Local government is the backbone of our communities, protecting the most vulnerable residents and improving the lives of everyone.
 
If you’ve been asking yourself, “What can I do?” to improve the state of the country, consider starting in your own back yard. You can have a positive impact on our local community by applying to one of Clallam County’s many government openings – there are 47 positions on the ballot this fall! Consider a position on the Board for a fire, parks and recreation, hospital, water, or school district; the port commission; or local city councils serving Port Angeles, Sequim, and Forks. (Access the link to see all available openings.)
 
The filing date for candidates is May 5-9.
 
If you’re thinking “Whoa, wait, I’ve can’t do that! I’ve never run for public office before,” THINK AGAIN! The League of Women Voters (LWV) offers essential tools and knowledge for successfully navigating the electoral process, including:

• How to file for local office, including the necessary paperwork
• Where to access important forms and deadlines
• Valuable resources for candidates (Select the link to access LWV’s Running for Local Office Resources 2025.)
• Effective strategies for connecting with voters through the Voter Pamphlet, community forums, and meet-and-greet events 
  
• Insights into key campaigning practices and the importance of transparency throughout the election. 

​On top of all that you have a supportive community in the Clallam Democrats, with many experienced campaigners who can help and advise you.
 
The only missing ingredient is YOU. You might not fully believe it yet, but your actions CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE at the local level, and even on the state and national level.
 
So do a little research, ask around a bit, and then GO FOR IT! Our community needs you. 

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead ​

​by Laurel Hargis

Hello, fellow members of the Clallam County Democrats. My name is Laurel Hargis. 
I’ve heard a lot of concern expressed among us about the lack of politically engaged young people, and how we might encourage them to become more involved. I wonder how many of you know about the Sunrise Movement organization? 

The Sunrise Movement is a national youth organization started in 2017 to fight for climate change legislation. A driving force behind the creation of the Green New Deal, the group has evolved to fight more broadly on issues important to us all. 

I have been a supporter of the Sunrise Movement since their inception, and I encourage my fellow CC Dems to consider doing so as well. 
The group is seasoned, savvy, and well organized. Because they have done so much and have been so courageous we should get behind them! 

Unfortunately, when members of the movement showed up at Chuck Schumer’s office before the critical CR vote, not only did he and his staff decline to speak with them, but they had them arrested. I ask how does this kind of response encourage youth engagement and what message does this send them?  

Please check out the Sunrise Movement website at https://www.sunrisemovement.org/  to learn more about the group, and consider becoming a supporter.

PORT ANGELES — A raucous crowd packed the floor of the March 15 Town Hall Meeting in Port Angeles, demanding action from U.S. Representative Emily Randall and her colleagues on Capitol Hill the day after Senator Chuck Schumer voted with Republicans to approve a continuing resolution to avert a federal shutdown.

“The last twenty-four hours have been some of the most challenging,” the Democratic lawmaker admitted to a crowd of more than 450 voters packed into a theater and an overflow room at Peninsula College.

“The impact of the continued cuts, especially to Medicaid, the overwhelming sense of being let down, of betrayal…” Randall continued as the crowd erupted into boos at what they saw as Schumer’s capitulation.

Wearing her signature denim jacket, Randall denounced President Donald Trump’s “gutting of Federal agencies from inside… eroding government from inside, destroying the sense of democracy.

“I am deeply concerned about the attacks on civil rights, voting rights, Medicaid,” she continued. “We must lift up the real stories of the impact of these cuts.”

Port Angeles was the site of the fourth Town Hall meeting organized by Randall since the continuing resolution vote on Thursday. Since arriving in her home state, she addressed overflow crowds at Town Halls in Tacoma and in Bremerton, where her father worked as a union shipbuilder. Although the Bremerton meeting was held in one of the largest halls in that U.S. naval shipyard city’s history, so many were unable to get in that the hall was emptied, filled again, and Randall spoke a second time.

By contrast, Republican leadership ordered GOP lawmakers not to appear at any Town Hall meetings after angry hecklers confronted Republican lawmaker Chuck Edwards at a Town Hall meeting in Asheville, N.C.

Randall responded to a barrage of questions from the floor (see a samples, below), admitting, “There is not one way that is going to get us out of this terrifying experience, to survive the next two years.”

From the crowd at the Port Angeles Town Hall meeting:
HIGH ANXIETY — A 67-year-old woman who admitted the Port Angeles Town Hall was the first political meeting she had ever attended told Randall, “I am not sleeping at night. I see what is happening. I see what we are losing.” 

THE CUTTING OF MEDICAID — The mother of an autistic son completely dependent on Medicaid said she was fearful of the “removal of programs that so clearly serve the needs of my son. What can I do as a parent? What can I do?” 

Randall’s sister, Olivia, was born with severe disabilities. After 18 years, her family recently received access to newly expanded Medicaid benefits. Randall pledged to keep fighting back, demanding full funding of Medicaid. “The Republicans talk about ‘fraud,’” she said. “That is how they like to talk about Medicaid.” But the federal government handled two million cases of Medicaid in a recent year and found a mere 42 cases of fraud. “This is unlike anything we have faced before,” she admitted. “It is terrifying.”

THE END OF DEMOCRACY — The son of a U.S. soldier who fought against the Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II noted that it has been 93 years since the 53rd day of Hitler’s takeover of Germany and the destruction of German democracy. “The German people largely stood by silently,” he said. “Yesterday was Trump’s 53rd day… We need to awake the public, mobilize the public not just convince your fellow lawmakers…”

Randall agreed. “It is the collective power of the people that is going to deliver us.” She urged the crowd to reach out, convince family, neighbors and friends to telephone or email her office and the offices of her colleagues demanding that they stand up against Trump and the MAGA Republicans. 

DISMANTLING OF DEI — Randall blasted Trump’s executive order terminating funds for any program to implement “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” or DEI. 

“Jobs are being terminated that have nothing to do with DEI,” she said, “and the mass firings undermine the ability of healthcare workers, firefighters, researchers, inspectors, food, drug, and safety code enforcers, to protect the lives and health of the public.”

IMMIGRANTS: Randall urged the crowd to fight back against Trump’s war on immigrants. “Know your rights,” she said. “If you are in touch with people who have reason to be nervous, there are things you can do to protect them. Please get in touch with our office…”

REACHING THE WORKING CLASS: In response to a young man who asked, “How are you appealing to the working class?” Randall cited her own background; her father was a union shipyard worker, her mother was of working-class Mexican heritage. She assured the crowd that the Democratic Caucus is holding meetings with non-profit civil rights and civil liberties groups and with unions that represent fired federal workers, to share ideas on fighting back. 

Two months after President Trump took office, the chaos in the federal government continues on a daily basis. The shock of the takeovers of a number of federal agencies and the en masse firing of federal workers across the nation has been felt down to the local level. 

Now, several weeks into these events, federal workers still feel whipsawed by the changing federal workplace. In talking to some Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest employees, the changes come – or don’t come – daily. Universally, these employees, like many other federal employees, dread the Friday-night decisions and the Monday-morning emails. One employee I talked to sat on the edge of her seat, jiggling her foot as she nervously watched her phone for the email that would tell her if she was being called back to work. It had been promised for 4 p.m. It didn’t come. 

Employees that were fired have been told they will be brought back. Then they are told they will be on administrative leave until the agency can go through a reduction in force, in which case they would probably still lose their jobs. The firing, re-hiring, administrative leave, and reduction in force are not free processes. These personnel actions take an incredible amount of time to process and money not currently in the agencies’ budget. This only adds to the bewilderment of how this accomplishes reduction in waste in the government. That many of the firings are questionable as to legality, it also goes against the goal of reduction of fraud.

As the rules change daily, these employees wait to hear whether they will be re-hired. With no sure deadline, they don’t know how long they can pay their bills. Some have had to ask their landlords or companies for ‘grace’ on paying bills, but without any assurance that they will be rehired or get unemployment. 

Adding insult to injury for the fired employees, the government claimed employees were fired for poor performance when, in fact, most of them have excellent performance records. What the general public may not realize is that:

1. Being fired often means those employees cannot receive unemployment benefits. 
2. Federal employees do not pay into the state unemployment fund. If a laid-off federal employee receives unemployment benefits, the State bills the federal government for the cost. In the current unpredictable political environment, there is concern that the federal government will not follow through in reimbursing the state. 

Another group of employees – those that have not been fired but were working remotely – were ordered to return to their ‘station’ for work. As in the case at the Forest Service’s Quilcene office, with very short notice employees had to return to brick-and-mortar offices with not enough desks, ports, chairs, and other equipment to accommodate the influx of 22 workers. These employees, as with others, had to rearrange their lives for childcare or their spouses’ work needs. 

Yet a third group of employees is being impacted in an insidiously quiet way. These are the workers who have a disability requiring some accommodation to do their job. One employee, who wished to remain anonymous, has had a visual impairment since childhood and is legally blind. She has been successful as a front desk receptionist, a support services supervisor, and a budget officer. She was able to do her job with special computer applications and equipment that allowed her to ‘see’ to do her computer work. Recently, her vision has gotten worse, but the government has stopped the program that would allow her to have the upgrades and equipment to continue to do her job. Her duties have been reduced or changed and she isn’t sure what her future holds. 

Finally, there are the federal employees who still have jobs but are cautioned not to talk about the administration, not to talk to the public, and to ensure the public is served no matter how short staffed they are. (Employees are actually being told by administration not to say that sites are closed or hours are limited due to staffing shortages.) The administration does not want NPS and USFS services ‘impacted,’ which is a pretty tall order when these same agencies are being hollowed out. The Forest Service has been told they have three goals – staff the front desks, do not close any recreation sites, and sell timber (even as the regulations that need to be followed are being circumvented).

The federal employees who shared their experiences are often in their first- or second trimester of a 30-year service, have a passion for their work, and are, by the very nature of federal service, rule followers. Working for the federal government was a workplace of rules, regulations, understood pay rates, and sometimes head-banging bureaucracy but it was steady, reliable, and service-oriented. These employees understood that they served the country and the people of the United States. These agencies were little families within our local communities. 

In the weeks to come, it is likely that we will see more erosion of the federal ‘presence’ in our local area. It may hit harder when the grants, information and services we need are gone or require hours of driving to get to an office. But we need to recognize that in all of that chaos, there is the human toll on a workforce that served us, who are neighbors and friends and participants in every aspect of our local communities. As one NPS worker said, ‘it is a loss we will never get back.’

Update: All Olympic NPS employees who were fired have been reinstated as of March 21 and will not be put on administrative leave. This was the result of an order by Judge William Alsup who had heard about Department of Interior employees being brought back and then put on administrative leave. He stated that putting them on administrative leave would not restore the services they provided. Therefore, agencies were not allowed to do that.

​Congress may yet reduce budgets so that agencies will have to do RIFs (reductions in force). People may yet lose their jobs. But in the world of the federal government, that is, at least, a process that provides an ‘orderly retreat.’  One thing is for sure, public pressure is having an effect in forcing the established processes to be followed.

​Paul Pickett

I recently sat down in the Port Angeles Library with Hank Warren, activist, Precinct Committee Officer, and a long-time member of the Clallam Democrats Executive Board, where he now serves as a Trustee for District 2.

Hank’s eyes sparkled with a smile as he handed me his resumé. “I wanted you to have this to help you.” Hank has lived with his wife of 66 years, Raedell, for 50 years in Washington, of which 46 were in Port Angeles. He retired from the National Park Service, with his last assignment as Chief Naturalist of Olympic National Park. 

Hank has just turned 88 years old. 

Tell me a bit about your past? Where did you grow up, where have you lived?
“I grew up in California – born in Oakland, raised in Lafayette” he begins. He worked in a grocery store in high school, and in his dad’s homebuilding business. He served in the Air Force for four years as a nuclear weapons specialist, and when he left IBM hired him as a Customer Engineer. But he wanted a change. “I grew up loving to hike in Yosemite. I decided I wanted to work for Parks instead of going to medical school.” 

That led to a job as a ranger at Armstrong Woods State Park. “A manager in the National Park Service said he’d hire me whenever I wanted to come over.” So after 2 years working with the State, Hank joined the Park Service. His career took him to Lassen Volcanic National Park, then to Mount McKinley National Park as Chief Naturalist, then to a position as Assistant Chief of Resource Interpretation for the Pacific Northwest Regional Office, and finally to Olympic National Park and Port Angeles. He leaned forward and pointed at me: “I’ll tell you what made me a good employee – I was scrupulously honest!”


What led you to the Democratic Party? 
“We had a National Association of Federal Employees,” he explained. “They weren’t quite a union, but they’d track legislation and take pro/con positions on votes. It was pretty clear that the Democrats supported federal employees.” He mentioned that his grandmother was a cook for Earl Warren,  Governor of California and later Supreme Court Chief Justice. “I met him when he was Governor, and he treated me well.”

When he retired in 1995, Hank decided to get active. “I never let fear dominate me. I didn’t like what Republicans were doing. They only went after Democrats, and didn’t pursue good policies.” Hank focused on helping Democrat candidates. “The important thing” he emphasized with a smile and a jab of his fist, “is to be honest, hard-working, use good information, and vote your conscience.” 

What has been the highest point for you as a Democrat?
“When Biden beat Trump – I thought we’d shut this guy down,” he said. He observed that issues like immigration should be handled with compassion. “Mexican-Americans are humans, hard workers, but that’s not what the Republicans say.” He leaned back and looked at me intently. “Nobody at birth or as a young child got to choose their parents, their genetics or class, their family’s religion or politics, or their country of birth. Put yourself in the place of a child.”
​
What leadership positions have you held in the past? How did that experience prepare you for your position with Clallam Dems?
Hank has held leadership positions with national professional organizations, the U.S. Power Squadron, the Port Angeles Yacht Club, and Kiwanis. “I learned how to negotiate – put yourself in their shoes.” 

There were also his management positions in the National Park Service, such as Chief Naturalist. “I’m a strong environmentalist. But I was not paid to fight; I got paid to help things happen.” He shared stories about ONP projects he worked on. Because the Federal funds for the archeology project at the Ozette were placed in the Park budget, Hank was assigned as liaison with the Tribes for compliance. "I worked with the Tribe, and at their request even helped hire Native staff. Honest trust - that's how you work with people."

He told a story of his wife’s boss at Olympic Medical Center. “I’m not supposed to be alive”, he began. “When I was 70 I had a heart attack while I was down in Arizona. My wife needed help to get me home, so her boss went to Arizona and drove me home.

What advice would you give to a volunteer thinking of taking on more responsibility in the Democrats?
“Do it, but don’t impose your viewpoint. Whatever you do, try to walk away friends.” He explained that people vote with friendship. “Continue to help – we all need to do something.”

How do we pass the legacy of the Democratic party to future generations?
“That worries me a lot” Hank responded. “Try to be a good person yourself, and listen to yourself. People are human, you don’t know what they went through. Be a nice guy yourself, and do nice things.”

He handed me a sheet with the policy objectives he supports. At the end of the list was his ‘take-away’ message: “Those who providence has smiled upon need to help those that providence didn’t smile upon if we are going to have true liberty and well being.”

Policy objectives Hank Warren supports:

1. I oppose Trump and gang of thugs whose goal is to make him dictator for life and to trash all programs that support the middle and lower classes and alienating our allies in favor of dictators.
   
2. I encourage the democratic party to reach out more actively to middle of the political spectrum, making sure that the middle class understands that we want them to survive as we want all Americans to survive and respect each other. Especially, until Trumpism is defeated, people need to understand that just not voting or voting for lessor parties to make a statement is not good enough at the moment to get rid of the devil in the white house.
3. I cherish scrupulously, kind behavior, based on objective scientific knowledge and judgement.
4. I believe business profit should be regarded as a reward for quality goods and services rendered to customers, and fair treatment of employes, who in turn owe employers and customer's mutual respect.
5. I endorse compassionate emigration that permits talented people or those that are willingly to fill positions that go empty now. But I oppose unlimited emigration because, like it or not, nature's systems have limited carrying capacities.
6. I support expanding Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Everybody has a right to good health care and good education if they are willing to study hard for it. The rich should pay their fair share to pay for all the foregoing.
7. The country benefits when the country has good professional national, state and local civil services.

      Henry Warren