The highlight of our meeting was a visit from Senator Mona Das and former senator Kevin Ranker to tell us about a new political action committee whose goal is to elect more Black women to the Washington state legislature. Their thesis is that Black women have been the most consistently progressive Democrats, and this year with eight of them running for the legislature, we should do everything we can to elect them.

The name of this new organization is Opportunity PAC, and their website is opportunity-pac.com. The idea for this organization was the brainchild of Senator Mona Das, herself an east Indian-American state senator who found it tough going running for office and once being in office. To help others have an easier time, she got the idea of raising money to help elect more women of color and to set up a support structure for these new legislators. Her goal was to raise $12,000-$14,000, but so far Opportunity PAC has raised $350,000 in hard cash, and has about another $350,000 in pledges. However, more money is sorely needed, as the opponents of the eight Black women are getting money from rightwing groups that don’t want to see more integration in the legislature.

If you want to help the organization set up to recruit more female candidates of color and to prepare these candidates to serve, and make a 501©(3) donation at the same time, you can contribute to the Opportunity Leadership Network, also founded by Senator Das. You can find them at https://connect.clickandpledge.com/w/Form/738b442a-c975-4623-93a6-c570b5b7eaa7. They operate under the auspices of the Seattle Foundation. See http://www.seattlefoundation.org/oln.

Here are the seven candidates for the House and the one candidate for the Senate:

Tanisha Harris, 17th Legislative District (House) https://hdcc.org/our-candidates-2/tanisha-harris-profile/

Joy Pratt Stanford, 26th Legislative District (House) https://www.joyforwashington.com/

T’wina Nobles, 28th Legislative District (Senate) https://twinanobles.com/

Rep. Melanie Morgan, 29th Legislative District (Re-Elect for House) https://hdcc.org/our-candidates-2/melanie-morgan-2/

Jamila Taylor, 30th Legislative District (House) https://hdcc.org/our-candidates-2/jamila-taylors-profile/

Kirsten Harris-Talley, 37th Legislative District (House) https://www.electkht.org/

April Berg, 44th Legislative District (House) https://www.aprilberg.com/meet-april

Rep. Debra Entenman, 47th Legislative District (Re-Elect for House) https://hdcc.org/our-candidates-2/debra-entenman/

If you can afford it, it would be great if you could make a donation to Opportunity PAC, which will spread money to all eight candidates. However, you are welcome to donate to individual candidates if that works better for you. For that reason, I have provided websites for their campaigns. If you want to simply focus on the races that could most use support, according to Kevin Ranker, these are the three:

T’wina Nobles http://twinanobles.com against Steve O’ban (R). Steve is the Republican who has fought against LBBTQ rights and equality in the Senate and privately as an attorney. Getting Steve out of the Senate and winning here will do more for advancing equity and justice in Washington State than nearly any other race. And, the Senate Republicans are spending thousands of dollars on negative attacks (https://www.kiro7.com/home/south-sound-political-flyer-decried-racist/NRKVWCJIJBE53HO7PARRCKVN5E/).

Tanisha Harris https://www.electtanisha.com/ against Vicky Kraft (R) – Tanisha is great on every progressive issue from climate, to choice to justice to equality and Vicky is the one who put 100 amendments of the Sex Ed bill trying to kill it.

Joy Stanford http://joyforwashington.com running against Michelle Cauldier (R) – Joy is a powerful champion for education, equality and affordable housing and she will bring a strong voice and diversity to Olympia. She is running in Gig Harbor where our Democratic Senator only won the election by 101 votes! This is a major battle and one that will require significant resources. You can donate individually, or donate to all three through Opportunity PAC at https://secure.anedot.com/opportunity-pac/kr.

Kevin Ranker will be working full time with OpportunityPAC until the election. He is totally committed to the organization and the candidates. If you have any questions about this, he welcomes your calls or emails. You can reach Kevin at kevin@kevinranker.com, or at either 360-376-4031 or 360-472-1850.

There will be a concert to benefit Opportunity Leadership Network on Oct. 14. As soon as I have details, I will get them to you.

Here are some other comments from Kevin Ranker on other important races you may want to consider in your political donations:

Another absolutely critical race is just south of us on Whidbey Island with Helen Price Johnson (https://helenpricejohnson.org/). This is a very close race but one that we can, AND MUST, win. Helen is great. She was wonderful and an Island County Commissioner and will be a powerful Democratic voice for the environment, housing and education in the Senate who will also stand up for ferries!

Two other very important seats in the State House where we can have a real chance of flipping the seat from Republican to Democratic are: Angie Homola – also Whidbey Island and Alicia Rule in Bellingham.

Finally, the top defends in Washington State are:

Dave Paul (Whidbey) House

Dean Takko (Grays Harbor / Pacific County) Senate

Sharon Shewmake (Bellingham) House

All three of these are serious fights to keep those seats blue!

Thank you for all you continue to do for Washington State and San Juan County.

All the best, Kevin

You may remember the policing resolution that we sent to the state party. It turns out that a lot of local party organizations sent similar resolutions. The resolutions committee used all of them to craft a resolution that takes the best from each, and you can find the new resolution at https://drive.google.com/file/d/17MaJ9RXFtfh5BL4RtN-4RNfALSWR3q7M/view

A lot of the language looks similar to what Bob O’Connell had put in ours.

If you are concerned about the Growlers, the next meeting of the Sound Defense Alliance is Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 6:00 PM, link to be provided. I am providing their latest email so you can read it, as it provides some helpful actions:

https://www.quietskies.info

MEETING: Sound Defense Alliance and Quiet Skies

Speakers from Whidbey Island, Olympic Peninsula and San Juan County

There will be time for questions and comments

Meeting details will be emailed the week before

Action

Olympic sound defenders,

This afternoon (it’s Friday, so a fine time to issue a controversial decision), the Navy sent out its final decision on their Northwest Training and Testing plans.

The link is https://nwtteis.com/?utm_source=Northwest+Training+and+Testing+Supplemental+EIS%2FOEIS

NPCA is doing some quick reactions to media outlets and then we’ll take a closer look at all the details. However, for a place to start, look at Appendix J/Airspace Noise Analysis. In short, the Navy does a pretty good job of highlighting the pervasive noise from their Growler jet training over and around

the Olympics. Jet noise is compared to a garbage disposal flying overhead when the natural background sounds are close to a whisper or even quieter at places like the Hoh Rain Forest.

The Navy admits that while they fly out to their training area on the West End on a narrow route, they return from all across the west side, flying over most of the park. And they say their noise can travel 11-16 miles on either side of the aircraft. Their key strategy for obscuring the full impact of the jet noise is averaging the noise over time and space to even out the highs of the intrusions and the lows of background quiet. Even then, it’s a lot louder than nature; but only for a few minutes out of every average day. But Olympic National Park is not an average place, nor do people have average experiences there.

One fun read was to look at their analysis of the dilemma of loud jets descending while returning to their Whidbey base while crossing over a quickly elevating landscape. While it might get loud on top of Mount Olympus, they acknowledge, there aren’t many people up there and it’s only for a few minutes. No problem – on average. Then you might turn to Volume 2/Description of Proposed Action and Alternatives. This is where they make their case that going elsewhere or flying less just doesn’t work for them. But I especially liked the passage (thanks to avid reader Donna Osseward for noting this) on page 2-23 where they toss the hot potato to the FAA for creating a military airspace in an “isolated, rural area”. This despite Olympic being the Northwest’s most visited national park, seeing more than 3 million visitors annually throughout the year.

TO DO: take a look for yourself at the Navy’s document, then drop a letter to your newspaper, social network and elected official asking the Navy to protect America’s people and parks by flying elsewhere.

IT IS NOT GETTING BETTER!

The map below shows where the reports are coming from. For the full report in PDF format click https://f4be68e4-2f42-4ce8-b4c0-6fb1e95c8ac6.filesusr.com/ugd/f9226a_ca0d815d5b384dfc9e176611b7b59ecb.pdf

Report Jet Noise at https://gis.sanjuanco.com/aircraft-noise-reporting. If you need help there are hints at https://www.quietskies.info/access-the-county-report-site. You can also send an email to ask for help at QuietSkiesSanJuan@gmail.com.

Also consider sending comments to the Navy at (360) 257-6665, or via e-mail: COMMENTS.NASWI@navy.mil.

Our endorsements for the general election will soon be up on our website, and as usual, we are having a postcard printed and mailed to help you with your ballot decisions. Ballots are slated to be mailed out Oct. 13, and our postcard should arrive at your mailbox a few days before that. I strongly encourage you to vote promptly and get your ballot in as soon as you can, either by mail or by depositing in the drop box on your island.

It’s not too early to start thinking about our reorganization this coming January. Every two years we elect officers, and we are always looking for new people to join us. We are especially in need of a new treasurer, as our current treasurer served first as treasurer, then three years as chair, and now four more years as treasurer again. While he will remain a PCO, he would like to step down from the treasurer duties. It is not a difficult job to learn, and the only way we can accept donations, which we use to fund our voter postcards and other important uses, is if we have a treasurer who reports donations to the Public Disclosure Commission. Whether you have experience or not, it would be a huge help to have a new person take over as treasurer and enable us to continue to receive donations. Please contact me if you would consider this request.

Hello San Juan County Democrats,

We will have another Zoom meeting this Saturday, September 19. Our agenda includes discussion about the DNC national convention, the San Juan County Fair, activities related to the upcoming election, and further discussion on growlers.

The meeting will start at 11:30 am, and the zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88462591632. Please contact me for the password if you would like to attend and are not on our mailing list.

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

Why be a member of the San Juan County Democrats?

Here are some local members of the San Juan County Democrats talking about what being a Democrat means to us:

Principles of San Juan County Democrats
We, the Democrats of San Juan County, believe in the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. These fundamental democratic principles to which we subscribe: Liberty, Equality, Community, Justice, Cooperation, Security, and Open Society, provide the foundation of our work as a local political party. In promoting these principles, we place enduring value on the individual qualities of honesty, integrity, fortitude, ethics, forward vision, and open communication essential to sound democratic process.

Read about our Platform here: https://sjdemocrats.org/platform/

Support our picks for the San Juan County Council here:
Ryan Palmateer: https://www.ryanpalmateer2020.com/support-ryan.
Cindy Wolf: https://votecindywolf.com/donate/

Want to get involved in making Washington better? Volunteer to help the state party here:

https://www.wa-democrats.org/organizingevents/

Sign up for our newsletter and get invited to our next Zoom meeting on Saturday, September 14:

Thanks for visiting!

Most of the ballots have been counted from the recent primary election, though there is still a small number to count. Just about all the candidates we endorsed did very well. 1st and 2nd place finishers move on to the general election. At this point, we can tell you most of the candidates who will be in the general election this fall:

Governor – Incumbent Jay Inslee is 1st at 50%

Lt. Gov – Denny Heck is 1st at 26%, Marko Liias is 2nd at 17% (both Dems)

Secretary of State – Gael Tarleton is 2nd at 43%

Treasurer – Mike Pellicciotti is 1st at 53%

Auditor – This is a race about which we weren’t able to find information, so we will work on that for the next round. Incumbent McCarthy is 1st at 47%, Leyba is 2nd at 42%, both are Dems

Attorney General – Incumbent Bob Ferguson is 1st at 55%

Public Lands Commissioner – Incumbent Hilary Franz is 1st at 51%

Insurance Commissioner – Incumbent Mike Kreidler is 1st at 59%

Public Instruction Superintendent – Incumbent Chris Reykdal is 1st at 40%

Congress – Incumbent Rick Larsen is 1st at 50%, Jason Call is in 3rd place at 13.5%, trailing the 2nd place candidate by 1% and about 2,500 votes

State Senate – Liz Lovelett is 1st at 72%

House Position 1 – Debra Lekanoff is 1st at 96% (her only opponents are write-ins)

House Position 2 – Alex Ramel is 1st at 71%

County Council Position 1 – Ryan Palmateer is in 2nd place at 32%, 7% behind Chris Minney

County Council Position 2 – Cindy Wolf is in 1st place at 45%, 2% ahead of Rick Hughes

Both Lopez and Orcas school levies are passing handily

Thanks to everyone for voting and making this a very successful election. Thanks especially to those of you who participated in making calls to voters. Stay tuned for the general election this fall.

Related to the election, our local group decided to donate funds to both of our endorsed county council candidates. In addition, if you would like to help them get elected, you can go directly to their sites to contribute: For Ryan Palmateer, go to https://www.ryanpalmateer2020.com/support-ryan. For Cindy Wolf, go to https://votecindywolf.com/donate/

Both candidates are also looking for personal endorsements, so please go to their websites to endorse. In addition to supporting these two candidates, you can support any of our LD and statewide candidates, as well as candidates for US Senate in crucial states so we can take the majority in the Senate. Look for a future email containing names and links.

There is an opportunity for locals who are not familiar with Ryan Palmateer to tune in to a meeting of the Lopez Huddle group this Tuesday from 3:00 to 5:00. The Huddle group is going to have the two finalists for county council position 1, Ryan and Christine Minney, present at their meeting to do Q & A. Please encourage people you know who may not be familiar with Ryan to watch this video. Any of you who watched the League of Women Voters forum know

that Ryan was in a much higher league than any of the other candidates, including Christine. Ryan is the future of our county government, and we need to do everything we can to get him elected.

The virtual San Juan County Fair is coming up this Wednesday through Saturday. A committee led by our own Ryan Palmateer has created an online video in which a number of local Democrats speak to why they are members of our party. It will appear on the fair website as well as on this website shortly. See how many of the speakers you can recognize.

We had a discussion today about adopting a platform plank related to the Growler jets that cause so much noise to so many of our residents. It was pointed out that they also put a tremendous amount of carbon into the atmosphere. We know that the Sound Defense Alliance is working on this issue, so a small committee was formed to look into this issue further. Members are Sharon Abreu, Jeff Hanks, and David Dehlendorf. In addition, Bob O’Connell will share language with the committee. Because the naval base is so entrenched and the community there is so entwined with the base, the committee will be looking at alternatives to having the base moved, which is probably not likely to happen anytime soon. For your benefit, here is the language we were considering:

We call for the Growler mission to be moved to more appropriate sites that are not as densely populated and environmentally fragile. We call for no warfare training to be allowed in Olympic National Park or Olympic National Forest, including Growler overflights. Mobile emitters should be moved to sites nearer the re-sited Growlers. We call for ceasing all fixed wing flight operations at Outlying Field Coupeville.

We also briefly discussed the idea of Just Transition, which is the need to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy while taking care of the workers who will be displaced. The more we can communicate this to our state legislators, the better chance they will act on it. If you would like to write our legislators on this matter, here is their contact information: Senator Liz Lovelett: liz.lovelett@leg.wa.gov Rep. Debra Lekanoff: debra.lekanoff@leg.wa.gov Rep. Alex Ramel: alex.ramel@leg.wa.gov

Our main item of interest today was a presentation on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) by Sharon A, Bob O, and myself. Bob and I each read the recent book by Professor Stephanie Kelton called The Deficit Myth. She argues that because we no longer use the gold standard, the Fed simply creates new money with a keystroke on its computer, that it spends money into our economic system. The reason we can do this is because the US is a currency issuer. As long as we keep inflation under control, we can continue to issue money to be spent. Only a government that is a currency issuer can do this. For instance, state governments cannot do this and have to balance their budgets, much like family households have to do. The benefit to understanding our economic system through an MMT lens means that we don’t have to worry about deficits, that as long as inflation is under control, we can spend money on projects for the public good. Obviously, this goes against everything we have always believed about government and budgets, that we have to collect tax revenue or borrow by selling bonds in order for the government to have money to spend. Everyone is always skeptical about this at first, and we had some skeptics

at our meeting today. But this way of looking at our system has the possibility of issuing money to take care of all of the problems in our country, and this can help us in helping the rest of the world also. I encourage you to read the book, and for a shorter introduction, you can read the article I wrote for Orcas Issues earlier this week at https://orcasissues.com/modern-monetary-theory-mmt-and-the-deficit-myth/. The more people to whom we can introduce this concept and convince them that it is real, the more we will be able to convince our members of Congress to spend funds on needed public services.

That’s it for now. If there is anyone you know who you think would be a supporter but is not getting our emails, I would encourage you to have them contact me so I can put them on our list. The more people we have on our list, the more impact we can have on the direction of our county and beyond.

Thanks for reading,

David Turnoy

Chair, San Juan County Democrats

360-376-4165

davidgeri@rockisland.com

Hello San Juan County Democrats,

We will have another Zoom meeting this Saturday, August 8. Our agenda includes an update to our Platform to include a statement about growlers, as well as a vote on our budget for the upcoming year, and a presentation on Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT. We will also discuss recent local election results!

The meeting will start at 11:30 am, and the zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89587507308. Please contact me for the password if you would like to attend and are not on our mailing list.

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

Hello SJC Demcrats,

I have one more reminder for you about the election Tuesday August 4; I am trying to get the information about returning ballots as accurate as I can.  I have heard from a number of you with helpful information, so I am going to relay that here.

Karen tells us that if ballots are mailed on Tuesday, because they go to Seattle to be postmarked, they may not get postmarked by Tuesday.  Especially with the Postal Service starting to slow down on getting the mail processed and delivered, at Trump’s behest, you will want to mail your ballot by Monday.  After Monday, you will need to use the drop boxes.

If you need to use the drop box, here are the locations:

San Juan Island:

Election Office
55 Second Street STE A
Friday Harbor, WA

San Juan County Court House
350 Court Street
Friday Harbor, WA 

Orcas Island

Orcas Island Senior Center
62 Henry Rd
Eastsound, WA

For those of you on Orcas, Marlia reminds us that the drop box is is at the north end of the building near the Jehovah’s Witnesses Hall.
 

Lopez Island

Lopez Island Fire District Office
2228 Fisherman Bay Road
Lopez Island

More questions?

See the County Elections web page for more information: https://www.sanjuanco.com/1221/Elections-Office

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

Tuesday August 4, 2020 is primary election day!

The San Juan County Democrats have made the following endorsements in this election:

Governor: ……………………………. Jay Inslee (I – incumbent)
Attorney General: ………………………………Bob Ferguson (I)
Lieutenant Governor:………………………………….Marko Liias
Commissioner of Public Lands:…………………Hilary Franz (I)
Secretary of State: ………………………………… Gael Tarleton
Secretary of State: Treasurer ………………… Mike Pellicciotti
Insurance Commissioner:………………………Mike Kreidler (I)
Superintendent of Public Instruction: ………. Chris Reykdal (I)
Congress: Dual Endorsement….. Rep. Rick Larsen (I) and Jason Call
State Senator…………………………………………. Liz Lovelett
State Representative, Position 1 …………….. Debra Lekanoff
State Representative, Position 2 …………………..Alex Ramel
County Council – Orcas ………………………………Cindy Wolf
County Council – San Juan Island………….. Ryan Palmateer

Get your ballot in the mail (no stamp needed!) so that it’s postmarked by the 4th, or to your island’s ballot box by 8pm on Tuesday, August 4:

San Juan Island:

Election Office
55 Second Street STE A
Friday Harbor, WA

San Juan County Court House
350 Court Street
Friday Harbor, WA 

Orcas Island

Orcas Island Senior Center
62 Henry Rd
Eastsound, WA

Lopez Island

Lopez Island Fire District Office
2228 Fisherman Bay Road
Lopez Island

More questions?

See the County Elections web page for more information: https://www.sanjuanco.com/1221/Elections-Office

As you may remember from our previous meeting, the San Juan County Democrats chose to endorse progressive challenger Jason Call as well as incumbent Rick Larsen. I am starting off this communication with a message from each of them. We will hear first from Jason Call.

Dear San Juan County Democrats,

Our congressional campaign has quietly become one of the strongest progressive campaigns in the nation. We are running a no corporate money grassroots campaign to support Medicare For All, the Green New Deal, and many other vital progressive policies.

If you haven’t had an opportunity to hear from me directly, I have many interviews and forums on my campaign website media page https://www.callforcongress.com/media/ . If there’s any one of them I would want you to watch, it’s the forum I organized on June 16th that delves into Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) https://www.pscp.tv/w/1MnxndBLrvMGO . Our current economic structure is broken, and only works for the already wealthy. MMT is a way to restructure taxing and spending to have a democratic economy that works for everyone.

I look forward to being on the ballot with the incumbent in the general election, and again I am extremely grateful for the endorsement of the San Juan County Democrats.

Solidarity

Jason Call

[Notes from David Turnoy]

1. Jason just appeared on a program for progressive candidates yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWp48pSd6fE

2. Jason just received the endorsement of the Snohomish County Democrats today.]

Here are some items from Congressman Larsen’s campaign:

You can watch Rick’s latest Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/RickLarsenWA02/videos/628850097735172/?v=628850097735172 ,

where he talks about the past two weeks in Congress. House Democrats recently passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to end police brutality, hold police accountable and build trust in law enforcement, as well as the Moving Forward Act https://mltnews.com/larsen-champions-changes-in-federal-legislation-that-would-invest-1-5-trillion-in-transportation/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter , a more than $1.5 trillion investment in infrastructure, and a bill to strengthen the Affordable Care Act. It’s now up to the Senate to act.

You can contact Rick’s campaign staffer Jack to sign up to phone bank at jack@ricklarsen.org .

Also, here is information about a virtual conversation on education:

San Juan County Virtual Conversation on Education

Tuesday, July 14, 6 – 6:45 p.m.

Hosted by retired professors Miriam Ziegler & Tom Baldwin

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83042902714

Or call: +1 253 215 8782 – Meeting ID: 830 4290 2714

At our general meeting today, the County Fair committee updated us on their plan for a virtual exhibit. This will include short statements by individual Democrats in our county as to why you are a Democrat. If you are interested in recording a short statement for this exhibit, please contact Ryan Palmateer (our secretary and candidate for county council from San Juan Island) at ryanpalmateer@gmail.com . Ryan will take care of the technical end so you don’t have to; all you need to do is to prepare a brief statement that you are willing to share.

We had a brief presentation today from local members Bob O’Connell and Sharon Abreu on Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT. MMT is a new way of looking at our monetary system. Since we are no longer on a gold standard, we don’t have to have anything backing our currency except the faith of the people, productive capacity, and a low inflation rate. The government can issue as much money as it wants as long as we have productive capacity and low inflation. For instance, we spent billions we didn’t actually possess to fight WWII, and we spent more billions on the economic stimulus after the crash of 2008. Did we have to pay this back? No. In essence, the idea that we have to pay back the deficit is a myth. The federal government is a currency issuer, and it can issue as much money as it wants with the above caveats. The Federal Reserve can keep the rate of inflation low by keeping interest rates reasonably low, so all we need to really make sure we have is productive capacity, i.ie. the ability to produce things. We have the money for universal healthcare, a Green New Deal, and any other enterprise that involves producing something. MMT creates a whole new paradigm for spending on social needs, and we need to educate our government representatives so they get on board. The book to read on this subject is The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton. There are many articles on the internet about MMT, and a great way to learn about it is the video listed above in Jason Call’s letter at https://www.pscp.tv/w/1MnxndBLrvMGO . The short presentation at our meeting was well received, and we look to have perhaps an hour at our next meeting to delve further into this subject.

We had updates from both of our members running for County Council. You can find Ryan Palmateer’s campaign at ryanpalmateer2020.com (San Juan Island). You can find Cindy Wolf at https://votecindywolf.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/votecindywolf/ (Orcas). Both appeared on the League of Women Voter forums this past week. If you missed them but would like to view them, here are the links:

Orcas: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/xcMsdYjXxnpJaI3r6mfyV4kBGZ39X6a8g3Af-aVbzRu_Llx8AMOHal4zSIjBcjFq (1st half hour missing)

Password: 1g&X+.I$ Type in the password rather than copying and pasting.

San Juan I: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/wZZTA_bC72pOcpHo5B7THZ4KFIe4eaa80CdI-_YMmUsrrL6KA2dhqwltBz2M_w6q

Password: Password: 2V&8W02q

Dr. John Geyman has released another book on the perils of our current healthcare system: Profiteering, Corruption and Fraud in U.S. Health Care. I am part way through the book, and it is excellent. I have especially appreciated learning about how we went from a service-oriented medical sector to a profit-oriented system.

Ryan and a buddy are working on a new logo for us. It will be three-dimensional, and on live broadcasts it will actually move. Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You need to be aware of an item that will be on this fall’s ballot related to sex education in schools. The legislature passed a law providing for age-appropriate sex education in schools, but some people in the state would seem to prefer ignorance, and they put a referendum on the ballot to overturn this law. The way the referendum is worded, we will need to vote yes to approve the law providing for this education. I will have more information about this as we get closer to the election. It is titled R-90.

You may have wondered what happened with I-1776, the initiative to overturn I-200 and 22 years of systemic racism. Unfortunately, the timeline was too short, and in less than a month, while more than 230,000 signatures were collected, this fell short by about 40,000. A new effort will begin later this month to gather signatures for an initiative to the legislature so that when they meet in January, they can move it right onto the ballot for November, 2021. This effort will have until the end of December for signature-gathering.

You will see our campaign endorsements shortly in the local newspapers (July 22 and 29) and online at Orcas Issues and the San Juan Islander (July 15-Aug. 4). You should receive your ballot in the next week. There will also be an article in the local newspapers on July 15 that lists our endorsements. Be sure to vote.

While we have had our disagreements with the DNC (Democratic National Committee) over the years, they are actually on the right track with climate action. They have adopted a bold, ambitious and transformative climate policy platform for 2020. If you want to take a simple action to support this plan, please go to https://www.dncclimate.org/platform-petition where you can read about the plan and sign the petition.

Finally, after meeting once or twice a week over the past four months, the platform committee has finished its work revising and updating our platform. It is probably about four times as long as the previous platform. The progressive nature of the previous document is what first attracted me to the San Juan County Democrats, and we have now gone way beyond in crafting a pretty amazing platform of what we stand for and believe in. Our hope is to share this widely, getting other Democratic locals to buy into this so that we can try to hold our elected officials accountable in representing us. The whole document is available at https://sjdemocrats.org/platform/

I am pasting in the highlights page that appears at the beginning of the new document:

SAN JUAN COUNTY DEMOCRATS PLATFORM HIGHLIGHTS

1) Election Reform: Publicly Financed Political Campaigns (buy back our lawmakers), Constitutional Amendment overturning Citizens United and declaring that corporations are not people and money is not speech. (This is listed first because none of what follows can be adopted until we buy back our legislators.).

2) Voting Reform: Ensure universal voting rights; institute vote-by-mail; install Ranked Choice Voting; eliminate the Electoral College (popular vote election of the President).

3) Green New Deal/Fight Climate Change/Protect the Environment, Paris Climate Accord.

4) Single payer Medicare-for-All-type universal healthcare.

5) Reduce the Military Budget and Stay Out of Endless Wars.

6) Racial Justice and Law Enforcement Reform; opposition to the killing of Black people in interactions with law enforcement (see recently adopted Resolution).

7) Free Public Education (including pre-K-12 and four-year public college or trade school), plus elimination or easing of college debt.

8) Federal Job Guarantee, linked to the restoring and upkeep of our infrastructure; Establishment of a Living Income Guarantee.

9) Immigration Reform.

10) More progressive tax policy, including higher income tax rates at the top end, a wealth tax, and a Wall Street transaction tax.

11) Immediate Adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Note: This list is only a glimpse at the Platform, which contains many other invaluable provisions.

Hello SJC Democrats,

The next meeting of the SJC Democrats will be this Saturday, July 11, at 11:30 on Zoom.  The link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84895943048; contact me for the password if you are not on our mailing list.  The main topic will be reviewing our new platform proposal.  Our platform committee has been meeting once or twice a week for the last several months to update and expand our platform.  If you would like to see a copy of our proposal, please email me at davidgeri@rockisland.com so I can send you a copy.
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Here is a message from the Larsen campaign:

With just two weeks until ballots drop, can you help get out the vote with Rick Larsen? 
We are calling Democratic primary voters and we need your help! You can support Rick and Democrats across the 2nd District by making voter outreach calls with us. The calls we make together will help Democratic candidates win up and down the ballot in 2020. 

Can you join Rick and help turn out Democratic voters across the district by signing up for a phone bank? 
–Monday, July 6, 5:30 pm 
–Tuesday, July 7, 5:30 pm 
–Wednesday, July 8, 5:30 pm
–Saturday, July 11, 1:00 pm (co-hosted by Organized Labor) 
–Sunday, July 12, 1:00 pm 
The phone bank event will kick off with an update and q&a with Congressman Rick Larsen, then we’ll jump into calling voters. We will provide the training, call lists and script, and a quick tutorial for the phone banking. 
Thank you for all your support on the virtual campaign trail!  Contact Jack at jack@ricklarsen.org.
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Just a reminder that we have also endorsed Jason Call for this same position.  If you would like to help Jason’s campaign, contact callforcongress.com.

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

Saturday was a very important meeting of our local Democrats. Our endorsement committee had done lots of research on candidates for the upcoming primary (and some for the general election), so the committee presented its report, then considerable discussion was had on a number of items related to endorsement. Finally, a vote was taken, and I am pleased to list the following candidates and measure endorsed by the San Juan County Democrats:

Governor – Jay Inslee (I – incumbent) Attorney General – Bob Ferguson (I)

Lieutenant Governor – Marko Liias Commissioner of Public Lands – Hilary Franz (I)

Secretary of State – Gael Tarleton Insurance Commissioner – Mike Kreidler (I)

Superintendent of Public Instruction – Chris Reykdal (I)

Congress – Dual Endorsement – Rep. Rick Larsen (I) and Jason Call [Note: Our party has a very progressive platform, which aligns much more closely to that of Jason Call. If you want progressive change, you will want to consider Jason. However, we recognize that Rep. Larsen has been a strong leader during the pandemic and has accomplished many good things during his career. Therefore, we are endorsing both candidates.]

State Representative – Debra Lekanoff (I and unopposed, will only be on November ballot)

State Representative – Alex Ramel (I, will only be on November ballot)

State Senator – Liz Lovelett (I, will only be on November ballot)

County Council – Orcas – Cindy Wolf County Council – San Juan Island – Ryan Palmateer

I-1776 – An initiative to stop discrimination in our state, which is still legal in many situations under a Tim Eyman initiative from more than 20 years ago. You may be asked to sign an online form in the next week and a half to help get this on the ballot for November.

We will do our best to publicize these endorsements.

If you are able to commit a little bit of time to phone banking for Democrats, here is information for you. Phone banks are Monday – Thursday evenings from 5pm – 8pm. Also, every Sunday evening 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. We also have a voter texting program, plus several volunteer leader-led (often PCOs!) phone banks happening that we can set

up any day of the week and time based on the local leader’s desired schedule. Lastly, for those who cannot or prefer not to be part of a group, we have set up individual phone bankers (again, 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 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. a. Virtual Organizing Academy: https://secure.ngpvan.com/dkxLhVDufk-jJw11GMjj6g2

b. 5/16 Volunteer Tools Training: https://secure.ngpvan.com/d7e2QF1VAE2sjLjwKoeFPA2

c. The Regional Field Director for NW Washington is Savanna Steele, at savanna@wa-democrats.org . She can set up a time to talk to you 1:1 and give you plenty more detail.

We have two local Democrats who were elected to attend the National Democratic Convention in Milwaukee (or virtual) convention in August. Sharon Abreu was elected as a Bernie Sanders delegate, and Bob O’Connell was elected as a delegate at large. Congratulations!

We are looking for a person to manage our Facebook page. If you or someone you know would be interested, please have them contact me. There would be a small stipend involved.

Many of us have become very concerned over the last few weeks with the ongoing police brutality against black people in our country. This is a tragic part of the American that needs to be changed. In an effort to put together a resolution that might be used for a model around the country, Bob O’Connell did a lot of research, including from documents created with the input of numerous black people and organizations, and he submitted a proposed resolution. Over several weeks numerous members of our local group have given input, and Bob took all of that and re-crafted his proposal. With a little more fine-tuning at our meeting today, the resolution was passed by those in attendance. I will be passing it on to many different organizations, and hopefully it will become a model for others to use. Here is the language of the resolution.

A RESOLUTION

WHEREAS this country has never healed after the wound it caused itself by the institution of human slavery, and

WHEREAS, down through the decades and the centuries, this failure to heal has led to continued human suffering, in the form of outward violence and insidious discrimination against Black people, and

WHEREAS, this continued circumstance leads to the degradation of us all, whether we are victims, perpetrators, or allegedly innocent bystanders, and

WHEREAS, the most visible sign of this racial hatred and discrimination descended from slavery is found embedded in our law enforcement agencies and is manifested by the brutal and frequently deadly treatment of Black people;

THEREFORE, in support

The killing and mistreatment of Black people, including harassment, arbitrary arrests, injury, and physical abuse at the hands of law enforcement, must stop now,

People of good intent everywhere should stand in implacable opposition to the mistreatment and killing of Black people at the hands of law enforcement,

To bring an end to this heart-breaking violence, we must at a minimum do the following, without hesitation:

(1) Establish a separate unit of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice which, in the absence of swift and just action by state or local authorities, will be tasked solely with the investigation and criminal prosecution of any law enforcement personnel found to have deprived a Black person of their civil rights through violence, including violence resulting in death. This division would also be charged with the investigation and prosecution of any person found to have deprived any law enforcement agent of their civil rights through violence, including violence resulting in death,

(2) Establish in every community in this country which has a police department or other law enforcement agency a Citizens’ Advisory Council on Law Enforcement and the Community. In addition to its broad responsibility to advise government and law enforcement agencies, this Council would conduct an ongoing, periodic Public Forum on Law Enforcement and the Community. Any of the Council’s recommendations not adopted by the law enforcement agency would be sent to the community’s executive and to its legislative body for their action,

(3) Appropriate federal funds to sponsor the retraining of all law enforcement agents on Non-Violence in Interactions with the Public,

(4) Conduct psychological testing of all prospective employees of law enforcement agencies, aimed at identifying and rejecting as candidates any active racist, white nationalist, or other persons who could pose an unnecessary threat of violence, particularly to Black people

(5) End “qualified immunity” for law enforcement,

(6) Re-imagine law enforcement, with rearranged budgeting, which would include: a) a significant reduction of the number of armed, sworn, uniformed officers to reflect the fact that they would only be assigned to calls where armed persons were presenting a threat to other members of the community, b) hiring of other unarmed Community Safety Officers who are experts educated in resolution of problems regarding mental health, substance abuse, family altercations, homelessness, and the apparent commission of non-violent felonies and misdemeanors. Some of law enforcement’s former budget would be redirected to addressing many of those issues which cause members of the community to commit crimes in the first place, and

(7) Condition Federal funding of law enforcement agencies upon the adoption and enforcement of the following policies a) the termination of officers found to be guilty of serious, unnecessary violence, b) banning of chokeholds and other moves resulting in the blocking of airways, c) banning of “no-knock” searches, with or without warrants, and d) cooperation, through the supplying of information, with a new Federal registry of police misconduct and use

of force. This would include the refusal to hire anyone who appears on that registry for misconduct or is otherwise found to have such a record.

BE IT RESOLVED that the principles set forth here and the actions demanded are principles basic to the Democratic Party. As such, they ought to be formally adopted by this body, and by the national Democratic party and by the Democratic Parties of every state and county in the United States.

Adopted by the San Juan County, Washington Democratic Party, this 20th Day of June, 2020.

Note: Many of the ideas contained in this Resolution are taken from the letter to Congressional Leadership from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and its hundreds of organizational and individual signatories, dated June 1, 2020.

The following is from Rep. Debra Lekanoff’s office:

As a way to stay connected as a community while we stay home and stay healthy, we’re hosting Terrific Tuesdays with Debra Lekanoff and local leaders to discuss the issues that are at the top of our minds.

The next one will focus on education! Grab some lunch, bring your questions, and join us on Facebook Live at 3:00PM on Tuesday, June 30! It will be streamed onto Facebook live, but there will be an option to watch without Facebook as well.

Thank you!

Makenzie

—

Makenzie Graham, MPH (she/her)

Schedule Coordinator

Re-Elect Debra Lekanoff

(651) 247-5306 www.debralekanoff.com

Fyi, Debra’s Facebook link is https://www.facebook.com/votedebralekanoff/ .

Thanks for reading,

David Turnoy, Chair