Democrats holding annual state convention

YAKIMA – The place is the same, but a quick look around shows that it’s the Democrats, not the Republicans, who are holding their statewide convention here this weekend.

The Republican red shirts have been replaced with Democrat blue.

The tables have literature calling for the impeachment of President Bush, establishing a U.S. Department of Peace and warning of a war in Iran.

There are groups supporting same-sex marriage, immigrant rights and wild salmon.

But for all the differences of opinions and issues, the goal is the same for Democrats as it was last week for the Republicans: Present a united front to voters – or at least as united as possible – as the summer campaign season starts.

Roll up your sleeves, knock on doors, get on the phone for candidates, Gov. Chris Gregoire told delegates who attended a pre-convention banquet.

Gregoire used part of her speech to mobilize opposition to the recent decision by the state Board of Pharmacy to allow pharmacists to refuse to fill a prescription for a morning-after birth control pill if they give the patient a referral to someone who will.

“Send a clear message … we will stand up for patients’ rights,” she said.

The governor also reveled in noting that the “real Washington” – that is, the state – has a Democratic House, Senate and chief executive, compared to the “other Washington” in the nation’s capital, where Republicans are in control.

The Democrats could have a few bumps at their convention, just as their GOP predecessors had. Incumbent Sen. Maria Cantwell has two primary challengers, Mark Wilson and Hong Tran. When they address the delegates today, both will likely blast Cantwell’s support of the 2003 resolution that allowed Bush to send troops to Iraq. The delegates are likely to oppose the Iraq war, just as the convention did two years ago.

But incumbency has its privileges. Most of the state’s Democratic leaders, including Gregoire, staged a photo-opportunity show of support for Cantwell on Friday evening as the delegates arrived.

Gregoire also lionized Cantwell during the Friday evening banquet as the person fighting to keep oil tankers out of Puget Sound, hold Enron accountable and keep the oil companies from gouging motorists. The incumbent got a few minutes, too, using them in part to remind the crowd she had voted against both of Bush’s latest nominations to the Supreme Court.

Cantwell has a choice morning slot to address the convention, while Wilson and Tran get three minutes each, sometime after lunch amid the discussion of the statement of principles and beliefs, called the platform.

Delegates will also hear from congressional candidates, including Peter Goldmark of Okanogan, who is running for the House seat in Eastern Washington’s 5th District, and from Rep. Mike Honda, a California congressman who serves as the Democratic National Committee’s vice chairman, the No. 2 man to Howard Dean.

How the two parties wound up in Yakima on successive weekends can be chalked up to coincidence. Both rotate their state conventions to cities around the state, rotating among Eastern and Western Washington venues.

Viet Shelton, a spokesman for state Democrats, said they’re limited to cities that can hold at least 1,000 convention attendees, and Yakima’s turn just came up. The Democrats were last here in 1998 and Republicans in 1992.