PORT TOWNSEND — Two local residents will travel to Charlotte, N.C., in September to participate in the Democratic National Convention.
Eli Waite, 32, an unemployed economic analyst, and Emilia Navazio, 23, a college student, will serve respectively as a delegate and alternate to the convention, where President Barack Obama is expected to be nominated for a second term.
“It is really unusual to have two people from Jefferson County attending the convention,” said Jefferson County Democrats Chairwoman Teri Nomura.
“Lori Macklin went as a delegate in 2008, but before that, the last person from Jefferson County to go as a delegate was back in the 1960s.”
Waite downplayed the excitement of this year’s event. “They have already selected the nominee, so this convention will be less eventful than in years past.”
“But it will give us the opportunity to meet other people and share best practices, to talk about ideas as to how to get our message across.”
Both Waite and Navazio will have to pay their own way to the convention, which Waite said will cost around $2,000.
He already has set up a donation site, donate.waitefam.org, and Navazio will open her site soon, Waite said.
There is no choice about lodging, he said.
They are required to stay with their state’s delegation at a cost upward of $200 a night.
This leads to arrangements with two or more people sharing “because you are only in the room to sleep, change and shower,” Waite said.
Both Waite and Navazio are in this for the long haul and expect to support Democratic candidates in the years to come.
“We will need to decide what is the best way to reach people, whether we do it the old-fashioned way by showing up on someone’s doorstep or leverage technology in order to get our message across,” Waite said.
This message is meant to generate support for Democratic candidates but can have a more basic purpose, encouraging people to vote in the first place.
“It’s hard to convince people that they should vote,” Navazio said.
“There is a lot of apathy, and people don’t think that it makes a difference whether they vote or not and they don’t understand that voting is a basic right.”
While the convention focuses on national candidates and issues, Waite and Navazio are seeking to effect change on a local level by persuading people to vote for county commissioner and state representative.
“Local elections are important,” Waite said.
“The public utility commissioners, the port commissioners and the county commissioners have more of an effect on your day-to- day life than the president.
“They are the ones who make sure that parks stay open and the streets get fixed.,” he said.
“The federal and state governments supply the money, but it is the local government that actually makes stuff happen.”
One strategy thee two hope to explore is how to make progress in what has become a toxic political atmosphere.
“There is no center,” Navazio said.
“People are either on the left or on the right, and no one will work together to find the middle ground.”
Waite said that he feels that state Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, the lone Democrat running to replace U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, will be able to ease the logjam.
“I think he is the type of person who will be able to get Congress to start working again,” he said.
“He has worked well with the GOP in the state Legislature.”
The Democratic convention begins Sept. 3
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
