Hello San Juan County Democrats,
Many of us met at the courthouse in Friday Harbor at noon, where the town mayor and many students from the local schools spoke inspiring words to us. Then we marched through Friday Harbor past the various schools and wound up again at the courthouse. It seemed that we had several hundred people participate in this March for Our Lives. Kudos to the students who led this action.
Our convention had 26 registered attendees to vote on delegates to the state convention in June. We elected two delegates and one alternate. We had no platform resolutions prepared, but anyone who wants to submit something to be considered at the state platform committee meetings can send that to our committee rep, Cindy Wolf, at cwolf at seanet dot com.
Treasurer David Dehlendorf presented our budget for this year. We are hoping to help out in this year’s elections to get more Democrats elected. David has been doing some ambitious fundraising on San Juan Island, and we need to get more donors on Orcas and Lopez. If you are interested in supporting our activities with a donation, please contact me.
CJ Collier has been confirmed as our new secretary. Andi Rowley has expressed willingness to take over as PCO for Friday Harbor North #101. I am announcing that this precinct position is open, and unless I hear from anyone else in that precinct, I will appoint Andi to this position. We are still looking for PCOs for San Juan South East #11, Friday Harbor South #102, Lopez South, and Waldron. If you live in one of these areas and are interested, please contact me.
Rita attended the Friday Hospital District meeting in February; she is keeping a keen eye on the proceedings there, where there have been some shenanigans leading to a takeover of the board by a non-progressive majority. There will be another meeting this Wednesday, with the highlight being a visit from Linda McCarthy of Planned Parenthood.
Learner and CJ will work on helping us to make improvements in our transmission to members attending our meetings remotely. CJ is willing to be an administrator if we need one. Our Zoom and microphone setup have proved problematic. Bob suggests we have a practice session. Keara is willing to continue posting for me on our website, and CJ expressed willingness to help.
If we are going to have a booth at the county fair this year, we need to get that going. David Jenkins volunteered to be involved, and Cindy is willing to help with this again. If you are interested in helping out, please contact me. Our 4th of July parade in Friday Harbor was also mentioned, and if you are willing to help with this, please contact me.
While the recent legislative session accomplished much, the passage of a carbon fee failed. We recognize that we have to get off of fossil fuels, that we need to promote alternative energy, that there needs to be a just transition for fossil fuel workers facing the loss of their jobs, and that low-income folks need to be protected from harm as we transition. Sharon Abreu informed us of a new initiative, I-1631, which will do all of those things. Sharon is leading this effort in our county. She has already trained some signature-gatherers in Friday Harbor, and she will be conducting trainings on Orcas this week on Tuesday and Wednesday. We have only three months to gather 260,000 signatures throughout the state to get this on the ballot for this November. Please volunteer to gather signatures. If you can help in this effort, contact me, or you can contact Sharon at sharmuse at gmail dot com.
Rita suggested we have a sharing of politically important books. She is willing to host the books, and she will bring books to each meeting for us to start sharing. You can also contribute to this by bringing in books you have read that you would recommend to others of us.
Rita also wants us to eliminate the Electoral College. This is in our state platform, but our politicians have done precious little to make this a reality. Therefore, Rita brought in stamped postcards for us to use to write our rep and two senators. The Democrats have lost at least two of the last five presidential elections due to the Electoral College, yet do we hear anything from them about changing this? For those of you not already aware, there is an effort on this called the National Popular Vote Compact, which would have the result of the popular vote determine the president once states worth 270 electoral votes approve this. Washington is among 11 states that have already done so, and we need states worth another 105 votes to get there. Some of us tried to encourage other states to pass this last year, but we were not successful. But I encourage you to write our rep and senators to ask them to get the Democrats moving on bypassing or abolishing the Electoral College.
The state Democrats will be holding two organizing academies in the Seattle area with DNC Vice Chair Keith Ellison appearing. These trainings are free, all you have to do is RSVP. For the one at UW on Friday, April 6, from 6:00-9:00, go to
https://www.wa-democrats.org/ngpvanforms/4783 . For the training the next day from noon until 4:00 in Renton, go to https://www.wa-democrats.org/ngpvanforms/4988 .
Lovel Pratt suggested we host a celebration of the accomplishments of our legislators this year. We would want to invite Kevin Ranker, Kris Lytton, and Jeff Morris. If you are willing to help make this happen, please contact me.
Lovel also suggested that we host a candidate forum for the candidates running to replace retiring Kris Lytton. Once all the candidates have filed, we could have such an event. Just a reminder for everyone that we need to be careful not to have more Democrats in the race than Republicans. If you remember the state treasurer’s race in 2016, there were three Democrats and two Republican. Overall the Democrats got more votes, but none of them got as many as each of the two Republicans. As a result, the final election was between those two. We have to remember that we have an open primary system, and Democrats will need to be strategic to make sure we don’t repeat that mistake.
To sum up, here are ways you can be involved to help bring about progressive change:
- Donate to our party.
- Attend the next FH Hospital District meeting this Wednesday.
- Volunteer to help with the fair booth or the 4th of July parade.
- Volunteer to gather signatures for I-1631.
- Write our Congressional reps to eliminate the Electoral College.
- Attend an organizing academy with Keith Ellison.
- Help to put on a celebration of this year’s legislative accomplishments.
- Tell your friends about us and persuade them to get on our email list.
Thanks for reading, and let’s get active,
David Turnoy
davidgeri at centurylink dot net