Meeting Minutes from inSPIRE Social on January 14, 2006 

Current Activism Efforts by inSPIRE Members

Eric Oemig for the State Senate! Eric used our inSPIRE social to officially kick-off his campaign for the Washington State Senate!  Eric is challenging Republican Bill Finkbeiner in the 45^th district which includes

• First financial disclosure Jan 31
• April 9, opponent restarts fundraising
• Jul 24^th, date of ballot filing
• September 19^th, primary
• October 18^th, mail ballots go out
• November 7^th, election day

Eric indicated that the key to winning this election will be for him to succeed at two key things:  doorbelling the entire district and fundraising.  Eric stated he intended to pursue canvassing the district with the same intensity that he has shown with all of his other endeavors in life.  Eric also indicated that to win the election he will need to raise close to $300,000 in campaign contributions.  Finkbeiner has already raised $80,000.  Eric s fundraising got off to a good start at our inSPIRE meeting with attendees pledging and contributing over $1,600.

Randy Gordon and other inSPIRE members spoke of the critical need to fundraise as a political candidate (even though this can be a difficult process).  To be viewed as a serious candidate, to attract contributions from Political Action Committees and to be able to get out ones message a candidate absolutely must raise sufficient funds.  Whereas it may seem like a more direct way to support causes for social justice by giving funds directly to organizations working towards these ends, such as nonprofits supporting the poor, the environment, etc., unless we are able to elect solid Progressive candidates who can instill a more equitable sense of priorities in our government, we will never be able to achieve the Progressive goals in which we at inSPIRE believe.  Thus, to fully leverage our scarce personal resources (in other words, our hard earned cash ) it s important to support the political process by supporting strong Progressive candidates such as Eric Oemig.

inSPIRE Book Club ! Don t forget our upcoming Book Club meeting on Sunday evening January 22^nd at 7:00 PM at Margey  house.  We will be discussing Eric Schlosser s Fast Food Nation, an insightful read about the history of America s fast food industry and its pitfalls.   

To join the book club and get on the list, just send an email to inspirebooks-subscribe@list.moralpolitics.org. 

Additional Announcements New inSPIRE member Madeline announced that Progressive talk show host Stephanie Miller will be at Seattle University on March 10th, 2006 from 6:00-9:00am and invited folks to attend. 

Additional Discussion as is always the case, much more was brought up during the rest of our meeting, but, once again, your faithful note-taker got caught up in just listening and enjoying the nice summer evening, and forgot to write all that good stuff down!  Sorry!  But rest assured we had a very fun and rewarding time.  See you at the next inSPIRE meeting!

Thanks to all, Dave Gamrath .