Two decades! NPI celebrates twenty years of revolutionizing grassroots politics today

Today, our team is hap­py and grate­ful to have reached a major mile­stone in our orga­ni­za­tion’s his­to­ry: two decades of rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing grass­roots politics!

Since August 22nd, 2003, the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute has been work­ing from Wash­ing­ton, Ore­gon, and Ida­ho to expand free­dom and increase pros­per­i­ty for every­one in our region and beyond. Our insight­ful research and imag­i­na­tive advo­ca­cy have been and con­tin­ue to be a engine of progress in a dif­fi­cult peri­od in our his­to­ry… an age of insur­rec­tion, to quote from our friend David Neiwert.

I found­ed NPI twen­ty sum­mers ago after sur­vey­ing the polit­i­cal land­scape and con­clud­ing our region need­ed a strat­e­gy cen­ter oper­at­ing across state lines and across dif­fer­ent issues to tack­le the tough con­cep­tu­al gaps fac­ing the pro­gres­sive move­ment. When I could­n’t find what I was look­ing for, I decid­ed to try to cre­ate it. The three word name I chose beau­ti­ful­ly reflects its scope and purpose:

• North­west: The orga­ni­za­tion would focus pri­mar­i­ly on the states in the Unit­ed States that share the Cas­cade moun­tain range and Colum­bia Riv­er water­shed (Wash­ing­ton, Ore­gon, Ida­ho), com­ple­ment­ing the work already being done by a long list of orga­ni­za­tions at the nation­al level.
• Pro­gres­sive: The orga­ni­za­tion would clear­ly con­vey what it stood for, as opposed to con­ceal­ing its ide­ol­o­gy behind a bland term like “pol­i­cy cen­ter.” Pro­gres­sive means “favor­ing or advo­cat­ing progress, change, improve­ment, or reform, as opposed to wish­ing to main­tain things as they are.” The word pro­gres­sive describes our val­ues sys­tem, root­ed in empa­thy and mutu­al respon­si­bil­i­ty. We are proud of our ideals, and proud to acknowl­edge them.
• Insti­tute: The orga­ni­za­tion would be a strat­e­gy cen­ter com­mit­ted to advanc­ing pro­gres­sive caus­es through research and advo­ca­cy that val­ue the sci­en­tif­ic method, the arts, and the need for refram­ing, new media and cul­tur­al infra­struc­ture, and pub­lic education.

NPI began as an idea and was trans­formed into some­thing that peo­ple could see on this day twen­ty years ago: a web­site that explained the con­cept and the need. With­in two years, NPI had been estab­lished as a non­prof­it corporation.

Although it had no mail­ing list or angel investors or legal frame­work when it start­ed, it was nonethe­less able to take root and flour­ish. That’s because a lot of peo­ple believed in NPI and decid­ed to con­tribute their time, tal­ent, and trea­sure to grow­ing it and ensur­ing that it could real­ize its deep potential.

NPI’s Creed, writ­ten many years ago, elo­quent­ly sum­ma­rizes who we are and what we believe. Cre­at­ed by our staff and board, it reads as follows:

I will train myself to think long term and look at the big pic­ture. I will always keep an open mind and be will­ing to embrace new ideas and tech­niques. I will orga­nize for change offline as well as online. When­ev­er pos­si­ble, I will give young pro­gres­sive activists and new pro­gres­sive activists an oppor­tu­ni­ty to step up and make a dif­fer­ence. I will chal­lenge and con­front intol­er­ance with­out allow­ing myself to become intol­er­ant. I will speak out for those who have no voice, no lob­by­ist, and no advo­cate. As an activist with an audi­ence, I will help pre­serve the art of sto­ry­telling. I will nev­er pass up an oppor­tu­ni­ty to reframe and help teach oth­ers about the log­ic of America’s pro­gres­sive val­ues, espe­cial­ly empa­thy and respon­si­bil­i­ty. As a thought leader, I will help lead my fel­low cit­i­zens to new posi­tions, not fol­low polls, for that is what real lead­er­ship is. I will help main­tain a strong first line of defense against threats to our Con­sti­tu­tion, our com­mon wealth, and our vital pub­lic ser­vices. No mat­ter how depress­ing and hope­less cir­cum­stances may seem, I will keep putting one foot for­ward every day, work­ing cheer­ful­ly for a more peace­ful future for the Pacif­ic North­west, the Unit­ed States, and this diverse plan­et we call Earth.

In the past two decades, we have done our best to live up to our Creed.

And we’ve accom­plished a lot.

For exam­ple, we’ve worked with Democ­rats and Repub­li­cans alike to put Tim Eyman’s ini­tia­tive fac­to­ry out of busi­ness, estab­lished NPI as a trust­ed leader in pub­lic opin­ion research, and led or par­tic­i­pat­ed in efforts to secure big pub­lic pol­i­cy wins, espe­cial­ly in the areas of elec­toral reform and tax reform.

Our pub­li­ca­tions, includ­ing The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate — which you’re read­ing right now! — pro­vide uplift­ing com­men­tary and analy­sis that our region needs.

(The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate will itself turn twen­ty next March. Aside from Per­ma­nent Defense — which actu­al­ly pre­dates NPI — it is NPI’s old­est project.)

NPI could not have reached this impor­tant mile­stone with­out the con­tri­bu­tions of a lot of peo­ple. I am hon­ored to be NPI’s founder and leader, but it’s an even greater hon­or to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with peo­ple who are com­mit­ted to our shared vision for a freer, more pros­per­ous region, coun­try, and world.

I par­tic­u­lar­ly wish to thank and rec­og­nize the fol­low­ing people:

NPI’s cur­rent staff and reg­u­lar contributors
Ren­nie Sawade, Kathy Saka­hara, Kamil Zai­di, Seth Boun, David Kobrin, Joel Con­nel­ly, Caya Berndt

NPI is a very mul­ti­fac­eted orga­ni­za­tion, and it ben­e­fits tremen­dous­ly from hav­ing a pas­sion­ate staff and con­trib­u­tors who have a lot of dif­fer­ent tal­ents and skills, enabling us to be very ver­sa­tile and keep our projects and pub­li­ca­tions hum­ming. Thank you to Ren­nie, Kathy, Kamil, Seth, David, Joel, and Caya.

NPI’s cur­rent board of directors
Ann Parks, Jacob Thor­pe, Christy Ack­er­man, Diane Jones, Rob Sar­gent, Ger­maine Korne­gay, Mitch Eggers, Lynne Thom­son, Yanah G. Cook

NPI’s board pro­vides sound gov­er­nance and enthu­si­as­tic sup­port to the work of our staff. It’s an incred­i­bly thought­ful group of peo­ple hail­ing from a mix of urban, sub­ur­ban, and rur­al com­mu­ni­ties. We are par­tic­u­lar­ly proud to have strong rur­al pro­gres­sive rep­re­sen­ta­tion on our board of direc­tors. Ann is our cur­rent Pres­i­dent, Jacob our Vice Pres­i­dent-Sec­re­tary, and Christy our Treasurer.

NPI’s Advi­so­ry Council
Kim Vil­leneuve, Rob Dolin, Steve Zemke, Kath­leen Reynolds, Robert Cruick­shank, Marisa Pelo­quin, Ralph Gorin, Essie Hicks, Mar­tin Chaney, Jason Rit­tereis­er, Rick Heg­dahl, Gael Tarleton

Our Advi­so­ry Coun­cil has many mem­bers who are NPI leg­ends, hav­ing con­tributed years of ser­vice to the orga­ni­za­tion as staff, board, or both. They are a depend­able source of guid­ance and wis­dom for our staff and board. We deeply appre­ci­ate the coun­sel and ongo­ing finan­cial and mate­r­i­al sup­port they provide.

Ear­ly Com­mon­wealth Bond­hold­ers and oth­er retired boardmembers
Dave Ash­er, Kim Allen, Ken Albinger, Mario Brown, Michael Lof­st­edt, Matt Loschen, John DeGraaf, Peg­gy Maze John­son, Gar­rett Havens, Kei­tha Bryson

This group includes peo­ple who have either served on NPI’s board in the past or have been donat­ing to NPI every month for the last ten years — or both. Sev­er­al of these stal­wart sup­port­ers have been with us for a major­i­ty of our history.

NPI alum­ni — past staff and interns
David Perl­mut­ter, Samuel Ranel­luc­ci, Andrew Tsao, Alan Har­vey, Jon DeVore, Jason Black, Jen Deshaies, Aaron Cahen, Alexa Moormeier, Ali­son Wendler, Alon­so Con­rad, Rich Erwin, Bob­by Aiy­er, Brad Fen­ster­ma­ch­er, Caitlin Har­ring­ton, Chris­t­ian Cahua, Daniel War­wick, David A. John­son, Daniel War­wick, Patrick Stick­ney, Dominic Bar­rera, Emma Gools­by, Eve Franklin, Grace Hamil­ton, Greg Evans, Kaylinne Shaf­fer, Ken Camp, Med­hya Goel, Nick Pernisco, Ruairi Vaugh­an, San­jay Satish, Steve Breaux, Tam­mi Laster, There­sa Cur­ry Almu­ti, Vaib­hav Vijay, Wes Murry

These folks are peo­ple who have con­tributed to NPI’s work over the years as staff mem­bers or interns. Their con­tri­bu­tions could fill a book.

NPI’s leg­isla­tive champions
Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Kud­er­er, Sen­a­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra, Sen­a­tor Javier Valdez, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Amy Walen, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mia Gregerson, Coun­cilmem­ber Clau­dia Bal­duc­ci, Coun­cilmem­ber Gir­may Zahilay

These elect­ed lead­ers have worked close­ly with our team at the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute to shep­herd NPI pro­pos­als through the leg­isla­tive process.

NPI’s guest speakers
Chip Hanauer, Major Gen­er­al Paul Eaton (Ret.), Dar­cy Burn­er, King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine, Jon Soltz, for­mer State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Hans Dun­shee, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son, for­mer State Sen­a­tor Reuven Car­lyle, Scott Mack­lin, for­mer Port Com­mis­sion­er Peter Stein­brueck, Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee, Tim­o­thy Ford, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith, Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell, The Hon­or­able Ron Sims, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Suzan Del­Bene, Retired Sound Tran­sit CEO Joni Earl, Paul Lawrence, Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Den­ny Heck, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Derek Kilmer, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kim Schri­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lisa Callan, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bill Ramos, Sec­re­tary of State Steve Hobbs, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive David Hack­ney, Trea­sur­er Mike Pel­lic­ciot­ti, Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands Hilary Franz, Lind­say Church, Super­in­ten­dent of Pub­lic Instruc­tion Chris Reyk­dal, for­mer State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty Chair Tina Pod­lodows­ki, State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty Chair Shasti Con­rad, State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lil­lian Ortiz-Self, State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kris­tine Reeves, State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Shel­ley Klo­ba, for­mer State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joan McBride, Shan­non Had­er, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Van­dana Slat­ter, State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive My-Linh Thai, Kent City Coun­cilmem­ber Satwinder Kaur, State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jake Fey, State Sen­a­tor Rebec­ca Sal­daña, State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Debra Lekanoff, Seat­tle City Coun­cilmem­ber Andrew Lewis, Seat­tle City Coun­cilmem­ber Tere­sa Mosque­da, SeaT­ac City Coun­cilmem­ber Iris Guz­man, Sam­mamish City Coun­cilmem­ber Kali Clark, Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Gar­lin Gilchrist II, for­mer Seat­tle City Attor­ney Pete Holmes, Belle­vue School Board­mem­ber Jane Aras

These are peo­ple not already named who have spo­ken at one of our sea­son­al events (our Spring Fundrais­ing Gala, Sum­mer Anniver­sary Pic­nic, FallFest, or Win­ter Hol­i­day Par­ty). Many have spo­ken at sev­er­al NPI events over the years, and many also gen­er­ous­ly spon­sor NPI’s work on an annu­al basis.

Board and staff we’ve lost
Kei­th Deshaies, Lynn Allen, Nan­cy Podschwit

We lost Kei­th in 2008, Lynn in 2011, and Nan­cy in 2022. We have nev­er for­got­ten them and nev­er will. They remain a source of inspi­ra­tion to our team.

Final­ly, thank you to the fam­i­lies of all of our board and staff. We are par­tic­u­lar­ly thank­ful that so many of you vol­un­teer to pro­vide hos­pi­tal­i­ty at NPI’s events to our sup­port­ers and con­sis­tent­ly show up to cel­e­brate our research and advo­ca­cy accom­plish­ments with us. We’re excit­ed to see you this Sat­ur­day for our Twen­ti­eth Anniver­sary Pic­nic. Read­ers, if you’d like to join us, please RSVP here!