Archives

A Time to Celebrate

Roger and his seatmate, Larry Springer, celebrating their re-election at the victory party in Kirkland on election night.

 

Friends:

The Washington Secretary of State has now certified the results of the November 6th general election, so we can now say officially that WE WON!!

Our margin of victory was 13 percentage points, the largest margin in my entire career, as we garnered 56.4% of the vote in this tough “swing” district. We worked very hard and it paid off!

It is difficult to express in words how grateful I am to all of you for your ongoing support and friendship. Thanks SO much for the countless hours you devoted to volunteer work, addressing postcards, canvassing the neighborhoods, waving signs on the roadside and making thousands of get-out-the-vote telephone calls at the end of the race. Thanks also for your very generous monetary contributions that made it all possible.

Now comes the hard work in the State Legislature, as we face another budget deficit and an urgent need to increase funding for our public schools. Count on me to stand up and speak up for our public education system, and to continue my work to foster justice in our society and to protect individual rights and the most vulnerable among us.

Thanks again to each of you for your support, inspiration and friendship. We did it and it feels great! Now let’s get to work on the people’s business.

With deep appreciation,

Goodman named Chair of House Public Safety Committee

OLYMPIA – Rep. Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland) has been picked to chair the House Public Safety Committee.

“In a heartbeat, a violent crime or a natural disaster can take away everything — your home, your family, your life,” Goodman said. “Our state laws must do whatever is possible to prevent crime and respond to floods, wildfires and earthquakes, because lives are literally at stake.”

Goodman, an attorney and criminal justice expert, has served as vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee for the last six years, which handles non-criminal issues involving the law and courts.

“It’s important to protect citizens from crime while safeguarding individual liberties,” Goodman said. “What’s great about Washington state is that police, prosecutors, citizens and prison officials have all worked together to do things that don’t just sound tough, but actually work.”

Washington’s criminal justice laws and programs are often picked for review by the state’s Institute for Public Policy, which looks at whether new laws and programs actually reduce crime and whether reforms are cost-effective.

“We’ve learned that some things that sound great on TV or in the newspaper actually cost a lot of money and don’t prevent crime at all,” Goodman said. “And we’ve found that things that don’t get the big headlines actually work well to stop crime and save taxpayer dollars. So it’s important to keep trying different options and testing them rigorously, because in the end, we should do what works, not just what sounds good.”

When he first arrived in the House of Representatives and got assigned to the Public Safety Committee, Goodman asked policy staff and police officers what two issues consumed most of their time and resources. They said drunk driving and domestic violence. Since then he’s worked with police, prosecutors, crime victim advocates and other lawmakers on ways to prevent domestic violence and drunk driving, and he’s won national awards for his work in this area.

“Criminals should be punished, but if that’s all you focus on, you’re missing the point,” Goodman said. “The best way to tackle crime is to prevent it from happening at all. Police officers and prosecutors like solving a case — but they like it better when they can prevent a bad situation, actually stop crime before it happens, so there’s no crime victim who got hurt or killed.”

Goodman said he appreciates hearing the stories and ideas of citizens, local police officers, sheriff deputies, prosecutors and crime victims.

“The biggest part of this job is listening,” Goodman said. “Republican or Democrat, prosecutor or defense lawyer, big city detective or small-town sheriff — everybody has stories to tell and ideas on how to prevent crime and respond to emergencies. I look forward to hearing from you, and working with you, to make Washington state an even safer place for our families and our communities.”

# # #

Rep. Roger Goodman

roger.goodman@leg.wa.gov

District office: 425-739-1810

We Did It!

A big thank you to all my wonderful volunteers, supporters, and all you voters!

Special Issue Focus: Early Learning

The Washington state constitution regards education as the “paramount” responsibility of state government. Unfortunately, state resources devoted to K-12 have continually declined, both for infrastructure (there are still 12,000 portable temporary classroom buildings at schools across the state) and for general operation. We’re near the bottom in the country in teacher pay, classroom size and per-pupil expenditure, right down there with Mississippi.As I visit voters at their doors, some tell me that we’re “throwing money at the schools and look what we’ve got.”

I’m sorry, but we’re not throwing money at the schools. (more…)