Annual Lobby Week, hosted by the League of Women Voters of Washington Lobby Team for League members only, will be Jan. 26-29.

During the daytime that week, members in local Leagues throughout Washington will have the opportunity to meet with their state legislators via Zoom to urge legislative support for League positions.

Evenings, again only for League members, will feature Zoom presentations by Lobby Team members detailing key issues the state Legislature is expected to address this session.

Register here for the week’s events.

Initial planning for the week assumes the lack of financial resources will permeate all discussions, said Cynthia Stewart, LWVWA Advocacy chair. Also, likely to be key will be the effects of federal changes to Medicaid, the continued lack of affordable housing and climate change.

Legislation related to these and other issues such as democracy, immigrants, criminal justice and more also will be discussed, along with talking points for all issues that League members can use for their meetings.

Stewart said the week’s training and interactions represent considerable hours of investment by both those organizing and presenting the sessions and those who attend seeking both information and a chance to meet with their state senators and representative.  

“The whole week is a bit of a laborious effort, but it’s well worth our time as it means more of us can make a difference in our laws and in our state’s future,” she said.

Stewart also said members interested in participating are welcome to pick and choose which sessions they attend and that it’s well understood that members have other commitments beyond the League.

“Of course, it would be terrific if all members could attend all of the sessions, but we recognize people have lives full of other relationships, responsibilities and activities. Do what works for you.”

League members studying the loss of local news four years ago were told by Washington State University journalism department chair Ben Shors what the decline has led us to. 

“It’s not a journalism crisis,” Shors told the League members with unflinching clarity. “It’s a democracy crisis.”

Since then, in addition to the LWVWA’s “The Decline of Local News and Its Impact on Democracy,” mountains of research have proven that message to be true. 

Shors and colleagues now have an opportunity to change that reality in Washington state at least a few degrees.  

A new partnership forged between the WSU Edward R. Murrow College of Communication and a national nonprofit would replace and expand on the News Fellowship program that was a casualty of the 2025 Washington state legislative session. 

That fellowship placed 16 journalists in 22 newsrooms across the state, producing nearly 2,700 news stories and providing much-needed civic affairs coverage to League members and hundreds of thousands of other Washingtonians.

Under the new partnership, described as the first-of-its-kind in the nation, each of Washington’s 39 counties would be assigned a fellow to provide coverage of local news and developments. Modeled after the Washington State University County Extension program, the expanded News Fellowship would ensure remote rural areas as well as populated urban areas would have news coverage. News deserts in Washington tend to be in eastern and central areas of the state, although not exclusively.  

Shors said the state would contribute $1 million annually over the next two years but the bulk of the cost of ensuring coverage for all 39 counties would come from funders from whom the partnership has commitments.   
 
The state investment would allow the program to operate under the auspices of the university as well as demonstrate a solid commitment to funders.

Under the plan, the new fellowship would launch in January 2027, with an inaugural cohort of 13 journalists covering key civic issues and addressing gap in local reporting. New cohort would be added every year for three years.

The League will be following developments and call for support of the partnership when the Legislature reconvenes next month.

For more information about the proposal, contact Dee Anne Finken, dfinken@lwvwa.org, chair of the Local News & Democracy team. 

By Sally Carpenter Hale, Communications Manager, LWV of Clark County

Molly Coston, past president of the Clark County League and longtime supporter, died Nov. 18 at age 77.

“Molly was an influential member of our Southwest Washington community,” said LWVCC past president Nancy Halvorson.  “As well as being an active League member, serving in many roles, Molly served the Washougal community for many years as a city council member and as mayor.  

“Molly will be greatly missed.”

At the time of her death, Coston was serving as the chair of the C-Tran board of directors and Clark County Regional Transportation Council board of directors.

Her leadership was integral to Washougal’s growth and civic identity for nearly two decades, according to a statement from the city of Washougal.

Coston first joined the Washougal City Council in 2005, serving for six years. After several years away from city government, Coston was elected mayor of Washougal in November 2017 and held the position from 2018-2021.

In 2021, she was elected to fill an unexpired position on the council.  That term was set to conclude in two years.

Washougal Mayor David Stuebe said: “Many people called her ‘Mayor Molly’ because she was approachable and took the time to truly listen and be truly engaged. Her leadership influenced the direction of our city, and we are so grateful for her service.  

This fall, Lake Washington High School students in Kirkland worked with members of the Seattle King County League to conduct a Kirkland City Council Candidates forum. This is a shorter version of a news article three of the students who participated, Aabriella Frazier, Nandini Damodaran, and Lorenzo D’Ambrosi, wrote about their experience.

As the members of our group began sitting down for our first meeting, nobody knew what to expect. Most of us were inexperienced in the realm of city council forums. What impact could our small group have on the community anyway?

Although it was hard work, it also taught us about what we each value in the community and how we, as students, can make the positive change we want to see.

Through the mentorship of the League and guidance of our AP teachers, Mr. Dawson and Ms. Shoda, we started by gathering information from our community, doing so through surveys attached to promotional posters. We assigned several group members to hang them up at critical points throughout our school, local businesses, and public spaces such as the Kirkland Library.

Hosting the forum was a challenging yet redeeming experience.

It introduced us to the experience of working with a political organization to step into the landscape that we will soon be navigating independently: civic engagement.

Planning the forum required an efficient delegation of roles and responsibilities. Examples included writing questions, reaching out to neighboring communities, and visiting forums, all in the hopes of adequately preparing ourselves.

As a result, the questions written by a younger demographic demanded that the candidates think about issues they may have previously overlooked and approach known issues from a fundamentally different perspective to address the concerns of a new population that will soon be voting.

Click here to read the full story the students submitted.

The Power of Us is the theme for Council 2026, which will be June 6 and 7, in Lacey, and members of the planning committee are inviting every League member —new, lifetime or in between—to start thinking about attending. 

Council is our opportunity to come together for a refreshing, empowering, and educational event.  It’s where we can learn about ourselves and the League, share details about the extraordinary work each local League is doing, express our appreciation for the efforts of the past year, and move forward with the renewed power that comes from collaboration and cooperation. 

As you save the date in your calendar, also think about the talents you have and the ideas you might contribute. 

• Got a design idea for a “The Power of Us” logo that we can use in Council-related communications? Send it along.
• Have a workshop you and your League would like to offer? Or an evening caucus you’d like to propose?  It’s never too early to draft a proposal.
• If you live within 30 minutes of South Puget Sound Community College’s Lacey campus and have a guest room for a fellow League member, we’re organizing home-stays to help make Council attendance more affordable. 

Watch for more details via In League and in your inbox in the coming months, and send ideas to Angela Gyurko at agyurko@lwvwa.org. 

Thank you! Here’s to seeing you in Lacey in June.

By Shelley Kneip, Janet Lenart, Susan Martin, and Lydia Zepeda, Welcoming Immigrants Concurrence Committee, LWV of Washington

Each year, through the program-planning process, members determine priorities for local programs and review the programs from preceding years. Local Leagues are also an integral part of the “grassroots” planning at the state and national League levels.

State League program planning occurs in odd-numbered years, national program planning happens in even-numbered years. For example, in 2025, LWVWA adopted the Welcoming Immigrants position, which arose from a study proposed by local Leagues in 2023.

In 2024, the national League adopted our state League’s Local News & Democracy position by concurrence after being proposed by many Leagues across the country.

In 2026, local Leagues will be asked for their input to the national League program planning for 2026-2028. LWVWA proposes that the national League adopt the Welcoming Immigrants position through a concurrence process. We ask that local Leagues do the same.

Local Leagues can support concurrence in two ways:

• First, by submitting the Welcoming Immigrants position to the LWVUS as a program priority in the annual program-planning survey.

• Second, by voting in favor of concurrence at the LWVUS Convention in June.

Why should the LWVUS adopt the Welcoming Immigrants position?
We hear daily about immigration in the United States. Concerns about the lack of due process for immigrants and mass detentions and deportations are rising. The current national position mainly addresses admission of immigrants and regularization of those without authorization. By contrast, the Welcoming Immigrants position addresses what happens to all immigrants who are already in the country. Most immigrants are naturalized citizens or live in mixed-status families with U.S. citizen spouses or children. Most have been in the United States for more than a decade.

National adoption of the LWVWA position on Welcoming Immigrants provides a basis for advocacy for national, state, and local legislation aimed at protecting the legal rights and dignity of immigrants in the United States. If adopted by LWVUS, all state and local Leagues across the country would be able to utilize the position to advocate for immigrants' rights and access to services.

Ensuring that immigrants, alongside other residents in the U.S., benefit from these important rights is at the core of LWVUS’ mandate. Importantly, the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments to the U.S. Constitution apply to ALL residents of the United States, regardless of immigration status. The LWVWA position is based on that premise.

What evidence underlies the LWVWA position on Welcoming Immigrants?LWVWA undertook a two-year study on the situation of immigrants in our state. Washington state has a long history of welcoming immigrants who live in our state and has adopted laws to protect their rights. The study provides vital information about how important immigrants have been to the American economy and culture. The study evaluates the laws and programs in Washington with respect to immigrants who reside in the state. It also identified opportunities and gaps in state programs.

Most local Leagues are familiar with the study because they participated in the consensus process in 2025, which led to the adoption of the position.  For more information, you can find the position HERE and the study supporting the position HERE.

Why concurrence?
LWVWA proposes that LWVUS adopt our Welcoming Immigrants position by concurrence, which is the most efficient way to adopt a position. We ask that each local League's program-planning process include a discussion of concurrence of the Welcoming Immigrants position. 

Assuming members agree that concurrence is a priority, please make sure that you reflect it in the program-planning survey that will be available in January and due on March 10, 2026. LWVWA will be providing specific information on how to do this once LWVUS publishes its program-planning information.

What can you do?
The proposed concurrence will be voted on June 25-28, 2026, at the LWVUS Convention in Columbus, Ohio, by in-person and virtual delegates. We encourage each League to support concurrence not only by proposing the Welcoming Immigrants position as a program priority, but also by sending as many delegates as allowed.

We will be posting more information on the Convention on our website as it becomes available.  For more information and questions, contact Susan Martin, smartin@lwvwa.org, or Lydia Zepeda, lzepeda@lwvwa.org.

The task of taking a position to the LWVUS for national concurrence is no easy task. 

Besides ensuring that one’s position meets national standards, it means reaching out to state and local Leagues across the country to communicate your points clearly and thoughtfully enough to secure their widespread endorsement.

It also means rallying members in Washington state to support the effort, which also means sending a solid number of fellow Washington state members in June to Columbus, Ohio, the site of the national convention. 

It could mean helping with fundraising, planning, organizing and lots of communication work, from writing talking points to designing graphics to making videos. 

If you are interested and able to help, contact Susan Martin, who led the study, at martinsf@georgetown.edu.  

The “Welcoming Immigrants to Washington State” committee produced a solid study that led to a strong position.  Foremost, it states “the League of Women Voters of Washington believes that all residents of Washington state, regardless of immigration status or citizenship, should be treated with dignity and respect.”

Now, perhaps more than ever before, extending the call that all residents of every state, regardless of immigration status or citizenship, be treated with dignity and respect is vital.

Doing so would empower League members throughout the country to act on the Washington position.

Help make national concurrence a reality and lend a hand.

Immigration committee co-chair Susan Hales, left, introduces Rumyana Kodeva, presenter of Saturday’s Cultural Awareness workshop, which was sponsored by the Spokane League and Eastern Washington University’s School of Social Work.

Looking for how they might best support the Spokane area’s immigrant population as it faces increased distress, more than 30 League members participated in a three-hour “Cultural Awareness” workshop Saturday morning.

“Sometimes volunteers don’t know how to be with people of a different culture,” said Louise Chadez of the Spokane League’s Immigration committee. “And so we wanted to learn more about how to understand other cultures, whether people are citizens or not.”

Chadez, who co-chairs the Spokane committee with Susan Hales, said workshop presenter Rumyana Kudeva, a doctoral-level social worker from the Spokane Regional Health District, emphasized the importance of both “maintaining cultural humility” and recognizing differences exist from culture to culture and within cultures. 

 “There is still much to be learned,” Chadez said, adding plans are for additional workshops in the future.

The Spokane Immigration committee, which has about 12 members, began forming in February this year, motivated by the increased presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the area and the LWVWA's "Welcoming Immigrants to Washington" study led by Susan Martin.

“We took Susan’s information to heart,” Chadez said.

The workshop was held in collaboration with the Eastern Washington University School of Social Work.

One of the main takeaways of the workshop for Chadez? 

“Remember to exhibit compassion for others rather than empathy. And be true neighbors, rather than just allies, to those of cultural differences.

LWVWA President Karen Crowley

By Karen Crowley, President, LWV of Washington

As many of you know, there has been a change in the way League membership dues are collected and distributed. Members now join at the national level, identifying the local League where they choose to participate, and then are connected automatically with the appropriate state League.

Dues are ‘pay what you can’ with a recommended level of $75 annually.

Your dues are distributed in this way: 

The portion to local Leagues remains steady at 20%. Our state League split has increased to 47%—with the difference carved from the national percentage.

Understandably, members have questions related to this change, including one that surfaced at the 2025 Convention in June. Through the resolution process, members requested “the LWVWA board establish a planning process, in consultation with local Leagues, for increased revenue which provides increased support to local Leagues and/or increased support for grassroots advocacy as intended by the LWVUS Transformation Process.”

The state League has taken this request to heart in several ways.

At its July retreat the 2025-27 Board of Directors created this list of priorities for the biennium:  

Strengthen Operational Infrastructure
Review staffing and technology needs. Commit to adding capacity to grow League impact statewide.

Grow Financial Resources
New financial resources must be generated to support both LWVWA infrastructure and services to local Leagues.

Focus on Membership and Leadership Development
Create effective tools to recruit, engage and retain new League members. Build future League leaders at all levels.

Enhance Internal and External Communications
Tell a clear, powerful, ongoing story of effective civic education, engagement, and advocacy to League members and residents across Washington state.

Increase Statewide Community Outreach and Engagement
Build deep, true, sustainable partnerships with democracy allies across Washington state.

Following the retreat, we convened an ad-hoc committee to address the first two priorities. I lead that team, which also includes three local League leaders: Barb Tengtio, president of the Seattle King County League; Vallie Needham Huisman, a member of the LWV Thurston County Leadership Team, and Robin Barker, vice president-Communications of LWV Bellingham-Whatcom County; and LWVWA board members Sasha Bentley and Toyoko Tsukuda.

This team is wrestling with these two questions: Does the state League provide the services local Leagues need? What additional services might local Leagues need?

To answer, the committee is surveying local Leagues, asking for feedback on services currently offered by LWVWA and inviting input on what additional services they would value. That survey has been sent, and we encourage local League boards to gather feedback and provide their input by Nov. 30. We will report that feedback to the board and then develop recommendations for action.

You will be hearing more. Know that our goal is to be an effective, powerful advocate for democracy. LWVUS tell us: The fight to ensure free, fair elections must be waged at the state level because state Legislatures most often control critical election-related issues: voter access, redistricting, government ethics, transparency, campaign finance, and more. State Leagues are a vital part of the LWV’s grassroots’ power and strength. They provide essential communications, organizing, advocacy, and administrative support to local Leagues and members in their states.

Your state League is committed to supporting national work as appropriate and necessary here in Washington state, and we are committed to supporting and facilitating critical, grassroots work by local Leagues. We look forward to increasing our capacity to do both because this system works best when we work in concert and solidarity.

If you have questions about this effort—or any state League initiative—please reach out to me at kcrowley@lwvwa.org.

The state Nominating Committee is inviting all members interested in learning more about serving on the state board of directors to a Zoom "meet and greet" on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 10:30 am

Committee member Beth Pellicciotti encourages members to bring questions to the informal discussion to learn more about what service entails and how being a state director can enhance your understanding of the impact of the work of the League of Women Voters.  

Register for the meet and greet HERE. Find more information on the nominating process is on our webpage.