Meeting Minutes – August 6, 2024

08/06/2024, Tuesday 6:30 – 8:00 pm

Meeting Minutes

38  in-person; 9 on Zoom

1. Mohammad called the meeting to order at 6:33
2. Guest Speakers:

• Shoshona Kelly – Candidate for Executive Council District – described her background, described the job of Executive Counselor, tied up her campaign as an act of “hope;” hope as a belief in our collective future. Questions: concerns about a better voice for education
• Andru Volinsky – introduced Ro Khanna – 4^th term member of Congress, Congressman Khanna represents Silicon Valley, author of Digital Divide, co-sponsored the CHIPS Act and actively working on reform of the Supreme Court
• Ro Khanna – How do we win the election? Besides reproductive rights, climate, voting rights and moving forward not backward – we have to talk about economics, specifically income inequality – as well as child care, health care and education that are needed to support our economics. We have to go into these communities and listen to understand where the anger and frustration is coming from. MAGA combines economic nostalgia with racial nostalgia. We need to reinvest in manufacturing in this country – manufacturing with low carbon footprint and with targeted building, economic resurgence and revitalization. Child care is needed to allow this, we need affordable housing for this as well – Harris and Walz are behind this and can get this done! Republican vision is one of nationalism, not of patriotism. Dems are fighting for our multi-racial society, the very principle this country stands for

Questions:

• Supreme Court reform – how optimistic can we be? we need to force accountability for the bribery; other questions and comments ensued around this topic
• “Economic patriotism” – expressed excitement about hearing about the importance of manufacturing coming from a Democrat
• Is there energy in Congress to codify some of the things that the Supreme Court has destroyed? Once we get the trifecta, yes!

3. Reports from Town Chairs:
   • Surry – August 18, 2-4, Meet and Greet, town hall, will caucus to elect a Treasurer on Aug 20^th
   • Chesterfield – August 9 – Meet the Candidates, 6-7:30, town hall
   • Harrisville – just re-formed with Andrew Maneval and Andrea Polizos as co-chairs, 18 participants; they would like to join up with a nearby town(s) to host candidates
   • Rindge Dems – 4^th annual picnic – Sunday, 5-8pm Aug 11^th

4. Elected officers’ Reports:
   • Donovan Fenton – in campaign mode right now, not in session; incumbents get to introduce bills in September; 2 of his bills were recently signed by Sununu – Child Care Work Force bill, Rural and Underserved Educator Compensation bill

Donovan is on the Education committee – fighting nasty bills constantly; Commissioner of Ed is uncooperative and unavailable for superintendents and lawmakers; really need to take the majority at the state level

Questions:

1. Separation of church and state? Voucher program is the real problem; being in the minority, there is little we can do
2. Rte 9 accident problem – can DOT help?

• idea of creating regional structures for small towns to work better in the modern day – such as fire and rescue
• Lucy Weber – Getting the House and Senate flipped is absolutely critical! On the education front, the Joint Performance Audit Committee is trying to figure out how the voucher plan is done and getting paid, but hasn’t yet broken through the veil of secrecy
• Lucius Parshall – Science Tech and Energy Committee meeting – legislation on “PBR” – performance based rate making – a de-centralized grid; need a BLUE House!
• Eli Rivera – strong sheriff’s office!

5. County Committee Reports:
   • Election Support Team – critical year!!!
     1. General Update – 10 people meeting every 2 weeks, canvassing, training and updating the town chairs; introduced our intern, Quinn who makes a podcast, “Into the Tussle.”
     2. Canvassing – deep canvassing = listening, validating their point of view; conversations are very encouraging; we need more canvassers – this is separate than the canvassers going out from the state

• Cohort Training – in full swing, our canvassers are being trained by the Dirt Road organizing team

1. Postcard Writing – Terri O’Rorke and Peggy Hogan – will have it in Keene and have it replicated in the towns

• Candidate Forum –August 26^th : the 1^st hour will be focused on the executive counselor campaigns; the 2^nd hour will focus on county commissioners
• Mohammad thanked those who worked the County Fair booth; Sue added some description of the multi-day event – very successful!

6. Meeting Adjourned – 8:00