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.