While Democrats, Republicans and members of the Island County Fair Board and fair association were arguing about freedom of political speech Monday night, they carried out one of the oldest democratic traditions in existence.

In a wide open forum reminiscent of an old-time town hall meeting, more than 50 people argued and debated their way through the most contentious issue to come out of August’s fair run — whether and how political parties, specifically the Island County Democratic Party, should be able to distribute political materials at the fair.

Though there were clearly strong feelings at work at the gathering, which was the regular monthly meeting of the fair association, both the politically active and association members seemed closer to agreeing on acceptable behavior for political parties at the fair than they were in August. During the fair, several fair board members told the Island County Democrats to remove certain signs from their voter registration booth on the midway. The signs were critical of George W. Bush.

Though the Democrats did remove some of the signs, they have been contending for weeks that the requests to remove the signs were an infringement on free speech. At Monday’s meeting, through a letter written by county Democratic chairwoman Grethe Cammermeyer, the group also worried aloud that they might not be allowed to have a voter registration booth or food booth on the midway at the 2004 fair.

Reading the letter for Cammermeyer, who could not attend the meeting, Democratic vice-chair Ann McDonald noted that the fair board president, Marilyn Gabelein, sent her party a letter in which she threatened the party’s booth status for the coming fair.

After the reading, members of the association and the Democratic Party debated the status of the voter registration and information booth. Sandey Brandon, the secretary for the fair association, noted in the fair’s published rules about giving out political literature from booths designated for food service is not allowed.

“Food booths are for the service of food,” she said.

As he and his fellow party members have for several weeks, Democrat Craig Brandt argued that the booth was not a food booth. He claimed that the Democrats rented and operated the booth — which is adjacent to the party’s food booth — under a legal contract with the fair. Jim Eakin, the fair’s manager, said he does not see it that way. He noted that the Democrats rented the booth space — which had been used to distribute visitor information at the fair last year — to expand their kitchen operations.

“She most certainly didn’t mention it was going to be used for political purposes,” he said of the Democrat who signed the contract to rent the booth.

Trying to bring the argument to a quick and agreeable end, Island County Commissioner Mike Shelton — who has been attending fair meetings in recent months — proposed that political parties with food booths at the fair simply quit distributing materials that attack one another. He said giving out promotional materials for candidates would be more acceptable at the fair.

Shelton, who is a Republican, got the biggest applause at the 2-plus hour meeting when he admitted that his party, too, gave out political literature at its ice cream booth.

“Then both political parties are equally guilty,” he said.

Several people at the meeting argued against the parties distributing political materials at all, saying the fair should be free of politics. Paul Smith, a fair board member, said he could not believe that the issue had been given the amount of discussion it has received.

“It’s been blown completely out of proportion,” he said.

Though by meeting’s end the fair association had not made any motions or taken any votes on the issue of distributing political materials, Gina Smith — the chairwoman of the fair’s vendor committee — encouraged association members to introduce any policy changes they felt necessary to address the issue.

Outgoing fair association president Mary Ann Davis added her endorsement to the discussion. She said she was pleased that the association could provide an open forum for the debate, something she said was not possible at the previous week’s fair board meeting.