About Chad Lupkes

I started into politics last year, getting involved very quickly in everything that I could. I started with a college class in 2002, State and Local Political Processes at the University of Phoenix. My classmates and I wrote a paper on the 2000 Florida Election, and while I had been paying attention to politics the entire time George W Bush has been in office, it seemed opaque to me how an individual could get involved. The instructor in that class recommended that we all get involved with the party of our choosing, and gave us a simple breakdown how the political process worked as far as Congressional Districts and Legislative Districts. If my Social Studies class in High School had ever covered this, I hadn't been paying attention because it was all new to me.

I started looking for more information, and learned that I lived in the 46th Legislative District. In May of 2003, I attended the meeting of the 46th District Democrats, and boy was it a wake up call.

One of the things that I learned at that May meeting was that the 46th LD Democrats did not have a representative in my precinct, SEA 46-2324. I picked up a PCO Handbook so I could make the determination whether I wanted to jump in head first like that.

To help me make that decision, I transcribed the entire PCO Handbook into a website version for my web programming class. (The site I built is now incorporated into the Democracy for Washington website.) Thanks to this, I have a pretty good idea what the responsibilities of a PCO are.

However, while making this decision, I ran into a snag that came out of nowhere. Hodgkins. Cancer. I had always been healthy, although I was getting out of shape. A sudden downturn in my energy levels made me ask my doctor what was going on, and suddenly I had a very good idea just why people needed good health insurance. If I had been working for an employer that did not provide health insurance, I would now be in a financial hole $60,000 deep. I spent 6 months going through Chemotherapy, and a month of Radiation therapy. My world will never be the same, and I'm honestly glad of it.

At the beginning of the summer, Bob Gelb asked me to help him with his campaign for Mercer Island City Council. I signed on as the treasurer and set up his website. We both were very busy with work, but even with as little time we had to walk the precincts and talk to the voters in that region, he received a little more than 30% of the vote. And I got a good education on what the Public Disclosure Commission requires of campaigns in Washington State.

In November 2003, I volunteered to help the 46th District Democrats rebuild their website. We now post the Demogram online every month it is published, and LD Chair Scott White? is proud to use the website on correspondence.

While going through cancer treatment, I watched the Democratic Primary debates carefully. I read the books by Howard Dean, Wesley Clarke and John Kerry. I watched Deanforamerica gather strength and a whole lot of attention. While I liked John Kerry's proposals and the amount of depth that he put into his book, I thought Howard Dean was a better candidate. He was human. (There were even some spelling and grammar mistakes in his book.) Being human and mortal put him closer to the people in my opinion, and the people reacted to that. I was very surprised when Dean did not win the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire Primary.

And then I heard the scream.

More accurately, I saw the scream repeated on the news every chance they could get. I don't own a television, but I heard NPR? talking endlessly about what the scream meant to the Dean campaign, and while in my broker's office I saw CNN Financial running the scream in an endless loop. For me, Howard Dean's scream at the Iowa rally became the scream of frustration from the grassroots. It became my scream. And it became my call to arms. Radiation therapy notwithstanding, it was time for me to do something.

I attended the Democratic Precinct Caucuses on February 7th, and was elected chair of my precinct. We sent 4 delegates for Howard Dean and one for John Kerry to the Legislative District caucus level. I became the appointed PCO for SEA 46-2324.

On February 18th, Howard Dean announced that he was withdrawing from active campaigning. We all knew it was coming. I’d come to the hard realization that Deanforamerica was not as much a campaign for presidency as much as a movement to change our country.

I was determined not to let the dream die. Alongside Lawrence Winnerman?, I helped build a website for the New Progressive Alliance. We got together with Ray Minchew? of Washington for Dean, and helped start Democracy for Washington. I put out an offer to the Democratic Party that I would build websites for candidates at cost. So far there have been four takers.

Howard Dean was not President when he balanced the budget in Vermont. He was not President when the Success by Six program started to work in Vermont. We don’t need Howard Dean as the President as much as we need to implement what works in Vermont in every state. And since I live in Washington, I want to start here.

I believe that everyone should be heard in a debate. Everyone has ideas and concerns, and in order to hold ours valid, we should be willing to hear others as well. I welcome debates with anyone, and try to be fair in my responses.

I am focused on four big-picture items.

1. Grassroots, People-Powered Democracy
2. The Concept of WE
3. Understanding the Past
4. Looking to the Future

Grassroots, People-Powered Democracy

I've recently read a book that made me realize how far we have come and how far we have to go. The Tao of Democracy is a description of how the evolution of our democratic processes is occuring all around the world. What we need more than anything else in this country and world wide is a way for people to get directly involved in the way the government operates. Many opportunities exist now, but they are hidden behind a wall of secrecy that only the hard-core activists seem to be able to break through.

I would like to propose the creation of Citizen's Juries, which would operate in support of the Executive and Legislative Branches of our government much like they already work for the Judicial branch. We trust our peers to decide things up to and including capital punishment. Shouldn't we also trust ourselves to help guide policy making and execution?

The Concept of WE

The Earth is a single environment. Everything that affects individuals affects groups, and the larger the subject, the larger the group that is affected. I'm tired of hearing people describe the world in terms of 'us versus them'. We're all on this planet together, and the more we understand that, the better we will be able to create a world that works for everyone. Special interests seem to dominate the news, be it a religious group, business interest, race or economic group. How can we get a better understanding of how everyone is linked together in a chain, and that something affecting one affects us all?

Understanding the Past

Where do our problems come from? How do they relate to each other? If we search for an understanding of the past, we gain a better understanding of what we can do about it. Maybe we can even solve two problems with the same action.

Looking to the Future

It's not enough any more to think and act for the moment. In the big picture, we are creating the world of the future by our actions today. I'm concerned about how my children are growing up, but I'm just as concerned about the kind of world their grandchildren will be living in. We should grant them the power to turn that world into whatever they wish it to be, with clean air and water, energy resources to explore their dreams, a peaceful world where people talk instead of fight with each other. What can we do now, either big decisions or small actions, that can help to create that world of opportunity?

I also believe that the position of PCO is more than just a representative of the political parties. If candidates for office rely so much on the PCO to get the word out about their ideas before an election, why does that stop after election day? We should do more than elect people to office, we should create the dialogue between those elected and the people all year round.

My contact information is below. Please, send me your questions, your ideas, your concerns. If I don't have an answer, I'll try and find out who does. We'll discuss your ideas and try to get them into play. I'll help deal with issues as best I can. Together, we can build a community and a neighborhood, not just a region with politically drawn borders.

Chad Lupkes
11401 Roosevelt Way NE #12
Seattle, WA 98125
206-440-1592
chadlupkes@earthlink.net

Comments welcome!