This evening, we are pleased to announce that one of our state’s bright­est and hard­est-work­ing law­mak­ers will be the open­ing speak­er at our 2014 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala on April 25th: State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chris Reyk­dal.

Since his elec­tion to the Wash­ing­ton State House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in 2010, Chris has served his con­stituents in the 22nd Dis­trict — and all Wash­ing­to­ni­ans — with hon­or and dis­tinc­tion. He has been a prin­ci­pled and con­sis­tent voice for tax reform, for the rights of work­ing men and women, and for under­rep­re­sent­ed con­stituen­cies with no lob­by­ist and no voice in our state’s capital.

Last autumn, when Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee called a spe­cial ses­sion for the pur­pose of rapid­ly enact­ing big tax breaks to pla­cate Boe­ing (which was threat­en­ing to locate pro­duc­tion of the 777X some­where else if it did­n’t get what it want­ed), Chris stood up for work­ing fam­i­lies and called for stronger, tougher leg­is­la­tion. When he judged the final bill to be a bas­ket of good­ies for Boe­ing instead of a true set of eco­nom­ic incen­tives for the com­pa­ny and its hard­work­ing employ­ees, he vot­ed no.

And in the wake of the vote, he was­n’t afraid to loud­ly crit­i­cize Boe­ing in pub­lic, either, say­ing what Inslee and most oth­er law­mak­ers would­n’t: that Boe­ing’s threat to aban­don Puget Sound and build the 777X else­where amount­ed to extortion.

This year, Chris took on anoth­er chal­lenge: ini­tia­tive reform, which has long been one of NPI’s key leg­isla­tive priorities.

As the prime spon­sor of HB 2552, Chris led the effort to per­suade House lead­er­ship to place leg­is­la­tion to strength­en the ini­tia­tive process against fraud and abuse on the House floor for a vote. Thanks to Chris’ lead­er­ship, on Feb­ru­ary 17th, the House over­whelm­ing­ly passed a strong ini­tia­tive reform bill for the first time in mod­ern his­to­ry. The bipar­ti­san vote was sev­en­ty-one to twenty-six.

The bill unfor­tu­nate­ly died in the Sen­ate at the hands of Tim Eyman’s friends Pam Roach and Don Ben­ton, but HB 2552’s pas­sage in the House remains a huge accom­plish­ment, one that has been giv­ing Tim Eyman heart­burn for weeks. (Eyman is reflex­ive­ly opposed to any leg­is­la­tion that would reform the ini­tia­tive process).

If you asked us to find some­one who exem­pli­fied bold pro­gres­sive lead­er­ship at the state lev­el, Chris Reyk­dal would be at the top of our list. He’s smart, he’s coura­geous, and he’s authen­ti­cal­ly prag­mat­ic. We are proud of the work he’s done on behalf of all Wash­ing­to­ni­ans in our state Leg­is­la­ture, and we are sim­ply delight­ed to have him as the open­ing speak­er at our 2014 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala.

If you haven’t yet bought your tick­et yet, we urge you to do so now using one of these links. A house­hold tick­et admits all the mem­bers of an imme­di­ate fam­i­ly and is a good val­ue if you plan to attend with your spouse or chil­dren. (The gala is a fam­i­ly-friend­ly event and young peo­ple of all ages are welcome!)

Here’s what else you can expect at our 2014 Spring Fundrais­ing Gala:

• A full din­ner buf­fet with veg­e­tar­i­an and veg­an choices
• Beer and wine selec­tions from our cash bar
• Oppor­tu­ni­ties to min­gle with fel­low activists and elect­ed leaders
• A chance to win a scrump­tious dessert for your table at our sec­ond annu­al Dessert Dash, orga­nized by our Host Committee
• A fam­i­ly-friend­ly atmosphere

If you’d like to RSVP for the gala on Face­book, you can do so here.

Stu­dents who want to vol­un­teer to help put on the event can get in the door free. If you’re inter­est­ed in vol­un­teer­ing, please get in touch with us.

In the weeks to come, we’ll be shar­ing more details about our 2014 gala, includ­ing the names of our oth­er speak­ers. We hope you’ll help us make our biggest event of the year a suc­cess by buy­ing your tick­et and com­mit­ting to attend.

See you on April 25th!