Category: Monthly Meetings

Due to ongoing social distancing requirements due to the coronavirus pandemic, the April 7 monthly dinner meeting has been CANCELLED. The Board is working on the possibility of rescheduling the candidate forum at a future date once large gatherings are again permitted. The Treasurer will be in touch with those of you who already registered and prepaid for the April meeting to determine if you would like a refund or to carry your prepayment over to the next dinner meeting. Everyone stay safe and healthy!

Due to ongoing social distancing requirements due to the coronavirus pandemic, the April 7 monthly dinner meeting has been CANCELLED. The Board is working on the possibility of rescheduling the candidate forum at a future date once large gatherings are again permitted. The Treasurer will be in touch with those of you who already registered and prepaid for the April meeting to determine if you would like a refund or to carry your prepayment over to the next dinner meeting. Everyone stay safe and healthy!

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Don’t miss Eastside Republican Club on April 7! We’re hosting a Candidate Forum for the top five Republican candidates for Governor of Washington! Our own Marty McClendon will moderate. This will be one of our biggest events of the year and we’re expecting a sellout crowd! RSVP today! Pre-pay to save $2 and reserve your spot. As always, we will have a great dinner and plenty of time to hang out with new and old Republican friends! Dinner starts at 6PM and the program begins no later than 6:30. Let’s turn Washington red! See you on April 7, 6PM at the Sheraton Hotel in Bellevue.

About the Candidates (in alphabetical order)

Loren Culp is Police Chief in Republic, Washington. As a U.S. Army Soldier, Loren honed his leadership skills in the Drill Sergeant School which he then used to help turn civilians into soldiers. He was the Honor Graduate for his class of Combat Engineers and an Honor Graduate of the Non Commissioned Officers Academy for Leadership. He was a Sergeant in the world famous 101st Airborne Division and the 2nd Infantry Division serving under President Ronald Reagan. After his military service, he was a small business owner for more than 20 years. In November of 2018, Loren was the first Police Executive to take a stand against the gun restriction initiative I-1639 which he believes is unconstitutional.

Tim Eyman is best known for sponsoring many conservative ballot initiatives in Washington, including I-695 (“$30 Car Tabs”), I-747 (1% limit on property tax levy increases), I-18 (reducing the King County Council from 13 members to 9), I-900 (government performance audits), I-960 (2/3rd legislative vote to raise taxes), and many others. In 2019, his initiative 976 to restore $30 car tabs and repeal the onerous Sound Transit tax was approved with 53% of the vote statewide, but is being challenged in court by Democrat politicians who resist the will of the people. He has stood strong in the face of legal persecution by the Washington State Attorney General, who is demanding he be permanently banned from political activity in Washington. He’s a frequent speaker at ERC, most recently on the topic of “Fearless Activism”.

Phil Fortunato is State Senator for the 31st Legislative District, and serves on the Senate Transportation Committee, Housing Committee, and Environmental Committee. He previously served as State Representative in the 31st and 47th Districts. Starting with a lawn-cutting business at age 18, Phil built a successful commercial landscaping and hydroseeding business. He currently owns and operates Eco-3, an erosion and stormwater management company. With over 30 years of experience, Phil provides environmental training and helps builders navigate environmental regulation. He was president and founding director of the Pacific Northwest chapter of the International Erosion Control Association. He and his wife Suzanne had been married 42 years, and have five children and four grandchildren.

Joshua Freed, a lifelong Washingtonian, was elected to the Bothell City Council in 2005 and later served as mayor. He oversaw revitalization of downtown, protected open space, and cleaned up long-ignored environmental issues, while giving tax relief to those who needed it. When King County announced plans to further imperil those with drug addiction by building heroin injection sites, Joshua persuaded local officials in nearly 20 cities and counties to ban injection sites in their communities and focus public resources on helping people break the cycle of addiction. He founded his real estate company with the vision of developing strong communities for families, and grew the business during the Great Recession into one of the premier locally-owned homebuilders in the Puget Sound region.

Anton Sakharov is a community activist and businessman who knows what it’s like to live under anti-capitalist regimes, something he fears could happen in this country and in the state as we tilt closer and closer towards socialism. He’s an immigrant who has lived through Soviet socialism and witnessed religious oppression and antisemitism; he knows from personal experience that our current path is a dangerous one. He pledges to use his more than 13 years experience in high-tech and in-depth management experience, to turn Washington away from its current socialist direction.

Eastside Republican Club’s monthly meetings are held at Sheraton Bellevue Hotel; click here for location information and directions. Monthly meetings cost $25 per person [$23 per person if paid in advance, online]. Please RSVP online at https://www.eastsiderepublicanclub.org/rsvp/ so we have an accurate count for dinner.

Conservative, Republican must attend event! The ERC March 3 meeting! Leo Novsky, Executive Director of Defy Ventures Washington and our vision for the 2020 election! Great food, friends and fun!

“I never thought that I would find what it means to be free by going to prison, but that is exactly what happened. This year, after 5 years of volunteering in prison, I took a leap and started Defy Ventures Washington — an independent chapter of a national non-profit that teaches entrepreneurship, employment, and empowerment in prisons and beyond. Looking for the best program in the business, I found Defy Ventures and now have licensed their curriculum in order to bring it to Washington State.” — Leo Novsky

Eastside Republican Club’s monthly meetings are held at Sheraton Bellevue Hotel; click here for location information and directions. Monthly meetings cost $25 per person [$23 per person if paid in advance, online]. Please RSVP online at https://www.eastsiderepublicanclub.org/rsvp/ so we have an accurate count for dinner.

Join your friends for our State of the Union Viewing Party on Tuesday, February 4th! Doors open at 5:30 (a half hour earlier than usual) and the State of the Union speech is scheduled to start at 6:00. Come early for the best seating! Wear your MAGA gear and be ready for a delicious dinner and tons of excitement at our new location, the Sheraton Bellevue! We’ll have a lively discussion afterwards and hear some news about the upcoming Washington State Presidential Precinct Caucuses from KCGOP Chair Cynthia Cole. This is a don’t miss event!

Eastside Republican Club’s monthly meetings are held at Sheraton Bellevue Hotel; click here for location information and directions. Monthly meetings cost $25 per person and includes a full dinner. RSVP and pay online by January 29 for a $2 discount. 

Please join us at 6PM on October 1 at the Red Lion Bellevue to Discover the Discovery Institute!

Our guest speaker Steve Buri joined Discovery Institute in 2000 as Executive Director and was appointed president in 2011. He was worked in various capacities in local, state and federal government including as a senior staff member to U.S. Senator Slade Gorton. In 2009 he founded the Roanoke Conference, a statewide political conference designed to connect activists and elected officials with students and young professionals.

Founded in 1991 by Bruce Chapman and George Gilder, Discovery Institute is headquartered in Seattle but has scholars and fellows all over the country and internationally. Steve Buri explains: “Discovery Institute is more than a think tank. While we still maintain an interest in public policy, we are increasingly a cultural institution — one that examines and challenges the worldview assumptions and cultural influences that drive public policy.”

In addition to hearing from Mr. Buri, ERC has invited Republicans running for local offices in the November general election to come to the meeting and tell us about their campaigns.

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.

Some say that education will be the issue for the 2020 campaign. It should be! While we created a strong and prosperous economy, built communities and raised families, utopians have been hard at work as well. In their long march through our institutions, they have taken over media, the courts, universities, entertainment, corporations, charities and even the churches. In our schools, our children are being steeped in socialism, oppression studies, climate alarmism, moral relativism and multiculturalism. They are being dumbed down, sexualized, surveilled and marketed. What is happening in our schools is nothing short of child abuse and treason.

Whether you have children or grandchildren in the system doesn’t matter. This affects all of us! Government schools are how we get people like AOC elected. It is how they can propose policies like the Green New Deal and produce voters who never question how much it will cost us when everything they offer is “free!”

Please join us at 6PM on September 3 at the Red Lion Bellevue to learn about how you can fight back and save our children and in so doing, restore this nation. We can make a difference!

We will be viewing a dramatization of James Clavell’s short story The Children’s Story. Chilling! Following that, ERC board member Marty McClendon will lead an outstanding panel of experts including the following education experts:

J.R. Wilson has more than 30 years of experience working in public education. In addition to being an elementary school principal, he has taught every grade kindergarten through sixth grade and middle and high school math. He earned an M.Ed. and an Ed.S. at the University of Georgia. He has worked as a curriculum specialist, as a staff development coordinator and has helped write science and math standards. He served on the Washington state Where’s the Math? Executive Committee. Mr. Wilson participated in the U.S. Coalition for World Class Math review of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. He is one of the co-founders of Truth in American Education and currently blogs at The Underground Parent.

Jorge Ramos will lead us through how to opt out of some of the most egregious programs. He joined Pacific Justice Institute as the full-time staff attorney to open their Seattle office in 2018. He received his law degree from Seattle University School of Law in 2010 and was admitted to the Washington State Bar in 2011. His seven years of expertise in various jurisdictions, practicing many areas of law, complements PJI’s desire to take on the many religious liberties issues emerging in Washington State.  

Karen Larson will take us though how we can support homeschooling as an alternative to government schools. She understands homeschool laws and can explain how to transition children from government schools to homeschooling.

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.

Thanks to the more than 100 people who joined us at the ERC Picnic on July 9! We had a great time and hope you did, too.

There’s no ERC meeting in August. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, September 3, when the topic will be Education. Speakers to be announced!

Please join ERC at the Red Lion Bellevue at 6PM on June 4 when our topic will be Environmentalism and Socialism: Harmful to the Environment, Economy and Liberty. We’ll be pleased to welcome as speakers Todd Myers and Luis Beresi. 

Todd Myers is the Director of the Center for the Environment at Washington Policy Center. He is one of the nation’s leading experts on free-market environmental policy. Todd is the author of multiple studies, articles and books including: Eco-Fads: How the Rise of Trendy Environmentalism Is Harming the Environment.  He was a Wall Street Journal Expert Panelist for energy and the environment. Todd’s in-depth research on the failure of the state’s 2005 “green” building mandate continues to receive national attention. He formerly served on the executive team at the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, and was Director of Public Relations for the Seattle SuperSonics and Director of Public Affairs for the Seattle Mariners. Todd holds a Master’s degree from the University of Washington.

Luis Berbesi, the Chair of the 32nd LD, has over 20 years of engineering experience in technology and cyber security which have taught him persistence, business acumen, and the notion that he can overcome any challenge. Luis is a frequent advocate at both the Washington State legislature in Olympia and King County, speaking against proposed legislation that fails to serve the best interests of Shoreline residents. He focuses on issues over party lines, and advocates for budgetary actions that prioritize primary services over tax increases. Luis originally hails from Venezuela where he witnessed the quick decline of a country that chose the path of socialism, and advocates against it in his new home country. He sees this as only achievable through the preservation of the inherent human rights enshrined in the Constitution of the United States.

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.

Please join ERC at the Red Lion Bellevue at 6PM on May 7 when our speaker will be former State Senator Mark Miloscia speaking on Protecting Human Life. In addition to hearing from Mark, we will also hear the moving story of a woman who survived an abortion. Please invite your friends from church and prayer groups in addition to your fellow Republicans! 

Mark Miloscia serves as executive director of Family Policy Institute of Washington, a state-wide Christian policy and advocacy organization focusing on uniting Christians on Life, Family, Marriage, Parental Rights, Religious Freedom, and Christian Social Justice.

Mark served in the Washington State Senate as a Republican from 2014-2018 after serving as a State Representative for seven terms as a Democrat from 1999-2013. He is known as both a pro-life leader and in the efforts to combat homelessness and drug addiction. He served on the National Board of Examiners for the U.S. Department of Commerce Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, where he has assessed the performance of many organizations. He has worked as a lobbyist for the Washington State Catholic Conference, as a substitute school teacher in the Federal Way School District and Catholic Archdiocese, as a Director for Goodwill Industries, and as the Executive Director of Federal Way Youth and Family Services. Mark also previously served as an elected commissioner for the Lakehaven Utility District.

Mark served as an Air Force officer and a B-52 pilot and contract manager for 10 years. He has a BS in Engineering from the Air Force Academy, an MA in Clinical Psychology from Chapman University, and an MBA from the University of North Dakota. Mark and his wife Meschell have been married for 38 years and have three children and eight grandchildren.

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.