CHAIRMAN WILSON’S REMARKS AT 2004 PECHIN BREAKFAST
I am pleased to announce that as of June 8, 2004 there are in Delaware Co. 115, 964 democrats eligible to go the polls and vote. And that number has been consistently increasing every year since 1993. In fact, in the post primary time span of April 28 to June 9 we have gained another 1,549 Democrats.
A party with a base that large whose presidential candidates have carried the past three elections and whose gubernatorial candidate carried in ‘90 and again in 2002 is a party on the move. Now if we could just convince half they people who claim to be the leaders and the workers of this party we could really take off.
This county party maintains a fully functioning headquarters - we are one of only a dozen county parties that do so.
This county party maintains a full voter database more up to date and with a greater % of phone numbers than the state party and leg. campaign comms do.
Over 50% of our county committee seats are filled while the average county is at 35-40%. We’ve expanded our county committee to include additional precinct members and all Democratic elected officials - we are the only county that does so.
This county party holds an annual convention where committee persons can nominate candidates and meet statewide candidates - and every statewide candidate who attends always remarks on the uniqueness and "real" way in which we conduct these conventions.
This county party has a Young Democrats chapter led by Dustin Gettel- only 1/3 of the counties do and I know because the PA. Yd Pres.Tony Campisi told me -
This county party has a women’s organization led by Dorothy Gallagher and affiliated with the Penn. Federation.
This county party worked closely with all the presidential candidates this year and their supporters are remaining active -in our county, unlike others, the Dean supporters have formed a local Delco for Democracy group and affiliated with the county party and opened a county legislative campaign hq in Drexel Hill
We have initiated county voter registration programs, directed by Jason Marmon, targeting precincts and reaching into all legislative districts.
We have a county party website, our volunteer webmaster is Marylin Huff, -- we were the first county party in PA to set up a website in 1996 (the thirteenth in the nation) and by all reviews we have now our best designed and interactive website. And we are making our presence felt in the county. We openly monitor every session of the county council (twice weekly) and our new Registration Commissioner, Dorothy Wyman, and our new Election Commissioner, Gerry Lawrence, are playing an aggressive role in policing the actions of this county when it comes to implementing new voter registration rules and moving polling places at some point in the future acquiring new voting equipment.
I don’t like to announce what is planned I prefer to describe accomplishments. But let me tell you about the next six months and what we hope and expect to do.
-- We are already initiating grass roots outreach into ethnic communities that have not up to now been part of the political process in this county
--we will organize a new grass roots union member involvement in this party
--we are going to expand our fundraising in a way that will encourage supporters of all candidates on the ballot in our county to contribute to their candidates campaign with the guarantee that the money will be spent on the campaign in delaware county.
--building upon the gains we make in the november election we will announce plans and new types of processes to start the 2006 campaigns by the beginning of next year.
- and speaking of next year we expect to have the lead candidate and general theme of our 2005 county campaign by our December leaders meeting
There is nothing that a party with abase of 116,000 voters can’t do except that which it’s committee people and activists don’t want to do.. It has been said that our committee people can be placed in three categories.
--those who watch things happen
-- those who don’t know what’s happening
-- and, those who make things happen
Any Democrat in Delaware County willing to do some work and accept some responsibility and join the team can make things happen.