Outgoing chair of the District 31 Democrats, Lela Ryterski, virtually passed the gavel on Saturday at the District 31 Democratic Caucus and Eileen Bechtol began her term as chair. Bechtol led the caucus of about 25 people on Google Hangouts. To begin the meeting, Bechtol called on party member Ron Keffer to read a statement recognizing Native primacy.
“We acknowledge that we are on the current and ancestral unceded territory of the Dena'ina people and we thank them for the stewardship of these lands for thousands of years. We also thank the Sugpiaq people who also have lived and traded on this land for thousands of years, "Keffer read from the statement.
It took about two hours for local Democrats to elect new officers, place local partymembers on state committees and select 10 local delegates to the state convention, which will also be held online on May 16. One of those delegates, Liz Downing came to the meeting from another call with state party leadership where they officially endorsed Alyse Galvin for the seat currently held by Don Young in the U.S. House of Representatives. Downing says a local group has formed to support Galvin’s campaign, “The Galvinizers.”
"The Galvanizers are a group of Homer folks who are coming up with ideas to support Alyse’s campaign. She did not win Homer last time, so we need to make that a different result," said Downing.
Liz Diament is an Alaska Democratic Party Regional Vice Chair. She facilitated the caucus and reported on the recent Alaska Democratic Presidential Primary.
“There will be eight Biden delegates and 7 Sanders delegates. Anybody who signed up to be a delegate to the state convention , when you register for the state convention, you will be asked your preference at that time. The choices are Biden or Sanders. No one else got enough delegates, said Diament.
You can see primary results and register to attend the state convention at alaskademocrats.org
