Posted Tuesday, August 30, 2016 8:00 pm

Sen. Bernie Sanders was up front at the Port Townsend Community Center on Aug. 24, live-streaming from his hometown of Burlington, Vermont, to help kick off a new nationwide political movement called Our Revolution.

More than 90 people in Port Townsend turned out to listen to what the former presidential hopeful had to say about the future of the political revolution he started as a candidate.

The Port Townsend event was one of roughly 2,300 “watch parties” across the country. It was sponsored by Jefferson County Progressives, a new organization that is being crafted by former Sanders supporters in Jefferson County, including Michael Ferguson, who had traveled the country earlier this year, campaigning for Sanders.

Ferguson stood at the room's entrance, creating Jefferson County Progressives buttons while listening to Sanders speak.

Ferguson said Jefferson County Progressives is a group that is dedicated to uniting “local progressives under the banner of the principal issues Bernie focused on in this election.”

He did not call it a new party.

Bruce Cowan, chair of Jefferson County Democrats, attended the meeting, and said he did not see the Jefferson County Progressives as a new party that would compete with the Democrats. He also noted a new group called Young Democrats is forming.

“I thought it was a good meeting. A lot of people have been energized by the Sanders campaign. They are interested in issues,” Cowan said after the meeting. “Some of [the Sanders supporters] can get with the [Democratic] party and some can't.”

SANDERS’ SPEECH

The speech Sanders gave to announce the new political organization, which is aimed at getting progressives elected across the country, on local school boards, city councils as well as in state legislatures and national positions, was quintessential Sanders.

(The announcement from that night can be viewed at

ourrevolution.com.)

“What I believe today is that change never takes place from the top down,” Sanders said at the outset. “It takes place when people by the millions, sometimes over decades, and sometimes over centuries, determine that the status quo, the world they see in front of them, is not the world that should be.”

Sanders talked about social justice issues, climate change, a broken criminal justice system and trade agreements that he said were a “race to the bottom” for workers around the world.

Sanders did not urge people to support Clinton, but did note that she had come around to support the idea of building community medical clinics around the country that would help with access to health care.

Sanders did not utter Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's name.

Sanders did boast that the progressive ideals on which he campaigned – including tuition-free college education – are becoming more common points of conversation for many candidates across the nation running for office.

There were several rounds of applause when Sanders talked about overturning Citizens United and Initiative 735, an effort to make Washington the 18th state to ask Congress to overturn the case that allows corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns.

Sanders also said President Barack Obama is “dead wrong” to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership – better known simply as the TPP. That comment drew another round of applause in Port Townsend.

The event, in fact, was reminiscent of the March Democratic caucus meetings in Port Townsend, during which Sanders supporters crowded into the community center. A record 3,778 Democrats in Jefferson County turned out on March 26 to caucus; 70 percent of those who turned out supported Sanders' bid for president.

After Sanders lost to Clinton in July at the national convention, there was the question of what would happen to Sanders' revolution.

Sanders answered that with the introduction of Our Revolution, noting that young people were the ones who would take up the cause and be the future.

“We won overwhelming support from the younger people of our country, 45 years of age and younger,” he said, adding that those supporters included young people who are black, white, Latino, Asian American and Native American.

YOUNG IN PT

Ryan McAllister, 28, of Port Townsend is one of those young people. McAllister was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention for Sanders.

McAllister ran for precinct committee officer representing District 102, Discovery Bay. He lost to longtime resident Al Scalf.

That loss has not deterred McAllister from being interested in politics.

Tyler Myles Vega, 38, of Port Townsend, a former Green Party congressional candidate, also was on hand for the event. Vega is now working on behalf of Mike Coverdale, in independent seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, 6th District, D.

Ferguson said representatives of a number of groups are interested in carrying forward the work that Sanders talked about in his campaign.

Organizations whose representatives were on hand included: Jefferson County Democrats, Progressive Independent Party, Green Party of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington Berniecrats Coalition, Jefferson County Move to Amend, Jefferson County Young Democrats and Jefferson County Progressives.

TURMOIL

While Sanders supporters in Port Townsend applauded what Sanders had to say, concern is being raised about turmoil in the Our Revolution from the get-go that relates to how the nonprofit will conduct fundraising and how transparent it becomes moving forward.

Sanders, still in the Senate, passing on the revolution baton to supporters, including Larry Cohen, the former president of the Communications Workers of America, and Jeff Weaver, who managed his presidential campaign.