Manka Dhingra applauds
Manka Dhingra applauds the work of her teen campaign committee at a joint event with Senator Patty Murray (Photo: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

Today, the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus announced its com­mit­tee assign­ments for the 2018 leg­isla­tive ses­sion. The cau­cus is tak­ing over man­age­ment of the cham­ber in just a few weeks thanks to Man­ka Dhin­gra’s vic­to­ry in the 45th Dis­trict, which flipped the major­i­ty from Repub­li­can to Democratic.

Dhin­gra has been assigned to three com­mit­tees: Trans­porta­tion, Law & Jus­tice, and Human Ser­vices & Cor­rec­tions. Addi­tion­al­ly, Dhin­gra will serve as Vice Chair of the lat­ter two com­mit­tees, set to be led by Jamie Ped­er­sen (D‑43rd Dis­trict: Seat­tle) and Jean­nie Darneille (D‑27th Dis­trict: Taco­ma), respectively.

Com­mit­tee vice chairs are tra­di­tion­al­ly tasked with the impor­tant work of get­ting leg­is­la­tion report­ed out of com­mit­tee with a major­i­ty in sup­port of a “do pass” rec­om­men­da­tion. Com­mit­tee chairs typ­i­cal­ly call upon their vice chairs dur­ing exec­u­tive ses­sions to put forth motions to advance bills pri­or to call­ing for a vote.

As Vice Chair of the Sen­ate’s Law & Jus­tice and Human Ser­vices & Cor­rec­tions Com­mit­tees, Dhin­gra will be well posi­tioned to influ­ence the devel­op­ment and pol­ish­ing of pro­gres­sive pub­lic safe­ty legislation.

It so hap­pens that State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Roger Good­man is the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus’ lead on many of the issues those Sen­ate com­mit­tees have juris­dic­tion over. Good­man chairs the House Pub­lic Safe­ty Com­mit­tee and also sits on the House Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee; he has rep­re­sent­ed the 45th in the House for a decade.

Serv­ing from the same leg­isla­tive dis­trict and in lead­er­ship posi­tions on com­ple­men­tary leg­isla­tive com­mit­tees should give Good­man and Dhin­gra plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ties to work togeth­er for the bet­ter­ment of Wash­ing­ton’s communities.

As men­tioned, Dhin­gra will also be serv­ing on the Sen­ate Trans­porta­tion Com­mit­tee, which is one of the cham­ber’s largest, busiest, and most impor­tant com­mit­tees. Trans­porta­tion will be led in 2018 by Sen­a­tor Steve Hobbs (D‑44th Dis­trict: Lake Stevens and Sno­homish Coun­ty), who will be tak­ing over from Cur­tis King.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to Sen­a­tor-elect Dhin­gra on her com­mit­tee assign­ments. We look for­ward to see­ing her in action in Olympia as the 2018 ses­sion unfolds.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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One reply on “Senator-elect Manka Dhingra will serve as Vice Chair of two state Senate committees”

  1. Manka’s assign­ment to Law and Jus­tice and Human Ser­vices and Cor­rec­tions will allow her to con­tribute from her expe­ri­ence and fun­nel oth­ers’ good ideas into effec­tive improve­ments in these areas of state gov­ern­ment. Con­grat­u­la­tions Manka!

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