John Stafford for State Representative
Bold Structural Change, Not Just Incremental Reform
WHY I AM RUNNING FOR OFFICE
Dear 37th District Resident,
I am running for the position of State Representative for the 37th Legislative District, Position One, which is currently held by Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos. I acknowledge the service of Representative Santos to the 37th Legislative District and the State of Washington.
However, in my view, this is an altogether different era, and one which demands a very different approach – one characterized by Major Structural Change, not just Incremental Reform. Our era is defined by five crises: the pandemic, the recession, the pending budgetary crisis in Olympia, climate change, and racial injustice. Meaningfully addressing these concurrent crises will be a tremendous challenge, but it also represents a tremendous opportunity.
To deal with these challenges, it will be critical to restructure the manner in which the state conducts its operations in many realms (e.g., K-12 Education, Affordable Housing, Homelessness, Transportation, Energy Systems, etc.). I have five policy priorities (see the Policy Priorities tab for more detail):
I believe that I have the background and ability to play a leadership role in the State Legislature in addressing these major challenges. I am a 20-year resident of our community, and I am highly involved. I am on the Executive-Board of the 37th District Democrats, I am a long-serving PCO, I am on the leadership teams of two climate change advocacy organizations, and I have written numerous articles on politics and policy. I have had two careers – as a partner with a management consulting firm that specialized in corporate strategy, and as a teacher.
My website provides details on my background, my policy proposals, and my policy articles. It also describes how to contact, endorse and donate to my campaign. During the campaign, I am hosting a 30-minute slide presentation and discussion on an important policy challenge each Saturday morning (via Zoom). I have entitled these, “Substantive Saturdays with Stafford.” If you are interested in receiving the weekly newsletter announcing each week’s topic, please click on the link above. We would welcome having you on the calls. In addition, each session is recorded, and you can watch sessions of interest by going to the “Substantive Saturdays” tab.
Thank you for visiting my website. I look forward to seeing you on the campaign trail.
John Stafford
I am running for the position of State Representative for the 37th Legislative District, Position One, which is currently held by Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos. I acknowledge the service of Representative Santos to the 37th Legislative District and the State of Washington.
However, in my view, this is an altogether different era, and one which demands a very different approach – one characterized by Major Structural Change, not just Incremental Reform. Our era is defined by five crises: the pandemic, the recession, the pending budgetary crisis in Olympia, climate change, and racial injustice. Meaningfully addressing these concurrent crises will be a tremendous challenge, but it also represents a tremendous opportunity.
To deal with these challenges, it will be critical to restructure the manner in which the state conducts its operations in many realms (e.g., K-12 Education, Affordable Housing, Homelessness, Transportation, Energy Systems, etc.). I have five policy priorities (see the Policy Priorities tab for more detail):
- Address the pandemic, recession and budgetary crises by restructuring how the state conducts its operations, not via across-the-board spending cuts.
- Focus limited available resources on low-income and minority communities, not on universal programs.
- Institute a new source of progressive revenue in Washington State – to help address the budgetary crisis and also to deal with the regressivity problem in the state’s tax code.
- Address the climate change via high impact, low cost programs.
- Address the racial justice crisis by adopting a broad perspective – one that focuses on the underlying, enduring inequities in our society (in education, employment, earnings, health care, etc.), not merely on police reforms.
I believe that I have the background and ability to play a leadership role in the State Legislature in addressing these major challenges. I am a 20-year resident of our community, and I am highly involved. I am on the Executive-Board of the 37th District Democrats, I am a long-serving PCO, I am on the leadership teams of two climate change advocacy organizations, and I have written numerous articles on politics and policy. I have had two careers – as a partner with a management consulting firm that specialized in corporate strategy, and as a teacher.
My website provides details on my background, my policy proposals, and my policy articles. It also describes how to contact, endorse and donate to my campaign. During the campaign, I am hosting a 30-minute slide presentation and discussion on an important policy challenge each Saturday morning (via Zoom). I have entitled these, “Substantive Saturdays with Stafford.” If you are interested in receiving the weekly newsletter announcing each week’s topic, please click on the link above. We would welcome having you on the calls. In addition, each session is recorded, and you can watch sessions of interest by going to the “Substantive Saturdays” tab.
Thank you for visiting my website. I look forward to seeing you on the campaign trail.
John Stafford
Please explore the links at the top of the page to learn more about my policy positions and priorities.
For further reading about current policy issues facing the 37th district and Washington State click the "Articles" link to see a list of articles I have written for the South Seattle Emerald as well as blog posts from my campaign.
For further reading about current policy issues facing the 37th district and Washington State click the "Articles" link to see a list of articles I have written for the South Seattle Emerald as well as blog posts from my campaign.