Rockport Democratic Town Committee

 

Minutes 1/12/2008 Meeting -Attendees:18

Members – Sally Chapdelaine, Nancy Delaney, Tom Delaney, Maureen Dwinell, Mary Francis, Ruth Gillies, Ann-Patrice Hickey, Dan Lauzon, Lois Lundell, Jerry Maisch,  Jim McCloy, Martha Morgan, Kay Murphy, Roberta Paine,  Ruth Perrault, Helen Rush-Lloyd, Ann Sheinwald, Mary Sibbalds.

 

The meeting at the Rockport Town Library was called to order at 10:10 AM by chair, Ann Sheinwald. The main agenda items were preparation for the Pasta Dinner and the February Caucus.

 

The Democratic Pasta Dinner, our one fund raising activity of the year, will be held Saturday, Jan 26, 2008.  Volunteers signed up for the set up which will take place at 4PM on Saturday. The tickets are $12 per person and reservations may be made by calling Ann Sheinwald or sending your checks directly to our treasurer, Pat Koechlin.  U.S. Congressman John Tierney usually attends, along with State Representative Tony Verga.  This year Senator Kerry’s opponent, Ed O’Reilly, will be attending.   Anyone may speak for a candidate at the dinner.

 

For the February 2^nd Caucus some new rules apply.  Tom Delaney reported that committee members must be signed into the meeting before the appointed time or they will not be able to vote.  Since the Town Library does not open until 10AM on Caucus Day, it was decided to change the caucus time from 10AM to 10:30AM to meet this requirement.  Tom also reported that there will be some new categories of unelected delegates for minority groups and age groups.  For example, we can send the name of an under 35 year old and the State Committee will appoint some to the convention.

 

The Town Committee nomination papers that were sent in on time but lost by the Secretary of State’s Office were successfully resubmitted.  Thanks to everyone who went to Ann’s to sign the papers again.  The resubmission was accomplished with the help of Tony Verga and Tom Delaney, who hand delivered the papers.  These names will appear on the February 5^th ballot.

 

Ann, Tom and David Wise spoke with Representative Verga about the issue of town clerks not reporting write-in ballots, Verga submitted a bill that requires the town clerks to report write-in names for any office in the annual report.  Only names of legitimate citizens would be reported.  We will be notified when a hearing on this bill is announced.

 

Ann-Patrice Hickey mentioned that some viral emails have been circulated that may make candidates look unfavorable.  She suggested looking up facts on  SNOPES.com before forwarding what may be false information to other people.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 10:55AM.

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy Jo Delaney, Recording Secretary