The League of Women Voters still prints “nonpartisan” on its letterhead and still receives privileged access to forums, voter guides, public buildings, and elections because of that claim. Karen Crowley’s Peninsula Daily News column defends the organization by splitting hairs between “political” and “partisan.” Local evidence shows that distinction has collapsed. The Clallam County chapter and its leaders function as one side in a partisan contest while still collecting the credibility and institutional access that were granted under the old promise of neutrality.
The Semantic Escape Hatch
Crowley’s piece rests on a familiar claim: the League does not endorse parties or candidates; therefore, it remains nonpartisan even when it takes strong positions on issues. That framing treats the League’s own rules as optional. In practice, the local chapter has spent years aligning with one political direction. The League now sells “Political but not partisan” as the distinction. The record shows the League has repeatedly crossed that line.
Paid Ads Against a President
The Clallam County League ran a paid advertisement in the Peninsula Daily News under the headline “LWVUS Condemns Trump Administration’s Weaponization of Government Against Americans.”
The ad accused the administration of terrorizing immigrants, gays, attacking civil rights, and undermining democracy in its first 17 days. It was not a narrow critique of a single policy. It was a full-throated condemnation of a president and his administration. No comparable advertisement has appeared against Democratic administrations.
Read this article about what happens when a member of the “LGBTQIA+ community” tries to engage with the local League.
Partners Who Pick Candidates
The same chapter regularly tables, marches, and co-hosts events with Indivisible Sequim. Indivisible endorses candidates, produces partisan voter guides, and has turned local rallies into opposition events aimed at the President, Jake Seegers, and Virginia Shogren.
League members appear at these events under League branding.
Crowley argues that partnerships do not compromise the League’s nonpartisanship as long as the shared activity stays focused on an issue. That claim fails when the partner organization exists specifically to defeat particular candidates and the League still lends it both its name and its volunteers. At that point the distinction between issue-based work and partisan activity disappears.
The Face of the Local League
Norma Turner has been a League member for more than five decades and has served multiple terms as president of the Clallam County chapter. Public Disclosure Commission records show she donated $1,000 to Mike French’s campaign for county commissioner—one of his larger individual contributions. She has voiced radio ads for French and filmed a Facebook video promoting his candidacy.
In the video, she claims Seegers wants to send troubled youth out of the county, deport anyone who uses drugs, and make people afraid of the homeless. None of those statements appear in Seegers’ recorded debates, questionnaires, or public comments. Turner has not produced the quotes or context to substantiate them.
If Norma Turner, Karen Crowley, Mike French, or any League official can document that Jake Seegers said any of those things, Clallam County Watchdog will make a donation to the local League of Women Voters chapter. Until then, the video stands as a sitting commissioner’s most prominent local supporter circulating falsehoods about his opponent while the organization that still claims nonpartisan status stays silent.
Title IX and the Girls’ Sports Initiative
Crowley herself has been associated with opposition to Initiative 638, which would require biological males to compete in boys’ sports rather than girls’ sports. She helped author the voters’ pamphlet statement against the citizen-led initiative.
The organization that once advanced women’s suffrage now opposes measures that preserve the protections Title IX was written to guarantee. Young female athletes lose podium places, scholarships, and physical safety while the League treats biological reality as a partisan talking point rather than settled policy.
One Direction Only
Crowley asks why the League has “so much to say” if it does not take sides. The record shows the answer: the organization says a great deal when the position aligns with radical, progressive priorities and almost nothing when it doesn't. It has not run ads against Democratic administrations. It has not partnered with groups that endorse Republican or independent candidates. Its leaders’ donations and public advocacy flow overwhelmingly in one direction. National League materials now frame the country as in a “constitutional crisis” under a program titled “Women Defend Democracy: Democracy Under Siege.” Local chapters are instructed to implement that framing.
The Brand That Buys Access
The League retains its special access—curated forums, ballot processing, and tables in public buildings—only because enough people still believe the old brand. That access is not automatic. It was granted on the explicit claim of neutrality. When the claim no longer matches the behavior—paid anti-administration ads, partnerships with groups that endorse candidates, ballot handling in races those groups have already picked, and a longtime president circulating lies about a challenger—the privilege should end.
Is Norma Turner defending democracy, or desecrating it? Crowley’s column asks the public to treat a word game as if it were still true. The local evidence shows the distinction has already been abandoned.