Dave Upthegrove

Dave Upthegrove is an American politician from 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.

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.

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 and again in 2006 for a term ending in January 2009.

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 initatives 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) and Marko Liias (D-Mukilteo), as well as Senators Ed Murray (D-Seattle) and Joe McDermott (D-West Seattle).