When Representative Sharon Nelson (D) announced she was leaving her job as 34th District Position 2 to run for State Senate (seeking Joe McDermott's former job now that he is running for King County Council) it set in motion a number of plans for people who think they can fulfill those duties. Last week Marcee Stone (D) announced her candidacy and previously Mac McElroy (I) had said he was launching a campaign. The latest to join the fray is former South Seattle Community College teacher Sabra Schneider who has announced her intention to seek the 34th District House Seat. A resident of Arbor Heights in West Seattle, Schneider currently manages online communications for King County.

"I have a 15 year career in public service," Schneider said, "It's always been something that's incredibly important to me. I started in education, training, basically, the workforce of the future, and teaching people computing technology and communications and how the digital age has impacted those things...I very much want to have an impact on how the state funds education, how we view technology, how we create equity among the disenfranchised and how we get people back to work."

Schneider sees unemployment as the biggest target, "I hear a lot of stories about people who have been out of work for seven or eight months. A lot of the local unions are talking about 30% to 50% unemployment rates amongst their membership and that impacts our whole community."

Schneider has been part of King County’s efforts to increase efficiency and transparency through the innovative use of technology and community partnerships. She has worked in emergency communications, working with other local governments to ensure citizens have up-to-date information, during critical times. A proponent of transparency and accountability in government, she is currently helping to organize the Open Government Northwest conference taking place March 26 and 27. You can learn more about the conference here.

At the state level she suggests the way to go about bringing more openness to government has a lot do with the data. "It's kind of figuring out what data the state has and owns that can be made available to the public and streamlining ways of doing that...I think we can create incredible efficiencies in information technology, but I really, really believe our residents would learn more about what our government is doing and become more engaged in the government process."

Prior to serving in King County government, Schneider worked for 10 years as a teacher at South Seattle Community College (SSCC) in West Seattle where she developed a two year degree program in computing technologies. The program has helped graduates go on to family-wage jobs in technology careers. While at SSCC, she also worked with the Seattle Jobs Initiative to build and deliver a fast-track technology program for low-income job seekers.

As a 15-year union member, according to her campaign working on behalf of working class families in the 34th District will be a top priority for Sabra in the legislature. Schneider helped bargain the current contract enjoyed by members of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 17. While working at South Seattle Community College, she was a member of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 1789.

Her union experience informs her opinion about how to reach consensus in a legislative setting. "You talk to them, you start from the place where you agree, you figure out how far you can get. I think everybody agrees that we want people working, I think everybody agrees that education is important in the State of Washington....I've been at union bargaining tables before and it's hard, it's very, very hard work to come to consensus when people come from radically different places and radically different interests, but I absolutely think it can be done, "Schneider said.