Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Thank you for the opportunity to represent the 43rd District in the Washington State House of Representatives over the last two years. I am grateful for your support and am working closely with my seatmates, Senator Ed Murray and Speaker Frank Chopp, to advance our district's priorities in Olympia.

In the 2007 and 2008 legislative sessions, we made great progress on health care (providing for health coverage for all Washington kids and mental health parity); public education (passing simple majority approval for school levies and fully funding the voter-approved initiatives on teacher pay and reducing class size); the environment (including significant funding for the cleanup of Puget Sound, major action to combat global warming, and a ban on toxic flame retardants and toxic toys) and civil rights (including creation and expansion of a statewide domestic partner registry to protect same-sex couples and their families).

I was proud to have been the prime sponsor of eight bills that were signed into law by the Governor. Those included:

• Establishing a housing voucher program for foster youth aging out of care to help them from becoming homeless;
• Protecting victims of domestic violence from contact with their abusers;
• Recognizing Juneteenth (the day on which the last slaves in the United States were freed) as a statewide day of remembrance;
• Improving corporate governance by making it easier to replace unresponsive directors;
• Permitting the state health care authority to receive grant funding;
• Providing extra time for nightclub owners to comply with the mandate to install automatic sprinklers;
• Significantly expanding the state’s domestic partner registry to provide financial security for domestic partners; and
• Helping public companies save paper by permitting certain shareholder mailings to be delivered electronically.

During the 2008 interim, I will be campaigning for re-election and talking with voters – while also preparing for an even more productive session in 2009.

You can visit my homepage on the House Democrats site at and look at a list of bills that I have sponsored and track their progress.

Thank you again for your support. Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have questions or comments.

Best wishes,

Jamie