Q&A: William Martion, Marengo County ADC Vice Chairman

By KELLI WRIGHT/KELLI.WRIGHT@DEMOPOLISTIMES

How long have you been active with the Marengo County chapter of the Alabama Democratic Conference?

I have been active in it for about four years now. It has been around much longer than that. The state chairman is Dr. Joe L. Reed, and that organization has been around a while. There are chapters in just about every county in Alabama.

Tell me about your upcoming event, the first annual political membership honors banquet, on March 22.

This is a historic event; this is the first one we have had in Marengo County. They do a semi-annual event at the state level. At the last one we had, Sen. Hillary Clinton was the keynote speaker. They are going to have another one on May 24.

How will the program for the event this weekend run?

It’s basically centered around the format they have at the state level. We’re just doing a mini-type event at the county level. We will have greetings from officials representing the county: Demopolis Mayor Cecil Williamson and the Chairman of the Marengo County Commission Calvin Martin. We’ve also invited other commissioners to come.

We’ll have greetings from the community at large from Willard Williams, the president of the Coming Together Organization. We’ll also have a short greeting on behalf of the business community from Virginia Norman, the president of the business of professional women.

We’ll also have a greeting from Rep. A.J. McCampbell, representing District 71. The keynote speaker is Sen. Artur Davis.

In addition to speakers, what other function will this gathering serve?

We will also have an honoree section. We’re going to have presentations for honorees, which are people who have gone beyond the call of duty in their community in service. We’ll give out several certificates to these honorees.

What are some of the key ideals of the ADC?

ADC has a long and rich history of voter education, (which is) being aware of the importance of voting and actually getting out the vote. Voter registration has been a strong aspect of this organization, we have a rich history of that. Those two things &045; voter education and getting people fired up to vote and understanding why they need to vote &045; are what we do. If people don’t have a good understanding of why they need to vote, you’re not going to get people out to vote. And that’s a part of this event that we’re having. The purpose of this event we’re having Saturday is to get people to understand the importance of getting out to vote, voter education. Davis will be speaking along those terms.

Will the upcoming elections be addressed at this event?

This event is not going to be an event to endorse any particular candidate. We’re not there to endorse anyone. We are basically there to fire people up to vote. If you’re not registered to vote, you need to register to vote. Because this election happens to be one of historic capacity, it just happens to be that way. We’re basically there to fire people up and go to work.

Tickets for the event are $25 and will be on sale until Thursday, March 20. For more information, contact William Martin at 334-289-4812 or Mitchell Congress at 334-289-4217.