She has held office fewer than three months, but the 3rd Congressional District’s Representative Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez (MGP), D‑Washington, is emerging as a role model and media magnet in the Democrats’ Class of 2022.
Author Archives: Joel Connelly
Joel Connelly is a Northwest Progressive Institute contributor who has reported on multiple presidential campaigns and from many national political conventions. During his career at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, he interviewed Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and George H.W. Bush. He has covered Canada from Trudeau to Trudeau, written about the fiscal meltdown of the nuclear energy obsessed WPPSS consortium (pronounced "Whoops") and public lands battles dating back to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Joe Biden heads to Ottawa: He and Canada’s Justin Trudeau have much to talk about
The two leaders are expected to talk about the depth to which they should intervene in Haiti, and what to do about gangs running rampant. Biden and Trudeau are both committed to action on climate.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Biden-Harris administration reportedly plans to approve Willow oil drilling project in Alaska
Environmental groups have campaigned against what the Sierra Club has described as “a climate disaster waiting to happen.” A change.org petition opposing Willow had drawn 3.1 million signatures and an estimated 1.1 million unique letters have descended on the White House.
Posted inMedia & Culture
Two-faced Tucker Carlson and the ugly underbelly of Rupert Murdoch’s FNC
“I hate him passionately,” Tucker said in an email two days before the January 6th insurrection, adding that “we are very very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait.”
Posted inPolicy Topics
Senator Maria Cantwell weighs in against ConocoPhillips’ Willow Arctic drilling project
The potential devastation to Arctic ecosystems, from climate damage, “is irreversible and irresponsible to future generations,” said Cantwell. “Oil companies already have record profits and access to drilling rights on millions of acres of public lands which they should be using to meet our current fossil fuel needs.”
Posted inPublic Service
For over a century, the Pacific Northwest has been a leader in electing women to Congress
Meet many of the women from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska who have blazed a trail for America’s future in the United States Congress.
Posted inPublic Service
Senator Maria Cantwell: A workhorse for the people and the Pacific Northwest in Congress
Cantwell, sixty-four, is not one of the usual suspects seen on networks’ Sunday morning talk shows or shouting over talk radio. She gets stuff done by mastering details, quiet work with colleagues and by serving on a trio of A‑list Senate committees where legislation is put together.
Posted inLegislative Advocacy
President Biden challenges Congress to help him “finish the job” of getting America back on track in upbeat State of the Union address
“To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together and find consensus on important things in this Congress,” said Biden. “The people sent us a clear message. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere.”
Posted inLitigation
Republicans fail in their attempt to intervene in signature verification legal challenge
The Republicans’ philosophy on litigation is never to spend one dollar when two (or more) will do. Judge Shaffer may have saved the party some money, needed until recently (when he announced his candidacy) to pay Trump’s legal bills.
Posted inPolicy Topics
U.S., Canadian officials act to rescue rainforests in Alaska and British Columbia
The U.S. Department of Agriculture officially reinstated the Clinton-era National Roadless Rule in Southeast Alaska’s vast seventeen million-acre Tongass National Forest. On the other side of the border, British Columbia’s Premier David Eby announced protection of 75,000 hectares of the Incomappleux Valley.
Posted inElections
National, state Republicans file against voters in signature verification legal challenge
State and national Republicans are filing briefs in a lawsuit that seeks to end the error-filled signature verification process on Washington’s mail-in ballots. The suit they are intervening in alleges that thousands of valid votes get rejected and that rejections hit a disproportionate number of younger, Black, Latino/Latina and disabled voters.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Amtrak will restore a second daily round trip between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.
Amtrak will restore a second daily round-trip train service between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., as of March 7th, and promises to boost daily trips between Seattle and Portland from four to six come fall, according to a letter sent to the transportation departments of Washington and Oregon.
Posted inLegislative Advocacy
McCarthy’s uneasy majority tries to give rich tax cheats a gift as its first legislative act
“Only this extreme Republican majority would use its first bill of the 118th Congress to embolden tax cheats and cut services for working Americans: For decades, Republicans have been cutting necessary resources from the IRS,” Representative Suzan DelBene, D‑Washington, a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement.
Posted inPublic Service
Top Republican Kevin McCarthy’s bid for Speaker fails on first day of 118th Congress
McCarthy came up short three times, a sign that Republican have brought chaos rather than control to the House. The defection of twenty far-right Republicans not only blocked McCarthy from the Speaker’s chair but prevented the House from organizing.