Our meeting started out with Rep. Debra Lekanoff speaking to us about all the reasons that the maps by the two Democratic members of the Redistricting Commission, Brady Walkinshaw and April Sims, need to be revised so that instead of moving San Juan County into the 10th LD with Island County, we instead should remain in the 40th LD, where we currently are. According to Debra, our testimony at the recent hearing and all the comments being sent in are having an impact. It is important to continue to send in comments. If you haven’t sent one yet, please do so. If you have already sent one, please send another. Debra recommended that we not only use the redistricting website, but also contact legislators Walkinshaw and Sims at their legislative offices. She also recommended that we send comments to state party chair Tina Podlodowski and to the respective heads of the House and Senate Democratic caucuses. I have also been requested to contact the school superintendents in the county. I will provide all the contact information as well as Debra’s talking points at the end of this summary.
Debra also spent time responding to concerns about the ferries. She will actually have a meeting with the governor about this Monday morning, and she has asked that we provide personal stories that she can use in her conversation. If you have a personal story about how poor ferry service or lack of staffing has impacted you in recent times, please send me your story by Sunday night so I can provide it to Debra before her meeting Monday morning. Send to me at davidgeri@rockisland.com.
We have a new secretary. Jane Fuller was in attendance at our meeting today, and she generously volunteered to be our secretary. Thanks so much, Jane!
Stephen Shubert, PCO from San Juan Island and also the head of Mullis Center, told us about an attempt by some very rightwing folks to take over the Mullis Center. This politicization could prove to be very harmful. If you live on San Juan Island and you are at least age 60 or disabled, you will have an opportunity to vote for district committee members. You can vote by downloading a ballot, showing up in person, or mailing a ballot. Voting days are Monday through Thursday, Nov. 11-14. Mail-in ballots must be received by Nov. 14. For further information, go to mulliscenter.org/howtovote. For more information about the conflict and the challenge to current district committee members, go to https://www.mulliscenter.org/faqs.
We had seven members of the Charter Review Commission present at our meeting, and additionally I had received a note from another commissioner asking if we would consider endorsing the amendments proposed by the commission. While these are nonpartisan issues, we felt that providing input on them would be helpful to the public. We chose to go ahead with examining each of the six amendments individually, and on each one we almost unanimously agreed that it would be a positive change for the county. Kevin Ranker has written an article briefly summarizing the six amendments at https://salish-current.org/2021/08/12/community-voices-san-juan-county-to-vote-on-climate-environment-equity-justice-amendments-to-county-charter/. In addition, the commission will be putting out an article shortly that I will send to you.
Of course, you can find the amendments in your Voter’s Guide. Three members of the commission (Jane Fuller, Dick Grout and Kevin Ranker) wrote an article that was in the Journal and the Sounder this past week at https://www.islandssounder.com/opinion/vote-for-climate-action-justice-equity-and-responsive-government-guest-column/ and https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/opinion/vote-for-climate-action-justice-equity-and-responsive-government-guest-column/. Also, here is the link to a Voter Information Session organized by some of the San Juan County Charter Review Commissioners that took place this past Thursday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c_GY608Yww Again, we think each of these is a positive step, and we support all six amendments.
Thank you for reading this far. Here is the redistricting information I promised. I will start with the email addresses of relevant decision-makers: Tina Podlodowski – tina@wa-democrats.org Laurie Jinkins (head of House Democrats) – https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/memberEmail/27/1
(Because we are not in her district, you have to click an instruction that says to send the email anyway.)
Joe Fitzgibbon (head of WA House Democratic Campaign Committee) – https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/memberEmail/34/2 (Click to send anyway.)
April Sims – to be provided.
Brady Walkinshaw – to be provided.
To send comments to the Redistricting Commission website: https://www.redistricting.wa.gov/submit-public-testimony
Points to make:
Make smaller changes; don’t overhaul the 40th.
Leave east Whatcom in the 42nd and keep San Juan County and Anacortes in the 40th. Make changes to the edges as needed to balance the districts.
Don’t put the people of the 40th at a disadvantage with all new legislators in Olympia. That’s unfair to us and to the important issues we value.
Ferries are a critical piece of our transportation system in our state and we need six legislators working for them, not just three. Putting San Juan together with Whidbey puts San Juan County at a disadvantage. Small businesses and the people who live on the San Juan islands need ferries.
Keep our Hispanic communities together – the proposed maps split Hispanic neighborhoods in Mount Vernon in half, splitting some agricultural and residential areas between districts.
The Democratic maps split the Nooksack Tribe, a clear community of interest. It also moves the Tribe to a new district with all new legislators. Please keep Nooksack together and in the 42nd.
The Lake Whatcom watershed is a community of interest; keep them together in the 40th.
My testimony last Tuesday night:
My name is David Turnoy, and I am the chair of the SJC Democrats. I live on Orcas Island in SJC.
The values supposedly guiding the Democrats in the redistricting process are
– To protect fair and effective representation
– To maintain and create communities of interest
– To respect Tribal sovereignty and the government-to-government relationship with Tribal partners
– To center and engage communities that have been historically underrepresented
As I said, I am the chair of the SJC Democrats. My colleagues and I have worked hard to elect strong progressive legislators. The proposed map removing our county from the 40th LD will require all three of those legislators to run against incumbent Democrats. We in the San Juans could end up with three brand new legislators who don’t know us at all. This is gerrymandering against ourselves. It looks bad when the other party does it to us, but this is the state Democrats writing our district out of existence. It also reduces the number of legislators with their eyes on effective ferry service from 6 to 3. This hardly protects fair and effective representation.
Combining our county with Whidbey in the 10th pits those fighting Growler noise in the San Juans against those on Whidbey for whom the Growlers provide their living. This is hardly creating a community of interest.
The proposed map splits the Nooksack tribe. Our tribes on the mainland have fishing, hunting, and gathering rights in the San Juans. How does this respect tribal sovereignty?
The proposed map also splits Hispanic communities. Is this what is meant by centering and engaging underrepresented communities?
We understand that population changes require some movement, but let’s keep it to a minimum of tinkering around the edges of the district, not creating total upheaval.
Thank you
To see Nels Magelssen’s longer and much more eloquent statement, please see my Oct. 5 email that I sent you.
David Turnoy
Chair, San Juan County Democrats