Hello SJC Democrats,

           We had an excellent turnout Saturday for our monthly virtual SJC Democrats meeting.  Several of our people are representing us during the upcoming vote for delegates who will attend the national convention in August and at our virtual state convention on June 13, and we have four candidates running to be some of those national delegates.
            Our treasurer reported that we will be getting a refund from the Fair Board, as the physical fair has been cancelled.  However, the Fair Board is trying to create a virtual fair, and we established a committee to work on coming up with a couple of possibilities.  One idea is to produce a video on what the Democrats are about, why one should be a member and vote Democratic, and actions we are taking.  Another idea is to create a political trivia game.  Finally, if we can get our Facebook page updated, we could provide a link to it.  In that regard, we are looking for someone who would be willing to manage our Facebook page.  If you are interested, or if you know someone who might be interested, please reach out to me.
            The Platform Revision committee continues to meet weekly, and we will now begin meetings twice a week so we can wrap this up.  The committee has been considering every point in detail, adding many new worthwhile planks.  When the committee is done, the voting members will consider the proposal and then vote on it.  Once it has been approved, it will be posted on our website.  By the way, we don’t require dues to be a voting member of the SJC Democrats; instead, we require that you attend at least two meetings in a year.  So if you would like to be part of deliberations on the platform revision proposal, please join us at our meetings.
            The 40^th LD will be having its endorsement meeting on June 7.  All PCOs and anyone else who is a member of the 40^th (it costs $10 per year) is eligible to vote.  More information will be forthcoming.
            Speaking of endorsements, we have formed our endorsement committee for this year’s elections for our county Democrats group.  The committee will begin meeting soon.  Candidates must ask to be considered for an endorsement in order to be endorsed.  Candidate filing week just ended, so we now know who the candidates will be.  Locally there are three candidates running for county council on Orcas, and there are five running for council on San Juan.  For our Congressional seat, Rick Larsen is running for reelection, he is being challenged by progressive Democrat Jason Call, and there are six Republicans running.  For our state legislative seats, Debra Lekanoff is unchallenged, while Rep. Alex Ramel and Sen. Liz Lovelett face one Republican opponent each.  In races where there are only two candidates, their election will be held in November; only if there are three or more candidates is there a primary.
            There are a number of statewide races which we will be looking at, especially if we are requested by candidates to endorse.  Incumbent Governor Inslee has 36 opponents, Attorney General Ferguson has three Republican opponents, Commissioner of Public Lands Hillary Franz is being challenged by Democrat Frank Wallbrown as well as four Republicans and a Libertarian, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal is being challenged by five other candidates.  The Lieutenant Governor’s seat is open, and there are five Democrats and seven other candidates for this seat.  Incumbent Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman is being challenged by Democrat Gael Tarleton, a current member of the legislature, as well as an independent and a progressive.  Democrats have not held this seat for over 50 years, so it is time.  For treasurer, you may remember that last time three Democrats and two Republicans ran, allowing the two R’s to be the highest finishers.  So nice when a lesson is learned, and this time Democrat Mike Pelliciotti is the only Democrat running against the incumbent Davidson.  
             As you can see, there are a lot of contested races with lots of candidates.  In the past, we have generally only endorsed after the primary and before the general election.  However, with so many important races involved in the primary, we have decided that we want to endorse for both elections.  We generally send out an election postcard with all of our recommendations to help guide you in selecting your preferred candidates, especially in situations where you are not familiar with any of the candidates.  It costs a substantial amount of money to send out these postcards, and by endorsing in both elections, we may want to send out postcards twice.  In that event, we may come to you asking for a little financial help to make this happen.
             In helping our Precinct Committee Officers prepare for the election campaign, David Dehlendorf has gotten copies of the Presidential Primary results from the county elections office, and I have distributed these to all our PCOs.  This will help in identifying others who may be willing to help us as well as those we needn’t waste our time with.  Specific candidates voted for are not listed, rather the results show which party was voted for in the primary.
             Are you ready and willing to help in getting out the vote this year?  As you are aware, this could be the most important election of our lifetimes.  We have to get rid of the current president, or it is quite likely our country as we know it will no longer exist.  We know our state will vote for the Democratic presidential candidate, but the other races I have mentioned above require that we get every possible Democratic voter to participate in the elections this year.  The state Democratic Party, through volunteers around the state, is already making calls to identify voters who are likely to vote Democratic so that we know to contact them again later to help make sure they vote.  Our own Alison Longley has already been making calls, and she would love for others to join her on Thursday evenings.
             I had a conversation yesterday with our state party organizer Savanna Steele, and following our conversation, she sent me an email that I think is worth including here:

             The Coordinated Campaign has staffed up and we are running a full complement of all-online voter contact events. We do phone banks Monday – Thursday evenings from 5pm – 8pm, we have a dialer system (it makes the calls for you and connects volunteers to voters after they have already picked up) that we run every Sunday evening from 5pm – 8pm. For a peek at what the Dialer looks like watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAuW-NMpyK4&feature=youtu.be  For those who cannot or prefer not to be part of a group, we have set up individual phone bankers (often PCOs) to make calls from their home any day and time that works best for them.
             At the beginning of every group phone bank event, staff will provide training and remain on for the whole event to offer one-on-one support to volunteers who need more help. We also have training webinars every other Saturday, including some coming up this Saturday, 5/16. Our Organizing Academies cover the Coordinated Campaigns plan to Win in 2020 and the Tools Training covers how to use the technology we are utilizing to do our work. I’ve included registration links for all of this upcoming weekend’s events, please feel free to share them far and wide!

5/17 Virtual Dialer Phonebank: https://secure.ngpvan.com/vQH-LCLFj0KOKb28RVajIw2

Additional Events can be found: https://www.wa-democrats.org/organizingevents/

**The next Organizing Academy and Tools training will be on 5/30.

             We have opportunities across the board in San Juan County and our State to elect great Democrats. Locally, we need to retain our elected State Legislators in the 40th LD! Statewide, we have an opportunity to win back Republican-held statewide seats, like the Secretary of State’s Office (which has been held by a Republican for 55 years), as well as, the State Treasurer Offices! To win these statewide races we have to turn out every Democrat in our blue strongholds. With your help we can accomplish our goal of electing Democrats across the state!
             Direct Voter Contact Questions:
             Who we are contacting & why: Right now we have a whole bunch of voters that we don’t have enough data on to know which party they support. We received a lot of information on Washington voters from the Presidential Primary, but for our newly registered folks that didn’t vote and more, we have the opportunity to identify additional Democrats and put them in our universe of voters to mobilize and turn out when ballots are in voters’ hands. Our Voter ID effort also helps clean up our lists by getting all the wrong numbers, disconnected, and Republicans off them. The Voter ID phase of our work is critical, as it enables us to execute a GOTV effort that is as accurate and efficient as possible. (Which will be needed in the 10thLD!) At the end of the day, all this work allows us to elect Democrats up and down the ballot in November!
             Can I call into my LD: Yes you can call into your LD on any virtual phonebank. However, when calling on the Dialer, the calls will be made statewide. (With that being said the more folks on the dialer leads to more calls going out and therefore more calls going into the 40th LD.)
I look forward to working with you and your fellow PCOs/members to elect Democrats in San Juan County.              There’s a lot to do!
             Savanna

             Savanna Steele, Regional Field Director | Northwest WA     Washington State Democrats
             509 | 366-1076
             Thanks for reading this far.  Our next meeting will be on June 20.  And if you are willing to help with the phone banking described above, please contact Savanna.  If you want to work in conjunction with Alison, please contact me so I can put you in touch.  If you find yourself railing at the daily outrages you see on the news, this is your chance to do something about it.

Thanks,
David Turnoy
Chair, San Juan County Democrats
360-376-4165
davidgeri@rockisland.com 

Candidates seeking the endorsement of the San Juan County Democrats for the upcoming election need to contact David Turnoy by Friday, May 22.

You can reach him at 360.376.5465 or davidgeri@rockisland.com.

Hello SJC Democrats,

Our next virtual county Democrats meeting will take place on Saturday, May 16, at 11:30 AM. This meeting takes place the day after candidate filing week ends. That means that we will know who all the candidates running for local, state, and federal office will be. We will have time to look at the candidates and decide on whether we want to endorse before the primary as opposed to endorsing later for the general election, and we can talk about this race by race.

If you would like to join with us, you can be part of our conversation from the comfort of your home on your device.  Go to https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89381993076?pwd=ZUgxRHJYNkE3bFVqa2dvV3FYMkFzdz09 .  Please contact me if you wish to attend and have not received the password via email.

Thanks,
David Turnoy
Chair, San Juan County Democrats
360-376-4165
davidgeri@rockisland.com

We had the good fortune of having visits to our county Democrats meeting Saturday from both Rep. Ramel and Congressman Larsen. Here is a summary of our meeting.

State Rep. Alex Ramel addressed us at noon. He first talked about Covid19. The curve on Covid19 is flattening lower than where we thought it might be. Luckily our hospitals are not having to prioritize whom to treat but can treat anyone. The economic recovery will be done in stages as we bring different industries back to work.

The legislative session accomplished a lot on housing affordability and homelessness. Tenant protections were passed. The housing trust fund added $55 million for homes that will stay affordable. Preventing homelessness was addressed by putting $20 million toward a fund to pay temporary rent for 2,000 people. Shelter grants were approved. HB 1590 gives local government the taxing authority to raise revenue for local priorities; it can be used to match money from state and federal. All these priorities are focused on urban areas. There will be areas that are part of the Growth Management Areas to preserve land.

On climate, a community solar bill passed to try to make solar energy affordable for anyone. A commercial building retrofits bill passed. None of the bigger items on climate passed, though there was a bill passed encouraging more electric vehicles. Alex says that the virus can be used as an opportunity to start to transition on energy and that state legislators can have some input on this. We can use this sense of urgency to act. The oil and gas industry is on its heels: there had been a price war on oil in international markets, and this industry is hurting the worst it ever has. We can invest our time and energy in a different future, we can change the trajectory. When we have stimulus money to spend, it should be spent on clean energy, energy-efficient housing, not expanding roads which invites more cars, etc.

A question was asked about how to protect farmworkers, Rep. Lekanoff is the point person on this, she will be preparing a letter to the governor suggesting ways to help here. We need more social distancing in their housing and more PPE. We expect 25,000 people working on farms by July.

On ferries, the Elwha is not going to be repaired. We do need a fifth boat for the summer rotation. There was an effort in the state senate to privatize the international ferry run, but Senator Lovelett killed it. Privatizing will still be studied but there will be lots of local input. They are looking at a run from Fidalgo Island to Vancouver Island. Hybrid electric ferries are several years away. They will look at existing ferries to see if one of them can be a backup for the international run.

School levies are of concern in our county. Small communities with high property values are not being treated fairly, which leaves not enough funding for schools. Our three legislators offered bills to remedy this situation, but all were defeated. We need to be able to pay our teachers enough to be able to live here.

There are no challengers yet to our three state legislators in the upcoming election. If Alex does not have an opponent, he will work to help others who need help, and his campaign money will go to electing House Democrats. Susan suggested Alex sending us information on campaigns we can help with. Alex says it takes lots of allies, a coalition, to get things done, so it makes sense to help get other good people elected.

Our PCOs will be voting for delegates to the Congressional District selection process, which will choose delegates to go to the national convention this summer, and these delegates will also attend the state convention (unless it is also done remotely, which looks likely). There is still time to file to be a delegate for either Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders. While it looks like Biden will be the nominee, Sanders delegates can have influence on the party platform, so it is worth your while to be a delegate no matter who you support. And chances are it will all be done remotely unless you opt to attend the national convention in Milwaukee. If you want to run, go to waelectioncenter.com.

Congressman Rick Larsen addressed us on Covid 19 at 1:00. He said that this Monday the IRS will begin distributing the payments to people; it should be nontaxable income. Most people will automatically either receive direct deposit or a check if one of the following applies to you:

Individuals who filed a federal income tax for 2018 or 2019

Individuals who receive Social Security retirement, disability (SSDI), or survivor benefits

Individuals who receive Railroad Retirement benefits

However, if none of these apply, the IRS will not be contacting you; instead, you have to contact them. Go to https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/non-filers-enter-payment-info-here By the way, if someone contacts you claiming to be the IRS, it is not the IRS, it is a scam.

There will be filing on April 18 for unemployment assistance. Unemployment claims are 7 or 8 times higher than during Great Recession. Esd.wa.gov is the website for independent contractors and part-time people to file, those whose employers have paid into state unemployment will be covered through that. The Payment Protection Program is administered through banks for small businesses. Companies with more than 500 employees cannot participate in the Payment Protection Program, it is for small businesses. There is a wide range of loan amounts, the average being $500,000. They are looking at possibly raising the number of employees for companies to be eligible.

The Department of Health at doh.wa.gov has health information.

Can this crisis be used for transitioning to clean energy? When Congress is in session, there will be a transportation/infrastructure package considered that will orient toward cleaner burning fuels, electrification, more efficient sewer and water systems, more efficient airplane transportation, broadband, etc.; all this is in the Moving America and the Environment Forward bill.

Will Congress try to provide leadership to providing supplies for the crisis appropriately instead of as a political favor the way the president has been doing? The governors have been trying to coordinate with each other. There is no way to fix the current system under this president, we need new people in charge who are trying to lead in an organized and helpful manner. In some cases the vendor has decided where to send its supplies. Congress set up a commission to look at this misappropriation. There are many committees doing oversight. Because Congress isn’t meeting for a few more weeks, it is hard to oversee everything going on. Hopefully they can exert the power of the purse to stop the administration from doing the wrong things.

Related to elections this year, $400 million was put in the second package to protect elections and run them in an election emergency including vote-by-mail, which Rick supports nationally. Congress is trying to fix the Voting Rights Act, which had been undercut by the Shelby decision. Congress has a big voting rights bill ready to pass. The Voting Advancement Act would work against voter suppression.

The Congressman was asked about employer-based healthcare coverage, has Rick changed his view on Medicare-for-All? With so many people losing their healthcare coverage along with their jobs, doesn’t it make sense to stop tying healthcare coverage to employment? Rick supports the Affordable Care Act and expanding it to include a public option plus a bill to make prescriptions negotiable for Medicare. He wants a special enrollment period to allow people to buy in. He wants to stabilize prices. He thinks this is the consensus among Congress right now.

Rick was asked about Boeing and all its workers in the Congressional District. Boeing was having some severe issues before the virus, what programs are being supported for them? Money has been included to provide loans to companies generally seen as critical to national security, but Boeing has yet to say if they are going to participate. This is frustrating to the employees’ union and Rick, he has contacted Boeing but received no response.

Rick’s campaign is up and running. He is running for his 11th term.

We need volunteers to be on the Charter Review Commission. There was a good article in Orcas Issues on this: https://orcasissues.com/charter-review-commission-to-be-elected-in-2020/ . The county website on this is https://www.sanjuanco.com/civicalerts.aspx?aid=856 . I will be trying to find out if this will be done remotely. This is a position for which you need to file during the filing week of May 11-15, you are then elected in the fall election.

If you have been waiting for a good opportunity to get involved with the county Democrats and you are somewhat tech-savvy, we really need a person to manage our Facebook page. Please contact me if you would be interested.

The filing period for this year’s election is May 11-15. If you have been thinking about running for Precinct Committee Officer (PCO), this will be the time for you to file with the county elections office, which you can do online. We will have a few open seats, which you can run for, or you can challenge an incumbent. I should know shortly which geographic seats will be open. Feel free to contact me to find out if your precinct will have an open seat or if you want to find out more about being a PCO.

Now that Senator Sanders has suspended his presidential campaign, we briefly discussed when and how to show support for Mr. Biden’s campaign. It was mentioned that nothing is for sure until the convention, and there could be any number of events between now and then that might prevent Mr. Biden from becoming the nominee. Therefore, especially with Bernie Sanders still collecting delegates and hanging on to those he already has, we will be waiting until the convention to do anything in this regard. We are all committed to supporting the Democratic nominee, as the number one goal has to be replacing Trump. So stay tuned.

Related to this, now that there is really no longer a presidential campaign, if you have been donating to presidential candidates, it may be time to move your money to one or more of the Senate races we would like to win. After all, even if we elect a Democratic president, it won’t mean a lot without a Democratic Senate to pass the appropriate legislation instead of holding it up on Mitch McConnell’s desk to die. Therefore, I am going to mention some Senate races where you might want to think about supporting the Democrat:

Maine…incumbent (I) is Susan Collins

Kentucky…I—Mitch McConnell, the Grim Reaper

South Carolina…I—Lindsay Graham (need I say more?)

Texas…I—John Cornin (Texas is turning blue)

Colorado…I—Cory Gardner (Colorado is purple with a gay governor & other senator a Dem)

Georgia…Has 2 seats up for election, one of which is open

That’s it for now. Stay safe and healthy. Let’s get through this crisis and then work to build a better America.

Hello San Juan County Democrats,

Our next monthly meeting will be Saturday, April 11, at 11:45.  As we did last time, this meeting will be done by Zoom conference.  The Zoom link has changed, and a password is now required; Zoom has had to upgrade their security due to meeting-crashers.  Please contact me for the Zoom log in information if you would like to attend and you did not receive an invitation via email.

The highlight will be an appearance by our state representative Alex Ramel, who asked to appear at our meeting.  Alex will speak at noon on the recent legislative session, the coronavirus, and his upcoming campaign, and he will be happy to take questions.  If you haven’t had a chance to meet our newest rep, this would be a good opportunity.  Hopefully we will have our other reps attend future meetings.

Also at this meeting at 1:00 will be Congressman Larsen to talk about Covid 19.  He has been doing a series of remote public appearances to keep everyone informed, and he asked for an opportunity to appear at this meeting as well.

I hope you have a chance to join us.

Thanks for reading, 
David Turnoy
Chair, San Juan County Democrats
360-376-4165
davidgeri@rockisland.com

Hopefully you are staying safe and healthy. Saturday’s meeting of the county Democrats took place on Zoom, everyone (23 people) attending from home on their electronic devices. It actually went pretty well, all things considered. We had Congressman Rick Larsen calling in to our meeting, speaking briefly, especially about the coronavirus, and answering lots of questions. He told us that the US House has now passed a public health package and an economic relief package, both in response to the virus. One of these packages still has to be passed by the Senate and signed by the president. There will also probably be a third package down the road when more is known about what is needed. Items included in the most recent package include small business loans for businesses impacted by the virus, enhanced unemployment compensation, and paid emergency leave.

There was also discussion of some other topics with the Congressman. He was asked about military training in state parks, and his suggestion was to contact the state parks department and also our local state legislators. Rep. Larsen was asked about redirecting some of the bloated military budget to fighting climate change. He says that the Trump administration is putting far too much money into nuclear weapons, which he opposes, and that some of that money could be used for fighting climate change. While Rep. Larsen does not support the Green New Deal, he says his twenty-year record in Congress shows that he has accomplished much in fighting climate change. The Congressman finished with a request for our endorsement, to which I answered that we will begin considering endorsements once the May filing deadline passes.

Regarding our participation in choosing a presidential nominee, here is the process in brief. Our recent primary will decide how many delegates each candidate will receive. It is likely that both Biden and Sanders will get 3 delegates each from San Juan County. Those delegates will be elected at our county caucus on May 3 at the Grange in Friday Harbor. Should you want to run to be a delegate to the Congressional District Convention on May 30 and to the state convention in mid-June, you are encouraged to file by April 20 at https://wademscaucus2020.azurewebsites.net/. Another website to go to for good information is https://www.waelectioncenter.com/. You are welcome to attend the May 3 caucus if you would like to vote for delegates even if you don’t want to run to be a delegate. Three of the folks at our meeting today expressed an interest in running.

However, the previous paragraph may all go out the window if the state Democratic Party, in responding to the coronavirus, completely changes to a virtual format. In that case we would need our bylaws to authorize the use of a teleconference to hold our caucus and for voting. To amend our bylaws, we need to give at least a ten-day notice that an amendment is being considered, so please consider this your notice. I have proposed the following language: When an emergency situation arises, such as a pandemic, such that county health officials deem attendance at a large public gathering, like a county or LD caucus, is not safe, the caucus may take place by teleconference and voting may occur through the teleconference or by email. There were several comments about the wording, some wanting the language simpler and

broader, others not wanting that, so I am putting out a call for you to tweak this language in any way you feel would improve it. We would then vote on the amendment at our meeting in April so that our caucus can take place electronically should that be necessary.

Speaking of bylaws amendments, here is another ten-day notice for a separate bylaws amendment proposed by our treasurer: “The Executive Committee shall develop and monitor the SJCD’s budget. The Treasurer shall prepare and provide for publication and approval the annual budget by a vote of the Precinct Committee Officers and members of the Executive Committee at a meeting during the first three months of the calendar year. The Treasurer shall also provide year-to-date revenues, expenditures and balance, at each quarterly meeting and at any other meeting as requested by the Executive Committee or Central Committee.” Our treasurer would prefer that only our PCOs and Executive Committee be the ones to approve our budget, as those are the people who are most familiar with it. Our previous language did not so specify.

George Orser and Molly Donovan kindly offered their beautiful home on Orcas for a fundraiser to benefit the Movement Voter Project (MVP) on Feb. 29. I have mentioned this organization the last couple of months, but the work they are doing is important enough to mention again to anyone not familiar with their work. MVP funds local, grassroots organizations that register people to vote and then get them out to vote. There is a large emphasis on minority communities, and through the funding provided by MVP, local residents do the work to bring in more voters. This work is largely focused on five swing states (PA, MI, WI, FL, AZ), but they also have a nationwide presence and are helping over 400 groups. If your goal is getting rid of the current abomination in the White House, you won’t find a better way to spend your political dollars. Our fundraiser brought in $8,000, thanks to a matching donor, and if anyone on Lopez or San Juan Island would like to hold a similar fundraiser, please contact me so I can put you in touch with the statewide coordinator, who happens to be close by on Whidbey. If you don’t feel you can put on a fundraiser but simply want to contribute to this very effective organization’s work, go to www.movement.vote.

Last month Beth Larson gave a presentation to our group on the work of Vote Forward, an organization aligned with Swing Left that is promoting a massive letter-writing campaign to get left-leaning but inconsistent voters to vote in the election this November. Research shows that such voters who receive a personalized letter are twice as likely to vote. Beth’s group in Friday Harbor has been working at this for two years, and they have thousands of letters ready to be mailed. We decided that we wanted a group on Orcas, so my wife Geri has spearheaded an effort to get this going. We now have 25 letter-writers, which is all we can personally handle, as we print off 20 letters per writer per week, generating 500 letters per week. If someone on Lopez would like to start up one of these groups, if someone else on Orcas or San Juan would like to start a second group, or if any of you would like to simply print letters for yourself to complete each week, go to https://votefwd.org/ This is a way to actually do something concrete to make positive change as opposing to yelling at your TV. If you decide that you would like to start another group, let me know so I can publicize it here and the organizer can gain writers.

We decided to move our platform revision work back to a small committee. Thanks to those who have volunteered, and we will convene remotely this Wednesday.

One final note is to point you to a site where you can get local information on the coronavirus. The county has a website devoted to this at https://www.sanjuanco.com/1668/2019-Novel-Coronavirus. If you want to get specifics on the number of cases, go to https://www.sanjuanco.com/1682/COVID-19-SJC-Case-Count.

Hello San Juan County Democrats,

    The next meeting of the San Juan County Democrats will be on Saturday, March 14. Due to concerns about COVID-19, we will be holding the meeting virtually. This means you can access the meeting via Zoom videoconferencing software using the link
https://zoom.us/j/811216392?

    Representative Rick Larsen will be attending to speak briefly and then take questions.  In addition, we will continue our planning for our campaign actions this year and continue to work on revising our platform. 

Last month I had mentioned that there would be a fundraiser for the Movement Voter Project on February 29 on Orcas Island.  The event was very well attended, and the presentation was excellent.  You may remember that this is a project to help local, grassroots community members register people to vote and get them out to vote for Democrats in five swing states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arizona.  These five states all went to Trump last time around.  The first three have generally gone to the Democratic presidential candidate but were neglected in 2016, so with a little extra effort they should go to the Democrats again this time.  Arizona had been red but is increasingly purple while its population continues to grow, while Florida seems to be a state that can go either way; because of its large population, third largest and with 29 electoral votes, it is a very important state to win.  MVP’s goal is to raise money around the country to support the efforts in the five named states so that all five states vote for the Democratic presidential candidate.  They are helping fund over 400 of these vetted, local groups nationwide.  For more information, go to https://movement.vote .
      I strongly encourage you to donate to MVP.  Rather than sending people from other states into areas to canvass, this is a way to support local people to do the canvassing without having to travel there yourself.  The locals know their communities, and they can do the job that needs to be done.  Here is a link to FAQ about donations including how to give by check (best for donations over $1000 to avoid transaction fees): https://movement.vote/faq . 

Most of the organizations supported are 501(c)(4)s, meaning they are not tax-deductible, but for those who need tax deductibility, look at the site for opportunities for this. This is one more way to defeat Trump!

Thanks for reading,
David Turnoy
Chair, San Juan County Democrats
360-376-4165

I have a fair amount of information for you in this message.  There are two very important topics, so I am noting them right here with two bullet points.

• Movement Voter Project fundraiser Feb. 29 on Orcas (or donate).
• Vote Forward/Swing Left letter-writing project already going on San Juan Island and soon to be organized on Orcas, also hopefully on Lopez.

       We are a pretty blue state here in Washington, so we often wonder how we can impact results in other states that are not so dependably Democratic.  In the summary of last month’s meeting, I mentioned that there will be an event this month to support the Movement Voter Project (MVP).  You may remember that this is a project to help local, grassroots community members register people to vote and get them out to vote for Democrats in five swing states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arizona.  These five states all went to Trump last time around.  The first three have generally gone to the Democratic presidential candidate but were ignored in 2016, so with a little extra effort they should go to the Democrats again this time.  Arizona had been red but is increasingly purple while its population continues to grow, while Florida seems to be a state that can go either way; because of its large population, third largest and with 29 electoral votes, it is a very important state to win.  MVP’s goal is to raise money around the country to support the efforts in the five named states so that all five states vote for the Democrat.  Here is some information from their site:
       “Movement Voter Project (MVP) raises money to support vetted grassroots organizations (as opposed to specific candidates) in swing states! These are organizations that exist today and will exist after elections, making them a great short-term AND long-term investment. From immigrant rights groups in Arizona to student groups in Michigan to reinstating voting rights in Florida, MVP builds infrastructure in critical states with national implications. (MVP’s own operating expenses are covered thanks to another group of committed donors; every dollar they raise now goes to organizations on the ground.) MVP has a great website https://movement.vote
for you to explore…”
       To that end, a fundraising event is being held on Saturday, Feb. 29, at George Orser and Molly Donovan’s farm on Orcas just past Doe Bay.  This is Orcas Farm at 120 Byrle Hall Rd.  The time is 3:00-5:00.  I am hoping that many of you can make it, and you will want to go to the following site to RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/winning-in-2020-washington-state-tickets-92547793943 .
       For those who are unable to attend the event, you can contribute online or by check.  Here are some links:
       Here is a link to FAQ about donations including how to give by check (best for donations over $1000 to avoid transaction fees): https://movement.vote/faq .  Most of the organizations supported are 501©(4)s, meaning they are not tax-deductible, but for those who need tax deductibility, look at the site for opportunities for this.
       Here is a unique link setup for the Orcas party for donating to MVP (it is in 3 different formats but all the same place):
-Long link: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/big5battleground/?refcode=WAOI022920
-Short link: http://bit.ly/WAOI022920
-QR code: WAOI02_29_20.png
       Those donations will go to the Big 5 Battleground Fund.  If folks want to give to another fund that is fine… there are 13 funds and folks can give to any of them or to an individual group/ groups. You can explore the website for giving in a more specific way if you prefer.

       In the previous section I provided a way for you to support electing the Democratic presidential nominee with your dollars.  But perhaps you would also like to be a little more involved with some personal participation.  If so, here is the perfect opportunity to affect voting in other states through as little as an hour per week.  Vote Forward and Swing Left have teamed up to promote a letter-writing campaign.  Research shows that personal letters sent to voters who don’t always vote can have a significant impact on the number of voters who turn out to vote, definitely increasing turnout.  Vote Forward is targeting letters to voters who tend to vote Democratic, whether they are actual Democrats or Independents who lean toward the Democrats, but are not consistent voters.  This is in certain states where a little more turnout could make a big difference: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas.  Volunteers are writing personal letters to these voters, the letters to be mailed shortly before election day to get them out to vote.  Most of the verbiage is already printed on the letters, but each volunteer writes a short message by hand about why we vote, making it personal.  For instance, those of us with children and/or grandchildren can express our desire for a habitable planet, or we can talk about the need for better and more economical health care.  Nowhere in the letter are the names of any candidates mentioned, this is merely to get the recipients to vote.  However, these are likely Democratic voters, so there is no need to provide candidate names.  Then you address the envelope yourself so it looks like a personal letter, which it is, rather than the mailing of some political group.  You would need to bring your own stamps, but the letters and envelopes will be provided.
       San Juan Island has a group that has been doing this for two years already, meeting weekly, and they have produced thousands of letters that are ready to be mailed.  If you are on San Juan Island and would like to get involved, contact Beth Larson at betha.larson@me.com ; she would love to hear from you.  If you are on Orcas and would like to help us start a similar group here on our island, please contact Geri and me at davidgeri@centurylink.net .  Or if you are on Lopez and would like to start a group over there, contact Beth at the above address.  If you have been waiting for an opportunity to really make a difference without having to travel to other states, this is it!

       At the meeting on Saturday, besides Beth’s presentation about Vote Forward, we had a brief presentation on the Bernie Sanders campaign from Sharon Abreu, and I read a note from the statewide coordinator who wasn’t able to attend.  We then had a presentation from the statewide campaign coordinator for the Warren campaign, Maria Leininger, and one of her assistants, Henry Pollet.  The website for the campaign is elizabethwarren.com.  They had a meet-up after our meeting to talk with volunteers and do some knocking on doors.
       Thanks to the efforts of Bob O’Connell, Ken Crawbuck, and Lynn Baker, we finally have verbiage for our platform plank on the income tax and a wealth tax.  Here is the language we adopted
We call for a more progressive federal tax system, including:
— income taxes at the highest brackets to be increased significantly. 
— elimination of loopholes in the tax code which allow persons and entities to escape taxation largely or entirely.
— amendments to the tax code to ensure that all persons and entities pay their fair share. 
— creation of a wealth tax to redress the historically unprecedented imbalance of wealth distribution in this country.
— creation of a financial transaction tax on every Wall Street and other financial market transaction, and measures to tax capital gains at the same rate as income.
We also started to work our way through the platform in general, which we will continue at our next several meetings.  If you would like to see a copy of the platform along with proposed changes, email me and I will send you a copy.
            There are three committees that work in preparation for the state convention in June: Credentials, Platform, and Rules.  At our meeting Saturday, Sharon volunteered for Credentials, and Stephen Shubert volunteered for Platform.  If there is someone who would like to represent us on the Rules Committee, please let me know.
            You might remember that regarding endorsements, we have agreed to consider each election individually and not tie ourselves down to just endorsing for the general election, that there may be circumstances that merit our endorsements for the primary election also.  The other question was what term to use for endorsing more than one candidate, as many people understand an endorsement to be solely for one candidate.  From the situation last year with the race for state senate, we found that two equally qualified candidates may emerge who both merit our endorsement.  We considered a number of terms to use for endorsing more than one candidate, and the term most of us agreed on was “dual endorse”.  Hopefully this will not confuse anyone.
            Our state committeewoman Sharon spoke on her attendance at a state party meeting in Vancouver, WA, and at several lobby days in Olympia.  She had lots of praise for our three elected state officials, Representatives Debra Lekanoff and Alex Ramel and Senator Liz Lovelett.  They are very approachable and wanting to do their best to represent us.  Her meetings with them were excellent.
            I want to remind you that you will be receiving your presidential primary ballot in a little less than two weeks.  I had sent out a long explanation of how the process will work this year, but if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.  Be sure to vote by March 10.
            We seem to still be having trouble with our Zoom transmission for virtual attendance.  We know of one member who tried to attend that way but couldn’t get any sound.  We will try to remedy that for next time.
            Our next meeting will be March 14.  As of this writing, Congressman Rick Larsen is scheduled to attend.

Thanks for reading,

David Turnoy
Chair, San Juan County Democrats
davidgeri@centurylink.net
360-376-4165

Hello San Juan County Democrats,

Our February meeting will take place this Saturday at 11:45 at Skagit Valley College in Friday Harbor. We will have both statewide campaign managers of the Sanders and Warren campaigns presenting, and we will also have a presentation on Vote Forward. If you would like to see the whole agenda, email me and I will send it to you.

As usual, if you are coming from another island, we will have drivers to pick you up at the ferry and bring you back. Please let me know you are coming so we will be sure to have enough drivers.

We had trouble with Zoom last time, but we hope to have it up and running this time so you can attend virtually. The link is https://zoom.us/j/930896006 .

Hope to see you Saturday.

Thanks for reading,
David Turnoy
Chair, San Juan County Democrats
360-376-4165
davidgeri@centurylink.net

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.

1. Look at our wealth and tax resolution, think of ways to improve.
2. 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.
3. Think about contributing to the Movement Voter Project and/or to LIFT for Chucho.
4. Watch Hedrick Smith’s Democracy Rebellion on TV Tuesday or Saturday.
5. Contact our state legislators about Ranked Choice Voting.
6. Think of a synonym for endorse.
7. 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