25 in-person; 6 on Zoom
1. Mohammad called the meeting to order at 6:33
2. Guest Speakers:
a. Matt McLaughlin – running for Senate 9, a critical seat to flipping the Senate blue; the district covers a large range and he feels he will have to concentrate on high population areas; he’s looking for a contact person in each town. His #1 issue is women’s rights, he believes it needs to be a constitutional amendment. His #2 is climate change. Education is #3. Lucy Weber suggested that Matt be sure to NOT ignore the small towns. Also, to not feed into the Republican agenda – by staying away from terms
such as ‘divisive concepts’
b. Colin Van Ostern – running for CD 2,
i. US Congress is fundamentally broken; to fix it, we need to give people faith that our govt is working for them.
ii. Has been executive councilor; has worked on Medicaid expansion; has won this district time and again
iii. sign up if you can help – seeking a real grassroot effort
3. Reports from Town Chairs:
a. Karen Sebastian – Chesterfield – did a GOTV campaign for town meeting – both town and school budgets passed, focusing on increasing participation
b. Judy Lundahl – Surry – the Surry Dems have connected with Ann Grafton with “conversational canvassing” and will soon connect with our own Deep Canvassing team
c. Dita Englund – Stoddard – Angel Nicoletti is organizing a postcard campaign
d. Nick Germana – Keene – good turnout for school board mtg and we did well in the race also; working on getting a good turnout for spag dinner; preparing for the primaries and the drive to build the momentum is starting now! Thanks to Jody Newell, Keene Dems will be filling a shift each month – the 4 th Monday each month.
e. Jim Speaks – Swanzey – good turnout on election day – flipped the school budget committee for the district; setting up for Old Home Days in July – candidates welcome to coordinate with Jim for space
4. Elected officers’ Reports:
a. Sen. Donovan Fenton – PLEASE get Matt McLaughlin elected!! Have heard most of the Senate bills, now starting to hear the House bills, not quite crossover day; some nasty bills coming up: transgender bill regarding women in sports, book banning, EFAs, parental bill of rights, ‘don’t say gay’ bill; Donovan sponsored a bill to ban guns on school
campuses but it isn’t likely to pass
b. Bob Englund – speaking up for Colin and Matt and those stepping up to run in these important races. The Englunds had a large event for people who are running – it was very encouraging. We really need to change the power structure in Concord. In the House, the numbers are so tight, bill passage depends on absences. We have to get really clear and work hard
in this election cycle.
c. Lucy Weber – Walpole and Surry; Democratic Floor Leader, current House make-up: 201 Republicans, 194 Democrats, 2 Independents, 3 vacancies; we have won 7 of the past 9 special elections. We have to be very careful about the narrative and not feed into the Republican narrative – we have to pitch the message to the other side of the aisle and
pull them in!
d. Nick Germana – shared the recent passing of a Representative friend, Art Allison. Good news: beat back an awful book banning bill, 2 landfill bills – capping out-of-state trash at 20% (instead of 50%), & having all future landfills be publicly owned. These all might be killed in the Senate. They’re getting Republican votes on these bills even though there is tremendous pressure on the Republicans to vote the party line. They areoften primaried if they go against the Republican line.
e. Lucius Parshall – it’s a culture war going on as much as anything – a gun bill passed – getting the guns away from people who shouldn’t have them; the Winchester Republican will likely be primaried for supporting
that bill – keeping an eye on that
5. Sub – Committee Reports:
a. Messaging – Sue Hay – this committee figures out what themes are most important for this election in this part of the state – 7 themes last cycle. Once they decide the themes, they decide on a plan, figure out how to allocate the funds, and implement it. They coordinate with town chairs and candidates as well. Will be meeting on April 13 th .
b. Treasurer – Ed Sheldon – we’re in good shape right now with just under $17,000 plus a $10,000 CD maturing in June. Just paid for the spaghetti dinner, we expect a good net from it. We may be looking at $37,000 to
spend for this election – it’s an important election – we want to spend it to win! What really keeps us going are the recurring donations. Please encourage committees and friends to go to cheshiredemocrats.org and
sign up for recurring donations.
c. Recruitment – Mohammad Saleh – we currently still have election openings in Swanzey, Richmond, Cheshire 16 – if you know anyone who might be interested, we have an excellent team to help train, advise and help. From Lucy – we need to encourage people who might not run yet, and start building that as soon as possible
d. Spaghetti Dinner – Kathy O’Donnell – Friday, May 31 st , same location, costs will be the same; if you’d like to sponsor people to attend or put an ad in the program, please do. Becca Balint from VT will be our guest speaker; tickets sign up will be very soon.
6. Meeting Adjourned – 8:02
Next meeting will be May 7th
