While the Washington State Senate considers a Democratic-sponsored jobs initiative, Democrats in the State House are stepping up to support working families in other ways.

Speaker Frank Chopp -- a DLCC Board Member –- kicked things off a few weeks ago by leading the charge against a new ballot initiative to privatize the state-run worker’s compensation insurance system:

House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, said it would be "an absolute tragedy" to privatize the state-run workers' comp system, which has been in place for decades.

"That would be a disaster, and I hope to God the public also agrees on this," Chopp said Thursday.

Washington’s labor leaders prefer the state-run system because it provides more generous benefits than some private plans would, and the plan’s low overhead and efficient operation make it much cheaper compared to costs in other states.

Then late last week, the State House voted to grant collective-bargaining protections to workers at some childcare centers receiving state subsidies:

This measure, House Bill 1329, stirred much controversy in 2009. It passed the House but died after the majority there rejected changes made by the Senate.

House Democrats expect the outcome will be different this time because they are apparently willing to accept revisions pushed by senators a year ago.

If passed by the Senate, this bill would fulfill a promise that slipped through the legislative cracks last year.

Democrat Terry Mills won a special election last night to capture the formerly Republican 24th State House seat in central Kentucky. With all counties reporting, Mills leads in unofficial returns by 54.4%to 46.6%, or a margin of 489 votes:

Of the four Republican legislative seats contested in Kentucky special elections since 2008, Kentucky Democrats have now picked up three of them – all in districts which supported John McCain by enormous margins.

Last night’s victory was a true regional showdown. Mills and Republican nominee Leo Johnson both carried their respective home countries (Marion and Casey) by wide margins, but Mills was clearly able to excite more of his supporters than Johnson.

Mills’ showing is especially impressive because Marion County went for John McCain in 2008, and it supported the Republican candidate by a 2-1 margin in a State Senate special election just two months ago. Last night, it supported the Democrat Mills by nearly 8-1.

Congratulations to the Mills campaign and the Kentucky Democratic party!

This year’s award for craziest Republican legislator might go to Washington State Senator Pam Roach, who was just expelled from the GOP caucus and ordered to not to have any direct contact with GOP Senate staffers after a serious altercation:

According to [Senate staff attorney Michael] Hoover’s account to an investigator, several senators opposed Hoover in caucus when he questioned whether it would be ethical for Sen. Janéa Holmquist to post pictures from a political rally on an official Web site. Roach went much further, Hoover reported, pointing her finger at him and telling him he didn’t do his job and was plotting against senators.

“It was like meat in front of a Rottweiler, she went crazy. She was so focused on the encounter,” one anonymous staff member is quoted as saying by the investigator, attorney Chris Farias of law firm Stokes Lawrence.

Other anonymous staff members described the verbal attack as typical. “We call it being ‘Roached,’” one said.

As witnesses explained, this is not the first time Roach has gotten in trouble for abusive behavior, up to and including pulling a gun on a Senate staffer back in 2003:

The reprimand is the fifth disciplinary action by the Senate against Roach for her treatment of staff, according to the documents associated with the investigations.

Roach has been barred from direct contact with caucus staff since 2008 for one of the incidents. In 2003 she was reprimanded and asked to seek counseling after staffers accused her of illegally obtaining employees’ e-mails, driving some to quit and brandishing a handgun at one.

Roach, for her part, believes the pattern of reprimands is just persecution by the Republican leadership. And as you’ll see in her defense, it would have been impossible for her to act the way witnesses claimed:

Roach told the investigator she did not remember yelling and could not have pointed her finger at Hoover because both her hands were full of M&Ms.

Clearly, Roach’s colleagues have decided she’s a couple M&Ms short of full bag. But at least she left her handgun at home this time.

Senate Democrats in Washington are focusing on an agenda designed to boost job creation and put the economy back on solid footing in the state:

The plan zeroes in on five elements: Helping small businesses, putting people to work on infrastructure projects, retraining an additional 6,000 workers for high-demand jobs, green jobs and attracting investment in research.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown told reporters, "Our strategy is like a bull's-eye, putting the existing jobs and businesses that are essential to our recovery at the center, and rippling steadily outward toward the jobs of the future that are the key to our competitiveness over the long term."

The 2010 regular session began in the state on January 11th.

Earlier this year, Democrats won a major victory in the 37th State Senate District of Virginia when Dave Marsden defeated Republican Steve Hunt. The seat was left open when Republican Ken Cuccinelli was elected Attorney General in the fall.

Heading into Election Day, most observers were predicting a Republican victory. Instead the seat became the first legislative district in the country to change hands in 2010. Democrats, led by Majority Leader Richard Saslaw -- a DLCC Board Member -- clearly ran a great campaign, particularly in terms of field.

But an innovative tactic employed by the Democratic Caucus may have also been a factor -- in the days before the election, the district was saturated with Internet advertising:

The caucus spent $15,000 on a brief Web ad campaign, a significant expense considering it was targeted to a small region and ran for only about a week leading before election day on January 12. [Marsden Campaign Manager Mark] Henson suggested the ads helped Marsden eke out the win. "Online advertising contributed to that perfect storm that let us pull off this upset," he said, also stressing the importance of all campaign components. Henson said, "I'm definitely more likely now to dedicate more resources toward online advertising."

Majority Leader Saslaw was a key advocate for employing the online ads, pushing the Caucus to pay for the spending as a in-kind contribution to the campaign. In total, the $15,000 buy generated almost 8 million Web impressions.

The Republican Party has begun targeting three strongly Democratic states with fake letters purporting to be official Census documents. The letters seem designed to create confusion, which could cost Democrats congressional seats and electoral votes in all three states:

It's arriving this week in mailboxes in Minnesota, New York and Washington state. At first glance, it might appear to be related to the upcoming once-a-decade count of every man, woman and child in the United States.

It's not. It's a Republican fundraiser and opinion poll.

And it has some local Democrats crying foul. They're calling for a federal investigation.

"This is as egregious as it gets," said Luz Maria Frias, director of St. Paul's Department of Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity and the city's point person for raising awareness of the federal 2010 U.S. census.

The letters are likely to heighten confusion and even suspicion when residents receive legitimate Census questionnaires later this year. This, in turn, could decrease overall Census participation in these three states, all of which could be considered “on the bubble” to gain or lose additional congressional seats after reapportionment.

Local officials in these states are right to demand an investigation. Even if the Republican scheme fails to reduce these states’ congressional clout and electoral votes, any reduction in Census participation could cost local taxpayers millions of dollars in federal money.

Oklahoma Republicans have some funny opinions about marriage: they want to make it as difficult as possible to get in, but once you’re in, they’ll never let you leave. That’s the most reasonable take, anyway, on a Republican-sponsored divorce ban in the Oklahoma State House:

[Rep. Mark] McCullough, R-Sapulpa, wants all marriage license applicants to receive at least eight hours of counseling. He also proposes counseling for parents of minor children before divorcing.

[Rep. Sally] Kern, R-Oklahoma City, is proposing to bar divorces on grounds of incompatibility for couples married 10 years or more, that have minor children, or if one or the other party objects.

Kern’s bill is especially bizarre, but it follows a long line of homophobic statements by Rep. Kern, including her declaration that homosexuality is “the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism.” So this is probably just misguided pushback against successes by the marriage equality movement in other states this year.

Equality supporters have a basic argument that two people who love each other should have the right to be married. But there’s also a pretty compelling corollary that says two people who do not love each other should have the right to divorce.

Sally Kern and her Republican allies obviously don’t believe either of these arguments. So maybe a better, simpler principle is that government should not meddle in people’s personal lives.

That’s something people of all political stripes should be able to get behind.

Though Census Day is nearly two months away, in Alaska, the count has already started. On Monday, World War II veteran Clifton Jackson, an 88-year old resident of Noorvik, became the first citizen registered in the 2010 Census.

While the rest of the country must wait until April 1, the complexities involved with conducting a census in Alaska force officials to begin with the state:

The largest state in the union stretches across 586,000 square miles. That's more than twice the size of Texas, the biggest state in the Lower 48. Yet Alaska has one of the nation's smallest populations at less than 700,000.

More than 260,000 live in Anchorage, the state's largest city. About 13% of residents are American Indian and Alaska Native, and almost half of Alaskans live in rural areas. Many live in villages so remote they are not connected to roads and receive mail through a post office box.

Mailing the Census forms to these far-off places won't work because the Census must count people where they live, not where they pick up their mail. If the questionnaires can't be delivered to a street address, Census takers bring the forms in person.

In Noorvik, the Census is a cause for celebration, and the count was ushered in with traditional dancing by local residents.

With Congress seemingly stuck on the question of how best to advance health care reform, state lawmakers are done waiting to take up their own initiatives. One major overhaul is under consideration in California.

The bill, introduced by State Sen. Mark Leno, would -- among other things -- create a single payer system:

Christine Kehoe, a San Diego Democrat and the chairwoman of the State Senate appropriations committee, which revived Mr. Leno’s bill, said the costs to the state would be $1 million in the next fiscal year because the bill would only initially create a commission to find ways to pay for expanded health care.

And while Ms. Kehoe said a single-payer system could cost “tens of billions a year,” she added that the state was already paying significant amounts for other publicly financed health care programs. She said Mr. Leno’s bill — which would also expand eligibility for Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program — would eventually result in the state saving money.

“The cost of health care insurance in California is a major hindrance to our economy,” said Ms. Kehoe, citing large numbers of uninsured and people paying high rates. “If we could begin to trim some of those costs, there would be billions of dollars going into the economy for more productive use.”

California Democrats have twice before passed bills to create a single-payer system in the state, only to see them vetoed by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But the importance of a single-payer win in California cannot be overstated.

Independently, California would have the 9th-largest economy in the world, and it contributes 13 percent of the United States’ gross domestic product. Adding California to the ranks of the single-payer health care systems would add enormous momentum to the national health reform push, and it would make other, more moderate reforms (like a robust public option) politically viable across the country.

So for anyone still doubting the power of state legislative politics, watch what happens if California passes this bill.

Late last week, Tennessee lawmakers passed a major bill aimed at improving graduation rates in the state's public colleges and universities:

One central provision calls for state funding of colleges and universities to be based on the number of students who graduate, not just the number enrolled. Most legislators hailed the "outcome-based" funding plan as a means of focusing attention on getting students to complete their degrees.

The bill also mandates that course credits be readily transferred between state colleges and universities, assures that graduates of two-year community colleges will be accepted at four-year institutions, and eliminates remedial education classes at four-year schools.

Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle, who sponsored the bill in the upper chamber, told reporters that the legislation would "take higher education to a higher level."

The bill passed the Senate unanimously, while the House approved the measure by a vote of 93-2. Both no votes came from Republicans.