State Convention Diary

Last Saturday, May 24, 2008, hundreds of Vermont Democrats flocked to Barre from the far corners of the state. The reason? The Democratic State Convention from which national delegates to the National Democratic Convention in Denver were to be selected.

For the first time in recent memory, Northfield sent a hale and hearty contingent to the state convention: Carolyn and John Stevens, Denise MacMartin, Brad and Mary Denny, Aaron and Sonya Rhodes all joined me to cast our votes for the national delegate slate. You can read about the convention in yesterday's Times Argus.

Elected to go to Denver as delegates representing Vermont for the National Democratic Convention were:

Obama delegates: Rachel Weston Carolyn Dwyer Daria MonDesire Arshad Hasan Taylor Bates Philip Baruth Alternates: Michael Gaffney & Mary Sullivan

Clinton delegates: Madeleine Kunin Don Hooper Michael Pieciak Beth Robinson Alternate: Nancy Richardson

Below are some of the photos of the event:

Denise MacMartin, Christopher Curtis, and Carolyn Stevens enter the convention hall.

Aaron Rhodes gets into the swing of things on the Convention floor.

Rep. Mark Larsen, State Chairman Ian Carleton, and Chris Curtis at the Convention.

Vermont's Secretary of State, Deb Markowitz!

Former Secretary of State and Clinton Delegate, Don Hooper with former Speaker of the House, Rep. Michael Obuchowski of Bellows Falls. Hooper was elected a national delegate and will be going to Denver as one of the delegates representing Clinton's share of Vermont's votes.

Dr. Deb Richter, single-payer health care champion confers with former State Senate candidate Tim Palmer.

State Convention: Saturday, May 24, 2008

Below is the draft agenda for Saturday's Convention. Thanks to our delegates for attending (those of you who can). I look forward to seeing you all there. Let's plan to meet at 8:30am outside the main entrance to the civic center. If you need directions to the Civic Center, just go to the Vermont Democrats website.

There has been some discussion about carpooling, but as the weekend arrives I understand more and more people have family/travel/other obligations. If you do need or want to carpool, please send me an individual email and we can see about carpool options.

Thank you, and see you soon. For those of you not attending the State Convention, enjoy the long Memorial Day weekend!

DRAFT AGENDA
2008 Vermont Democratic Convention
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Barre Civic Center, Barre, Vermont
________________________________________
7:30am Volunteer Briefing

8:30am Delegate Registration Opens—Convention Hall
Meeting of Rules, Procedures and Credentials Committee

9:00am Call to Order: Ian Carleton, State Chair
Remarks: U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy
Remarks: Senator Peter Shumlin
Report from the 2008 State Convention Rules, Procedures and
Credentials Committee
Convention Chair, Ian Carleton, assumes duties

10:30am Delegate registration closes

10:45am Presidential Preference Sub-Caucuses Convene
Election of District Delegates and Alternates
Obama—Location: On the main floor—Convener: Chuck Ross
Clinton—Location: Downstairs — Convener: Billi Gosh

12:15pm LUNCH –Box lunches are available downstairs

12:15pm Young Democrats Meeting – Planning for Elections & Election of Officers.

1:15pm Convention Reconvenes—Convention Hall
Remarks: U.S. Congressman Welch
Remarks: Speaker Gaye Symington
Remarks: Former DNC Chair Joe Andrews
Remarks: Governor Madeline May Kunin
Announcement of District Delegate and Alternates results
Election of National Committeeman & National Committeewoman
Remarks: Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz
Remarks: State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding
Remarks: Attorney General Bill Sorrell

3:00pm Consideration of Resolutions

4:30pm Adjournment
________________________________________________________

Police Station Vote Coming Up!

Aaron Rhodes is doing his part...

... have you put your lawnsign up yet?!

Next Meeting: Saturday, April 26th @ 9:00 am - Common Cafe

Hi Folks,

A friendly reminder that our next meeting is coming up. We're hoping that Rep. Maxine Grad will be on hand to meet everyone, to hear from you, and perhaps to give an update on what's cooking in the legislature.

It will also be the morning after the Curtis Awards with Keynote Speaker, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut). Should be a great evening, and no doubt there will be reports from the event.

See you all soon!

Northfield Delegates Selected for State Convention

Northfield Democrats caucused at the Common Cafe this Saturday morning, March 22, 2008. We joined our fellow Democrats around the state meeting up to decide who will represent our town at the Vermont Democratic State Convention on May 24, 2008. Delegates to the State Convention will elect delegates to the National Convention August 25-28 of 2008.

Based on voting results at Town Meeting Day, Northfield is entitled to 14 total delegates to the State Convention: 8 for Sen. Obama; 6 for Sen. Clinton.

Members of the Northfield Town Committee met for an hour Saturday morning and elected the following slate of delegates:

Obama Delegates: Denise MacMartin, Carolyn Stevens, Brad Denny, Mary Denny, Aaron Rhodes, Christopher Curtis

Clinton Delegates: Mike Kerin, Sonya Rhodes, John Stevens, Siobhan Smith

Our delegate selection sheets will be filled out and returned to the State Democratic Party and we will be seated at the State Convention for the first time in recent memory. Congratulations to our delegates!

Town Meeting Day!

** Cross-posted at Exit Voices. Worth checking out to post your own town meeting day stories.

*******************

Just finished up Northfield Town Meeting. My son’s first town meeting day (he’s just 5 months old)! Felt great giving him a front-row seat to democracy in action.

Most items passed without much debate. The exception? A proposal to establish a $500 fund for picnic tables at recreational areas in town. Small town democracy at its finest!

I was particularly pleased that the town voted in favor of establishing a conservation commission, something a small, dedicated band has worked on for about a year now. They’ve already secured some grant funding for surveys of the Dog River and trail- work on Payne Mountain. Commission status will boost their grant potential for other projects in the future.

It’ll be interesting, too, to see how the other big items fare: There’s a ballot item for a new police station, and of course the school budget. The former went down last time, but there is renewed interest b/c of the building’s dilapidated condition; the latter is almost always a close, 50-50 vote with one side or another eeking out enough to carry the day (followed by a series of re-votes, ugh!).

Rep. Anne Donahue was there… so was Sen. Bill Doyle. Didn’t see any other political glitterati, however.

I was pleased to see most members of our Democratic Town Committee were present for the meeting.

Wonder how much a meaningful, contested primary this year boosted town meeting attendance. It would be interesting to find out. Do people just turn out to vote? Or, do they stick around to discuss the details with their neighbors at the town meeting? What do you think? Anybody else observe greater numbers at the meeting? I’m sure the overall vote tallies will be substantially higher - probably record numbers.

As for a wish list item for the ballot, here’s mine: One thing I would love to see is the elimination of the recall rule. It requires a legislative fix, but currently Northfield voters can overturn a result by getting a small number of petitioners to call for a re-vote (think it’s 5 or 10%, or something). This means that even when we get a majority vote, a tiny minority can call it back and rely on a much smaller turnout the second time around (because special elections frequently have smaller turnout either because folks don’t know, or forget a special vote is happening, or because there aren’t other elections/candidates/ballot items to bring people out to the polls). This happens frequently when we do happen to pass the school budget. It’s a real thwarting of democracy, and a deceptive way to go about doing town business.

Obama in Vermont?

According to the Washington Post, Sen. Barack Obama is taking time out of his Texas/Ohio schedule to campaign in both Rhode Island and Vermont. Here's what the Post had to say:

"In a testament to the importance being placed on every state and delegate in the hard-fought Democratic contest, the candidate will take time away from Texas and Ohio to stump in this state as well as in Vermont, which will also hold a primary on Tuesday."

Anyone else out there have any information on this?