Two from Clallam heading for Democratic National Convention next month
By Jim Casey, Peninsula Daily News
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Julie Johnson of Neah Bay will attend her party's national convention on Aug. 25-28 as one of about 5,000 delegates.
Marco Xavier Hermosillo of Sequim will serve on the 186-member platform committee.
Hermosillo said he was named to the committee partly because of being the 24th Congressional District's state committeeman and former two-term state secretary of Utah Democrats.
"It's exciting, being from Clallam County and having the chance of representing the views of Clallam County," Hermosillo said.
"Democrats worked hard here and at the state level to build issues."
Johnson said she'll serve two constituencies.
"I'm the first Native American woman to be representing Clallam County at the national convention," she said.
"I'm just really proud to be representing the tribes, not only the county."
Both are pledged to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Clinton has suspended her campaign against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who is the presumptive winner of the Democratic nomination for president.
But, "to my knowledge, she has not released her delegates, " Johnson said.
"She wants her platform — such as health care, the economy and bringing home the troops — to remain priorities within the party.
"I am remaining a Hillary delegate.
"I would think there are some people who are wanting her to be a vice presidential candidate" in the Nov. 4 general election, in which Sen. John McCain of Arizona is the presumptive Republican nominee for president.
But whatever happens, Johnson said, "I'm a Democrat. I'll support the party."
Campaigned for spot
Johnson had to campaign for her trip to Denver at the party's state convention in Spokane June 14 and 15.
One hundred thirty people applied for the nine at-large slots that Washington Democrats awarded to Clinton.
"Each candidate got one and a half minutes to speak," Johnson said.
"We went all day Saturday and into Sunday night."
Hermosillo said he'd been involved in politics since he was 18.
Although he left Sequim for Utah to earn his bachelor's and master's degrees, he brought his Democratic affiliation with him when he came back home.
From the start of Democratic candidates' run for the presidential nomination, he felt Clinton was "the candidate I felt embodied the values of the state I was in."
Long-time Hillary booster
As for Johnson, she's been an enthusiastic Clinton fan since the senator was First Lady.
Johnson was vice-chairperson of a 43-tribe Northwest Indian Health Board that grappled with Native Americans' highest infant mortality among U.S. ethnic populations and their lowest life expectancy.
Clinton, while working on a national health plan during her husband Bill Clinton's presidency, contacted the group, surprising Johnson.
"We're not used to people asking our opinion," she said, speaking for Native Americans.
"It was really startling to me that the First Lady would ask our opinion."
Bill and Hillary Clinton won her heart with another action:
"President Clinton was the first president in the whole United States ever to ask all the chairmen of the [country's] 562 tribes to the White House," she said.
Long career of service
And where Hermosillo had a Democratic pedigree from his parents, Johnson has a life of public service.
An enrolled Lummi married to Ron Johnson, a Makah, she has been superintendent of the Lummi schools and a planner for the Lower Elwha Klallam, who did early work on the proposal to remove the Elwha River dams.
For the past 13 years, she has led the National Indian Women's "Support Each Other" annual awards, served two five-year terms on the Peninsula College Board of Trustees and 10 years on the University of California-Berkeley American Indian Graduate Committee.
Hermosillo speaks of Johnson with reverence:
"Her reputation precedes her as somebody who embodies what Clallam County is about."
________
Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: July 05. 2008 9:00PM