Chair Report - February 15, 2013

New Meeting Time…First I would like to let everyone know that we are moving our monthly meeting time up by ½ hour. Starting with our next meeting on February 19 at the Whitetail Wilderness Restaurant & Bar we will begin our meetings at 6:30 p.m. instead of 7:00 p.m. The meetings will still be held on the 3^rd Tuesday of each month at the Whitetail unless otherwise noted. We always welcome you to come an hour early and begin the evening by joining with your fellow democrats for supper. The Whitetail Wilderness is located about a mile north of Webster on Hwy. 35.

Extremely Important Primary Election…On Tuesday, February 19 there will be a statewide primary election and the only election in Burnett County on that day. This election is EXTREMELY important! On April 2^nd Wisconsin will elect a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice for a 10-year term. The current office-holder is Pat Roggensack. She is the conservative Scott Walker crony and part of the 4-judge conservative majority that has made Wisconsin’s Supreme Court the laughing stock of the entire country. Starting on the 19^th we can change all that. We have two excellent challengers for the non-partisan office, Ed Fallone and Vince Megna. You will have the opportunity to vote for one of the three candidates in the primary election on the 19^th. Visit our Burnett County Democrats blog page at http://burnettcountydemocrats.blogspot.com/p/candidate.html  or the respective candidate’s sites at http://falloneforjustice.com/ or http://vincemegna.com/ for information on the candidates. Our blog page has video interviews of all three candidates. By defeating Roggensack we can return respect to our state court system and stop Walker’s right-wing agenda to decimate our Wisconsin values. Then, on April 2^nd we can complete the job by defeating Roggensack and reclaiming the court.

Membership…One of our main objectives for 2013 is to grow our membership. Our new Vice Chairman, Robert Sullivan, will be chairing a committee working on contacting democrat-leaning people in Burnett County and encouraging them to join the party. We think our party has a lot to offer and ask every member to maintain their membership and encourage family and friends to join them in making a difference in Wisconsin’s political landscape. Nonmembers are always welcome at our party functions and encouraged to join us as volunteers in our various activities and committee functions. I believe that once you begin to see how working together helps to advance our democratic agenda, you will want to become a member. Our membership means strength. It offers us the opportunity to broaden our influence and elect candidates that share our Wisconsin values. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is rolling out a new 72 county strategy. Join with us to win back Wisconsin’s legislature and governor’s office. If you need information on how to become a member or a volunteer please contact me and I will help you begin to make a difference.

2013 Plan…The Burnett County Democrats are working towards getting their act together and actually will have a plan of action for the party in 2013. The executive board has voted to recommend the plan to the membership at this month’s meeting. We will be looking for your support on our plan of action for the next year. See the attached plan.

2013 Budget…Part of a good plan is a budget. The executive board is also working on a budget plan for the coming year. Because the budget is a bit more complicated, we will be considering it at our March meeting.

Richard Costerisan

Chairman, Burnett County Democrats