MOSES LAKE - The Grant County Republican Party's annual Lincoln Day Dinner will be held on Saturday, Feb. 18, at the ATEC at Big Bend Community College.

The banquet that honors Abraham Lincoln will get underway at 5 p.m. Party members, friends and supporters are invited, according to GCRP chair Dani Bolyard.

The keynote speaker will be Ileana Johnson Paugh, writer, speaker and frequent radio commentator. Her op-ed pieces are found weekly in the Canada Free Press.

Paugh grew up in Romania under communist rule. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1978 and became a naturalized citizen in 1982.

Paugh wrote "Echoes of Communism," a collection of essays on issues relating to the failure of that system.

Local political candidates and elected officials will be in attendance. Suggested dress is church special or cocktail attire.

The evening will include a silent auction, a live auction and a dessert auction. Tickets will cost $30 until Feb. 13 and $35 afterward. They are available through the GCRP and committee precinct officers.

Tickets are also available at Yarbro Auctioneers in Moses Lake and Goin' Postal in Ephrata.

Bolyard reminded party members that caucuses will occur at 10 a.m. on March 3 at every precinct across the state.

"This is the only way to choose our Republican candidate for president," she said.

Bolyard announced that Republican Women will have their next meeting on Feb. 13 at 6 p.m. at the Emperador Azteca.