This week, Roxanne Murphy (NookSack) received the endorsement of the Bellingham Herald in her race for an at-large position on the Bellingham (Washington) Council. In Shoreline, the Native American Caucus of the Washington State Democrats Chair Chris Roberts (Choctaw) is running for reelection. In Toppenish, Vivian Peters Dela Rosa (Yakama) is running for the Toppenish School District Board, Position 3.
In a State with 2817 municipal offices up for election in 2013, the number of native candidates running for office is particularly low. In the Washington legislature, two Democrats, Representative John McCoy and Jeff Morris are Native Americans.
With INDN's List defunct, there is a void in partisan organizations specifically dedicated to basic research on the number of Native American candidates and partisan organizations. Non-partisan organizations like Native Vote are limited in what they can do, and how they can or will help Democratic candidates for office.
So, my questions are these:
1) Who are the Native American Democrats running for office (State legislature, city council, school boards, special purpose districts) in 2013?
2) What States have active Native American caucus organizations (either attached to or independent of their State Party)?
3) What are the steps we can or should take to increase the number of Native candidates running for public office?
I am curious about the state of the nation.