Public-sector unions use compulsory dues to elect Democrat candidates, support liberal causes, and bargain for salaries, pensions and accommodations not available to most of the taxpayers who are forced to pay for them.

The Supreme Court is about to rule on the Janus v. AFSCME case; see the article here for details. A positive verdict in the case will restore the First Amendment freedoms of those currently forced to join public-sector unions, and could potentially reduce the amount of money that flows to liberal candidates and causes. At our meeting, Caleb Jon Vandenbos of Freedom Foundation will discuss the upcoming decision and implications of the Janus case.

Also at our June meeting, Caleb Heimlich, recently-elected Chair of the Washington State Republican Party, will discuss the very important 2018 election.

Note: We will have our book exchange at the meeting (cash or check only for purchases). Thanks to all who have donated! Proceeds will purchase school supplies for children from disadvantaged communities. This will also be the final meeting to bring unused toiletry and hygiene items for donation to YouthCare which supports homeless teens.

Eastside Republican Club’s monthly meetings are held at Red Lion Hotel Bellevue; click here for location information and directions. Monthly meetings cost $20 per person and include a light buffet. Food and networking are at 6:00PM, and the program begins at 6:30PM. Please RSVP online if you plan to attend the upcoming meeting.

The May 1, 2018 monthly meeting of Eastside Republican Club will continue our focus from last month on fundamental civil and human rights with a discussion on Property Rights and Gun Rights, including how they are threatened in our current political climate.

Our speaker on property rights will be Glen Morgan, who is Executive Director of Citizens Alliance for Property Rights. He served as the Grassroots Director and the Property Rights Director at Freedom Foundation from 2011 until January 2015. He blogs at We The Governed, and enjoys creating videos documenting Big Government’s abuses of citizens – particularly on property rights issues. He is a frequent writer and speaker on property rights, the environmental movement, Big Government, and the importance of citizen activism. He enjoys exploring policy issues in local government and exposing government corruption and incompetence which impacts all of us.

Our speaker on the Right to Keep and Bear Arms will be Boyd Kneeland, immediate past president of Washington Arms Collectors, sponsor of the largest gun shows in the state. He is Projects Director at Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and previously served as Communications Director at Second Amendment Foundation. He is assistant treasurer for Gun Owners Action League, an NRA Training Counselor and certified firearms instructor of more than 20 years, and served as a Director and Chief Instructor at Snoqualmie Valley Rifle Club. He works in the tech industry, and has lived in Bellevue since 1976.

Eastside Republican Club’s monthly meetings are held at Red Lion Hotel Bellevue; click here for location information and directions. Monthly meetings cost $20 per person and include a light buffet. Food and networking are at 6:00PM, and the program begins at 6:30PM. Please RSVP online if you plan to attend the upcoming meeting. If you are able, please bring unused toiletry items and dental samples for homeless youth at risk for trafficking, as well as books you would like to donate to the upcoming book exchange.

The April 3, 2018 monthly dinner meeting of Eastside Republican Club will feature a panel discussion on all five Freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and to petition the government. Speakers will include Tim Eyman of Voters Want More Choices, Matthew Carlson, Marty McClendon of the “Eyes on Washington” program on 1590AM,

Joseph Backholm of Family Policy Institute of Washington, College Republicans, and more. It will be a great opportunity to learn about and discuss these fundamental principles, while enjoying the company of like-minded Republicans.

Eastside Republican Club’s monthly dinner meetings are held at Red Lion Hotel Bellevue; click here for location information and directions. 

Dinner is served at 6:00PM, and the program begins at 6:30PM. Please RSVP online if you plan to attend the upcoming meeting. Monthly dinner meetings cost $20 per person. If you are able, please bring unused toiletry items and dental samples for homeless youth at risk for trafficking, as well as books you would like to donate to the book exchange (which will be at the May meeting).

On March 6, the Club welcomes back Bill Cooper. Mr. Cooper is a retired Chief of Police, who served in senior management in Corporate Security at Microsoft and T-Mobile before becoming a professor at Northwest University.  Bill holds an MBA and second Master’s Degree in Public Administration. He founded Cooper Management Institute, is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and has authored 7 books and coauthored 3 others. Bill is a terrorism expert who has presented to local, state, and federal organizations, detailing the realities of terrorism, emphasizing it in the United States.

Bill will speak about the current issues in terrorism, focusing on threats, concerns and attack potential in America and how to respond during active shooter incidents.  Time permitting, Bill, current Chair of the 1st Legislative District Republicans and former Snohomish County Republican Chair, will provide his unique strategies for winning 80% of the races in 2017 in a 60/40 Democrat district.

Eastside Republican Club’s monthly dinner meetings are held at Red Lion Hotel Bellevue; click here for location information and directions. Dinner is served at 6:00PM, and the program begins at 6:30PM. Please RSVP online if you plan to attend the upcoming meeting. Monthly dinner meetings cost $20 per person. If you are able, please bring unused toiletry items and dental samples for homeless youth at risk for trafficking, as well as books you would like to donate to the book exchange (which will be at the May meeting).

Our dinner speaker on February 6 will be former Congresswoman Linda Smith, who represented Washington’s 3rd Congressional District (the southwest corner of the state) from 1995 to 1999.

In 1998, Rep. Smith traveled to Falkland Road in Mumbai, India, one of the worst brothel districts in the world. The hopeless faces of desperate women and children forced into prostitution compelled her to found Shared Hope International (SHI). As a foremost expert on international and domestic trafficking, Linda has spoken out against the trafficking of women and children in numerous Congressional hearings and in national and international forums. She has subsequently founded the Women’s Investment Network (WIN), Homes of Hope and Villages of Hope, and the War Against Trafficking Alliance (WATA), and led many other efforts to combat sex trafficking of children through prostitution, pornography, and sexual performance. We look forward to hearing Linda’s comments on this important work.

Eastside Republican Club’s monthly dinner meetings are held at Red Lion Hotel Bellevue; click here for location information and directions. Dinner is served at 6:00PM, and the program begins at 6:30PM. Please RSVP online if you plan to attend the upcoming meeting. Monthly dinner meetings cost $20 per person.

The November 2017 meeting of Eastside Republican Club is cancelled. Please check back here soon for information on the 2017 Holiday Dinner and Auction, which will be held on Saturday, December 2, 5:30-9PM, at the Sheraton Bellevue Hotel.

Mark Harmsworth (R-44th District, Mill Creek) joined the state House of Representatives in 2014. He is a principled conservative who works with colleagues on both side of the aisle to support policies for economic growth, education, and relief for transportation congestion. He serves on the House committees on Transportation (Assistant Ranking Member), Technology and Economic Development, and Rules. Mark worked for over two decades in the technology industry, including a successful career at Microsoft. He is a former Mill Creek Mayor Pro-Tem having served two terms as a city council member. Currently he enjoys working as one of the directors for the Everett Community College Foundation and for the Boys and Girls Club of Snohomish County. Mark lives in Mill Creek with his wife of over twenty years, Sarah, and their three children. Rep. Harmsworth will report on the 2017 legislative session.

Dr. Gene Kopelson is president of the New England chapter of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, an active Churchillian, and a holocaust educator. As a historian, he has published works on Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet, Ronald Reagan’s 1966 campaign and Mexican American voters, the 1968 Nebraska and Oregon Republican primaries, and Washington State Republican politics in the 1960s. The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial featured his research on Robert F. Kennedy as an inspiration to Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. His research on Reagan and Eisenhower was featured in 2015 at the 125th Commemoration of the Birth of Dwight Eisenhower at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library. He and his wife Mindy educate about the resistance and update teacher-student book and video teaching trunks at the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle.

When not researching and writing history, Dr. Kopelson is a cancer physician. He has published over forty medical articles, contributed chapters in medical textbooks, and lectured in the U.S. and abroad on radiation oncology. He graduated Princeton University with an A.B. Cum Laude in Biochemistry, obtained his M.D. at Columbia University, and completed his internship and residency at Harvard University’s Department of Radiation Oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. For two decades, he was the director of a cancer center affiliated with the Yale University School of Medicine and was a practice accreditor for the American College of Radiation Oncology.

Dr. Kopelson will address the club on his book Reagan’s 1968 Dress Rehearsal: Ike, RFK, and Reagan’s Emergence as a World Statesman.

Eastside Republican Club monthly dinner meetings are held at Embassy Suites Bellevue. Dinner is served at 6:00PM, and the program begins at 6:30PM. Please RSVP online if you plan to attend the upcoming meeting. Monthly dinner meetings cost $20 per person.