I am providing a brief list of items which I would like you to consider taking action on or getting involved in here. You will read about all these items in the following summary, but by placing a quick list here, you can refer back to this after you finish reading. Sorry, but as we have learned only too well the last three years, democracy is not a spectator sport. It only survives and thrives if we all help out.
- Look at our wealth and tax resolution, think of ways to improve.
- Think about whether you want to stand for election as a delegate for your favorite presidential candidate, which would require you to attend the May 3 caucus/convention, and if elected, attend the Congressional Caucus at the end of May. Also think about whether you want to attend May 3 so you can vote for delegates.
- Think about contributing to the Movement Voter Project and/or to LIFT for Chucho.
- Watch Hedrick Smith’s Democracy Rebellion on TV Tuesday or Saturday.
- Contact our state legislators about Ranked Choice Voting.
- Think of a synonym for endorse.
- Think about how you would like to be involved in helping the local party in this year’s elections.
We had a packed agenda for our first meeting of the year on Saturday, January 11. Twenty-five people attended, mostly regulars but also a few new people who added to our conversations. We welcome you to come to our meetings if you haven’t before, as the more points of view shared, the better.
Probably the most interesting part of our meeting was the visit of a challenger for our seat in Congress currently held by Rick Larsen. Jason Call has been involved in the Democratic Party and in progressive activism for a long time, and he gives us a real alternative to examine. Jason supports Medicare-for-All, a Green New Deal, and all the other policies espoused by Bernie Sanders. While we have seven Democratic members of the House of Representatives, we really only have one progressive, that being Pramila Jayapal from Seattle. If you are looking for a progressive alternative to our current Congressman, you might want to go to Jason Call’s website, www.callforcongress.com, to check him out. Unlike our current representative, he is not accepting any PAC or corporate money, instead he is hoping for lots of individuals to donate $5 or $10 per month. By the way, I have also been in touch with Congressman Larsen, and he has been invited to attend one of our upcoming meetings, which he is interested in doing.
You have probably already heard, but just in case, Alex Ramel has been appointed as our new state representative in Olympia to work alongside Debra Lekanoff in the House and Liz Lovelett in the Senate. It is pretty unusual to have all three offices filled by new people within the period of a year, but we are fortunate that all three are very competent, progressive representatives. They are starting their short session on Monday, January 13.
We are still working on the language for our platform plank dealing with wealth and taxes. I provide it here for your perusal: As we see once again, and as we did before the Great Depression, when wealth and income inequality increase, our democracy will begin to fail. Therefore, in order to ensure that our democracy functions properly, we must manage the level of wealth and income inequality that exists in our country. We call for a more progressive federal tax system, which would include taxing capital gains at the same rate as income. We call for income taxes at the highest brackets to be increased significantly. We call for the elimination of loopholes in the tax code which allow persons and entities to escape taxation entirely. We call for further amendments to be made to the tax code to ensure that all persons and entities pay their fair share. We call for the creation of a wealth tax which will address the historically obscene maldistribution of wealth in this country. Finally, we call for the creation of a financial transaction tax. I presented this to our group, but it was felt that it needed a little more work, particularly tightening it up by making it a little shorter. If you have comments or would like to draft your own version to submit to us, I would welcome it.
We have finally received word on the format of our presidential process here in our county. We will be holding a caucus/convention on Saturday, May 3, at the Grange in Friday Harbor. We will have already voted in our presidential primary by March 10, and those results will determine the number of delegates and alternates to which we are entitled. Therefore, you only need to attend the May 3 event if you want to be a delegate or alternate, or if you want to vote for delegate and alternate. We will probably only be entitled to about 6 delegates and 3 alternates, and these numbers will be split up among the candidates according to their performance in the March 10 primary. Those who are elected on May 3 will attend the Congressional District Caucus in late May at a location still to be determined (but for sure on the mainland).
Attorney Bill Appel talked to us about I-976, the state measure passed in November that would greatly reduce spending on transportation projects. The measure has been put on hold for now by a Washington court, and it will have to be dealt with by the courts; it will be a complicated process. San Juan County will be presenting an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in favor of the transportation projects and against the initiative, as our county had one of the largest percentages in the state voting against the ballot measure.
The money in our treasury is generally spent on campaigns and helping our officers attend meetings around the state. However, we had two very worthy requests tendered to us that totally align with our values, so we felt it important to make small contributions to these efforts. One is a trip to Olympia while the Legislature is in session for students in middle school at the public school, the Christian school, and Salmonberry. The other is to support local husband and father Chucho, who was detained by immigration authorities last year while on his way to work, and the organization LIFT (Local Immigration Family Treasury), which is supporting Chucho in his battle to stay here with his family. If you would also like to help Chucho, there is a fund for him at Islanders Bank to which you can contribute. His legal fees will total about $35,000, and so far $13,000 has been raised. I will include a letter about this situation at the end of this summary.
If you didn’t already watch Hedrick Smith’s new documentary, Democracy Rebellion, it is a must-see. Hedrick Smith is a part-time resident in our county, and he has been providing reports from around the world for close to 60 years. This program documents the efforts of grassroots groups and people around the country to take democratic reform into their own hands, including a segment about those of us involved right here in Washington in the battle for I-735 to overturn Citizen’s United. You can read about the program at https://orcasissues.com/hedrick-smith-launches-democracy-rebellion-film/, and you can still watch it on KCTS channel 9 (PBS) on Tuesday, January 14, at 2:00 or Saturday, Jan. 18, at 11:00. In this really difficult political time, it is important to find reason for hope, and this program will inspire you.
I had sent out a few notices about the Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) presentations taking place on the three major islands. Geri and I attended the presentation today on Orcas Island, and it was fantastic. RCV will improve our democracy in so many ways. By getting to rank the candidates in order of your preference, your vote is never thrown away; if your first choice is eliminated, then your second choice is used, and so on until there are two candidates left, and the one with more than 50% wins. This eliminates winning with less than a majority, it encourages voting because one of your votes will be part of the final runoff, it eliminates negative campaigning because candidates who may not be your first choice will still want to be your second or third choice so they have to be nice, it encourages more people (particularly women and minorities) to run for office, and it results in less polarization. RCV has already been enacted in some states, and we have a chance to bring it to our state. Currently in the Legislature, we have HB 1722 and SB 5798 that would allow local jurisdictions to use RCV. It wouldn’t be required, but it would simply be allowed if the citizens of a locality want to try it. Rep. Lekanoff is one of the co-sponsors, and brand new Rep. Ramel will receive a visit from the sponsoring organization FairVote to bring him on board. You can contact them to voice your support, and we especially would encourage you to contact Sen. Lovelett, as she has not voiced an opinion yet. Here is their contact info: Debra.Lekanoff@leg.wa.gov ; Alex.Ramel@leg.wa.gov ; Liz.Lovelett@leg.wa.gov. And if you are on Lopez, be sure to attend the presentation Monday night at the golf club. For more information, go to fairvotewa.org.
I have just been made aware of an excellent organization that could help win the presidency for the Democratic nominee. The Movement Voter Project (check them out at movement.vote) was established to fund local, grassroots organizations in five of the swing states most crucial to winning the Electoral Vote and the presidency: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Florida. Trump won these states last time by a total of approximately 77,000 votes, so these states are very winnable with the right campaigning. By targeting local, grassroots organizations who will campaign for the Democratic presidential nominee in these five states and increase voter turnout, especially in areas of minority voters, MVP uses a smart, strategic strategy to insure victory. If you are wanting to contribute to an organization that could really bring about a Democratic victory for president, this would be a good one to support. In addition, there will be a house party most likely on Feb. 29 on Orcas Island at George Orser’s farm to raise money for MVP. I will send out more information as I have it.
We had a discussion of our endorsement policy, about which there were two items to consider. We generally endorse after the primary and before the general election, but we decided to make this flexible, as there may be times that it is important to endorse before the primary. The other issue was more difficult to resolve. Our current policy is that an “endorsement” can only be for one candidate. If we equally support two candidates, as was the case last August with Liz Lovelett and Carrie Blackwood, we can “approve” both but not “endorse” both. Approval only indicates that both candidates are acceptable to us, and we actually felt much more strongly in favor of both Liz and Carrie than “acceptance” indicates. It was suggested we use the term “co-endorse”, which is used by some other county parties, but some of our members thought it might be confusing to voters to “endorse” two candidates. So we need a word that will help us in this situation. I like “recommend” or “support”, but if you can think of a good word to consider, please send it my way. Thanks.
The last part of our meeting dealt with planning for our election efforts this year. We are going to need a lot of you to help. We do have some of our regulars who have agreed to be involved in some of the following, but I would ask you to think about how you might like to help in what will probably be the most important election of our lives. Here is the plan that was sent out a couple of months ago:
1. Develop and continuously update a list of: a) local, Washington state, and federal offices on the 2020 primary and general election ballots; b) names of individuals and their party affiliations who have officially filed as candidates for the offices listed in a); and c) referendums and other ballot measures on the 2020 special, primary, and general election ballots. These updated lists will be distributed to SJCDs members at our regular meetings and on our website;
2. Coordinate the Committee’s activities with those of the Washington State Democrats, other Democratic state, county, and legislative district organizations, and the campaigns of any candidates and ballot measure organizations that the SJCDs have endorsed;
3. Register new San Juan County voters, including 17-year olds who will be 18 by Election Day on November 3, 2020. (Assist with voter registration elsewhere?);
4. Recruit candidates for San Juan County partisan and non-partisan positions who support SJCD values and platform, including county council and official citizen committees;
5. Inform membership and other county Democrats of the specifics of the 2020 presidential primary process. Assist the SJCDs chair in implementation of this process;
6. Develop and implement program to assist PCOs in informing voters in their precincts about issues and candidates:
7. Promote our local and national parties, our values, our platforms, and our candidates, including by participating in July 4 parade on San Juan Island, a Democratic HQ storefront in Friday Harbor, and County Fair in Friday Harbor;
8. Develop action plan for volunteers seeking to support Democratic candidates in San Juan County, other areas of Washington State, and in other states;
9. Manage SJCD’s candidate and ballot measure endorsement process in conformity with our bylaws;
10. Publicize our endorsements, including by countywide mailing, newspaper ads, and on social media channels; and
11. Coordinate and implement phone banking program.
Again, please consider plugging yourself into one of these, and contact me.
Here is the letter about Chucho:
Would you and your friends be interested in supporting immigrants facing deportation in San Juan County, in particular, one on Orcas Island named Jesus Coro?
In August 2017, the Orcas Women’s Coalition and other individuals were active in getting an ordinance passed by the San Juan County commissioners to end cooperation with ICE, with some exceptions. Eleanor Hoague, a retired attorney who lives on Orcas, was instrumental in drafting the ordinance. Eleanor says that since the San Juan ordinance* was adopted, “Washington state has passed the Keep Washington Working law, which does much of the same thing that our ordinance does, but is weaker in some areas, and stronger in others.”
Since the ordinance went into effect, there has been one highly publicized case** on Orcas Island that pro-immigrant organizers and members of our community have been supporting.
Jesus Coro, “Chucho” to his friends, “was picked up by a Customs and Border Protection agent on his way to work on Trump (!!) Island in January 2019 and then jailed for two weeks at the Tacoma Detention Center. He has been bonded out and his case will be heard in Immigration Court. There is a dedicated fund at Islanders Bank in Eastsound called “Stand Up for Chucho”. His court costs are expected to be about $35,000 and $13,000 has been raised so far. Chucho’s fund is a part of the LIFT (Local Immigration Family Treasury) campaign.
Eleanor is the chairperson of LIFT, which was organized as a “…non-profit to help and educate immigrants and their families with their immigration questions. LIFT provides immigrants who live in the San Juan islands and who wish to discuss their immigration situation, a one-hour free interview with an immigration attorney [there have been about 10 such interviews since the ordinance became law.] LIFT lent the money for Chucho’s $12K bond.”
Eleanor and Judy Scott, another attorney who lives on Orcas, formerly General Counsel to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), have been spearheading the efforts to provide support for immigrants on Orcas through LIFT. (Judy’s daughter, by the way, is Sarah Stillman, a journalist active in immigration issues, who is a 2016 MacArthur Fellow and a staff writer for The New Yorker.)
Eleanor can be contacted at echoague@gmail.com, 206-850-0547 or 360-376-7101 and Judy’s contact info is: judithscott863@gmail.com.
Electronic donations can be made to the Stand Up for Chucho account at https://www.gofundme.com/f/n7y2x-stand-up-for-chucho
.
Checks are payable to: “Island Stewards” (LIFT’s fiscal sponsor) and should be designated in the check’s memo line for: LIFT re Chucho, Island Stewards, 3222 Pt. Lawrence Rd. Olga, WA 98279.
If people wish to donate to LIFT to boost the general fund for immigrants, they need to send a check to Island Stewards indicating that it is for LIFT. It is very important to indicate the desired purpose as Island Stewards has a number of different non-profit aims that it funds.
Here is the link for the ordinance passed in August 2017
*https://www.codepublishing.com/WA/SanJuanCounty/html/SanJuanCounty09/SanJuanCounty0924.html
Here are the links to the Islands’ Sounder article and to the Orcas Issues article explaining Chucho’s situation.
**http://www.islandssounder.com/news/orcas-resident-jesus-coro-detained-by-ice/
https://orcasissues.com/letter-to-editor-immigration-nabs-local-resident/
Thanks for reading,
David Turnoy
Chair, San Juan County Democrats
360-376-4165
davidgeri@centurylink.net