Dave Upthegrove

Dave Upthegrove
Member of the Washington House of Representatives from the 33rd district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 2002
Preceded by	Karen Keiser
Personal details
Born	May 3, 1971 (1971-05-03) (age 40) Burien, Washington
Political party	Democratic
Residence	Des Moines, Washington
Website	upthegrove.com

Dave Upthegrove is an American politician from the state of Washington. He is currently a Democratic member of the Washington House of Representatives, representing the 33rd legislative district. His district encompasses part of Burien, SeaTac as well as Normandy Park, Des Moines and large parts of Kent.^[1]

Biography

Upthegrove was born and raised in South King County. He attended Lakeside High School before earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental conservation from the University of Colorado at Boulder.^[2]

He was first appointed to the legislature in January 2002 and was elected to a two-year term in November 2002. He was re-elected in 2004, 2006 and 2008. His current term ends in January 2011 and he is currently running unopposed for re-election to a fifth full term (ending January 2013).

Upthegrove is chair of the Parks & Ecology Committee and also serves on the Capital Budget and Transportation Committees, as well as the Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government and Audit Review. He is a former chair of the Select Committee on Puget Sound. He has been involved in education policy, sponsoring and passing legislation to improve the teaching of civics and to better meet the needs of recent immigrant students. The Washington Conservation Voters call Upthegrove "a leader on environmental issues and a rising star in the House." Upthegrove has led high-profile environmental initiatives to clean up Puget Sound and to clean up soil at schools and day cares contaminated by a local Asarco copper smelter. Upthegrove received national attention in 2007 for his efforts to prohibit censorship of high school and college newspapers.

He is one of six openly gay legislators in Washington, alongside Representatives Jim Moeller (D–Vancouver), Jamie Pedersen (D–Seattle), Laurie Jinkins (D–Tacoma) and Marko Liias (D–Mukilteo), as well as Senator Ed Murray (D–Seattle).^[3]

Awards

Upthegrove was one of four recipients of the 2009 Fuse "Sizzle" Awards Mother Jones Award. The award honored the lawmakers for their leadership of a coalition of conservation and labor legislators. Mother Jones was a famous turn of the century labor and community organizer; she was denounced on the floor of the US Senate as the "grandmother of all agitators."^[4]

References

1. ^ "Rep. Dave Upthegrove: 33rd District, Washington State House Democrats". http://hdc.leg.wa.gov/members/upthegrove/. Retrieved 2006-02-15. 
2. ^ "Project Vote Smart: Rep. Dave Upthegrove". http://votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=51521. Retrieved 2008-07-28. 
3. ^ "WA state Legislature has 2nd largest gay caucus in U.S.". Associated Press. 2008-01-23. http://news.columbian.com/news/state/APStories/AP01232008news266921.cfm. Retrieved 2008-01-23. ^{[dead link]}
4. ^ Fuse "Mother Jones" Award

External links

• Washington State Legislature - Rep. Dave Upthegrove official WA House website
• Re-elect Dave Upthegrove official campaign website
• Project Vote Smart - Representative Dave Upthegrove (WA) profile
• Follow the Money - Dave Upthegrove
  • 2006 2004 2002 campaign contributions
• Dave Upthegrove's MySpace page

Persondata
Name	Upthegrove, Dave
Alternative names
Short description	American politician
Date of birth	1971-05-03
Place of birth	Burien, Washington
Date of death
Place of death