2006 Candidate Questionnaire
SECTION I
BASIC CANDIDATE INFORMATION
1. Name as it will appear on the ballot
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First Name |
Middle Initial or Nick Name |
Last Name |
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Deborah |
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Eddy |
2. Office sought (include office, jurisdiction, position/district number):
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Representative, District 48, Position 2 |
3. Are you the incumbent? Yes XX No
4. How long have you resided in this district/city?
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25 YEARS |
5. How long have you resided in King County?
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25 YEARS |
6. Is the office sought partisan or nonpartisan? XX Partisan Nonpartisan
7. If partisan, please indicate party: Democratic
CAMPAIGN CONTACTS
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Campaign Name: |
Friends of Deb Eddy |
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Address: |
6619 132nd Ave NE PMB 149 |
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City/State/Zip: |
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Campaign Phone: |
425 827 9105 |
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Campaign Fax: |
425 803 6874 |
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Campaign E-mail: |
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Campaign Website: |
www.debeddy.net |
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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) |
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Kirkland City Council
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Elected
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Jan ’93 – Feb ‘99
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Mayor, ’96-‘97
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2. If you ran for public office but were not elected, please list those races below:
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Office Title |
Year of Run |
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None
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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.)
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I am running for this office out of a deep sense of responsibility to my community and my government. Also, while I could come up with many reasons not to run for office, my children offered their most compelling argument in favor of running: their future. I believe that there are opportunities to make some significant improvements in several issues over the next few years, including health care and pension reform, that will bring sustainability to the state budget. This will also free up revenue to be redirected to education, hopefully regaining some ground lost in previous years in terms of funding available to educate children from K-12 through higher ed levels and technical/vocation training. I am an experienced local elected official and believe that I can quickly offer a strong voice for the public’s interests in Olympia.
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2. Describe your most important personal characteristics or traits as they relate to the office you seek.
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These traits may be positive or negative, depending on one’s point of view about any particular issue.
I am energetic, hard-working and, while respectful of process, am also focused on getting the public’s business taken care of in the most expeditious way. In some cases, this may call for consensus, but in other cases it may require that we determine the ‘critical mass’ of necessary political approval for any solution … and then simply move forward.
I am a quick learner, researching and becoming familiar with complicated policy issues in a relatively short period of time.
I am constantly guided by the public’s interest, as opposed to ‘special interests’ or even my own interest in being re-elected. This makes me a very independent and fair-minded policy maker (some would say fearless), but doesn’t make me a very good ‘politician’, in the eyes of many.
I am, as a result, guided not only by short-term gains and ‘wins’, but also by what will be needed to ensure long-term success and prosperity for this state. |
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.
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Of most interest to the Municipal League’s process are probably the accomplishments in bringing cities and other local governments together during my tenure as Executive Director of SCA. While these are policy-wonk accomplishments, I think they illustrate the fact that when governments work collaboratively, they can meet the public’s interest in getting services delivered equitably and efficiently.
Bringing 39 local governments to agreement in formation of the WRIAs (Water Resource Inventory Areas) in King County to recover habitat for the ESA-listed chinook salmon was a major accomplishment, and I am proud of it. We not only found common cause among cities and the county, but we also developed a shared cost allocation formula which was called ‘ground-breaking’ in that it recognized multiple interests of the governments in sharing costs.
In 2000, distribution of new housing targets to all governments was predicted to be a ‘bloodbath’ among governments. By working with planning directors in sub-areas of the County, and in elected officials at the Growth Management Planning Council, we distributed new housing responsibilities with consensus among all local governments.
The most difficult accomplishment came in late 2003 and concerned negotiating changes to a jail administration contract, wherein the parties were at odds and not inclined to find common cause. At the end of a relatively brief (less than 45 days) period, we had not only agreement on the issues in contention, but a contract that all agreed was demonstrably better than the one we had started with.
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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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City councilmember and mayor of Kirkland, 1994 – 1999. Policy-making that focused on bringing the city budget under control and avoiding taking the maximum property tax allowed at that time; land use improvements and parks investments; changing the city’s negotiating method with its unions from the old ‘power-based’ approach to interest-based negotiating.
I was involved in PTSA in my children’s school years, including co-leading an “tile project” wherein every sixth grader created a decorative tile that became wall installations at the school. I did the instruction and helped the children create the tiles; my co-leader was the ‘bean-counter’, who did the purchasing, accounting and got the tiles actually mounted. These installations were actually attractive!
Last year, I helped my friend, former Seattle City Council President Sue Donaldson, create a new non-profit called Washington Appleseed, a local chapter a national organization that creates new opportunities for attorneys to offer pro bono assistance on social justice policy projects. I served as the organization’s founding president and am still on the board. Almost 20 major area law firms are now on the board, and the organization’s projects can be seen at the website: www.waappleseed.org.
In the early 1980s, I was a founding board member of the Eastside Domestic Violence Program, which has now become a pillar in this community in addressing the needs of victims of domestic violence and their children. Besides serving on the board, I mentored women and also trained police officers in the realities of domestic violence and in (new, at that time) state legislation affecting victims. See: www.edvp.org
I also served on the Municipal League Board of Directors in 2005. I resigned at the end of the year, in order to run for this office. www.munileague.org
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- Please describe the duties of the office you seek. Which are the most important duties and why?
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A state legislator enacts laws and approves a budget which carries out the responsibilities of the state, consistent with its constitution and laws, in providing services, regulating certain industries and activities, and ensuring the peace and prosperity of the residents of the state.
The most important duties lie in budget approval. A budget is the manifestation of laws and policies. Without resources for implementation, any policy is idle words on a page. |
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.
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BS Journalism, West Va Univ 1976; Juris Doctor Univ of North Carolina 1979 |
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.
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Councilmember, mayor, City of Kirkland 94-99; founding board president, Washington Appleseed, 06; founding board member, Eastside Domestic Violence Program, 81; Muni League Board 05; former PTSA member; current member of King Co, WA Bar Assocs. |
Finished!
If at all possible, send your response to the Municipal League electronically as an attachment, or insert it into an e-mail message (cec@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 newsletter 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: Jennifer DiGiacomo
Seattle, WA 98104-1614 Fax: 425-671-0506 Website: www.munileague.org