas or with underserved populations, to work for single-payer universal health care if we don't have it by then, and preparing to apply to medical school, where I will carry on the same work with the medical students that I do with the nursing students. Oh, and chair of the 26th LD Democrats, leading my district to the state Democratic convention and to the re-election of our Democratic state legislators (which will hopefully be 3 by then, not 2).

My suggested bumper sticker slogan for the Stand with Dr. Dean campaign:

Stand with Dr. Dean - Leave No Kidney Behind