by David Turnoy

Special to the Sounder

The San Juan County Democrats will be holding our biennial convention on Saturday, March 24, at the Grange in Friday Harbor, from 1:00 until possibly as late as 5 p.m. This will follow a march through Friday Harbor demanding that the issue of gun violence be addressed, and it will include children as well as adults. We wanted to be able to participate in this march because the issue is so important, so we have purposely scheduled our convention to begin right after the march, which starts at the courthouse in Friday Harbor at noon on March 24. The march finishes at the courthouse around 1 p.m., and that is right across the street from the Grange located on 1st Street.

What do we do at our convention that occurs in a non-presidential election year? First, we elect delegates to attend the state convention that will take place in Wenatchee on June 15 and 16. We have three positions whose occupants automatically attend (our two state committee people and the chair), and we need to elect two more delegates and one alternate.

We also have the opportunity to submit additions to the state party platform. If you would like to see what is currently in the state party platform, go to http://www.wa-democrats.org/sites/wadems/files/documents/Washington%20State%20Democrats%20-%20Platform%20-%20160618.pdf

If you find that there is something that really should be in the state platform that isn’t, you can attend our convention to bring it forward, or you can email it to me. If you would like to see what is currently in our county party platform, which is the reason I joined the local party, go to http://sjdemocrats.org/platform/. We are currently revising the platform to add more good progressive ideas, but even what is already there is excellent.

I hope to see you at the march and then at our convention on March 24.