Chair Report - November 9, 2012

Election…. Now that our November 6 election is behind us we can celebrate our victories and contemplate our losses to determine how to best move forward to the next election. At the national level we have seen some pull-back from our conservative and divisive politics. For state and local elections we continue to see how polarized our political atmosphere remains. As democrats, we will need to work harder in the coming months and years to grow our party and help educate the electorate about the issues and how they impact them. This is a BIG job. We will be talking about it a lot and working to implement new ideas at the local and state level to make our message more effective.

Thank you…. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our outstanding candidates who sacrificed so much to have the pleasure of serving as representatives in our democratic government. You are all heroes/heroines in my book of champions. As I look at the vote tallies from Burnett County one thing is very clear, we cannot win elections unless we have more democrats that vote. Currently, there are more of them (republicans) that vote. Until we change this, we will continue to lose elections.

Losing elections for democratic candidates in Burnett County does not mean we are not trying. It also does not mean we intend to give up. In fact, many of our members have worked very hard to help democratic candidates get their message out and support the election process. I want to extend my thanks to those members for all the hard work. I also want to thank everyone who got out to vote and especially those who took someone with them. We’ll take a short break and hit the ground running in January to begin party-building efforts that will enable us to see more positive results in our local and state elections.

Party elections…. Every year we conduct our local party elections for the coming year. Our Election Committee has met and made recommendations for our next annual election to be held on November 20, 2012 at our regular monthly meeting. You do not need to be recommended to run for an office in our local party. You can be nominated/self-nominated at the election meeting. I encourage anyone interested in becoming an officer to take this opportunity to become a candidate. I also encourage our membership to attend this important meeting and participate in selecting your leaders.

Signs…. Thanks to all the members who dedicated time and effort to get our candidate’s large and yard signs out for the election and cleanup following the election. We had a great crew and our sign efforts received rave reviews from the candidates and the public. We now have a campaign sign system and a list of locations that will make getting those signs up more efficient. If you are not presently on our sign list, contact me and I’ll see to it that you get yard signs in the future. Thanks again for the help.

Phone banking…. Special thanks to Fred Kramer for organizing our phone banking efforts and to Emily Nehring for getting all those lists organized and data entered into the VAN system. Of course, none of this would be possible without the volunteers who managed the phones and urged our democrats to get out and vote. Thank you for the phone calling; you did a great job!

Coming meetings…. Our executive board just met and has agreed to hold executive meetings in December and January to conduct ongoing business for the local party. They have also agreed to cancel the December regular membership meeting to accommodate the busy social schedule of our members. The January membership meeting will be our Annual Recognition Dinner. No business will be conducted at this meeting other than to introduce our newly elected officers. Other business will be delayed until our regular membership meetings resume in February.

The Annual Recognition Dinner is a big event and well attended. You will not want to miss this meeting. This year it will be held on Saturday, January 19 beginning at 5:00 p.m. at the Siren Senior Center. We will be returning to a potluck dinner like we have in the past and will also be providing ham and drinks. I am forming a committee to volunteer calling members to suggest food items to bring so we don’t wind up with just desserts or salads. If you would like to be involved with this planning committee, please contact me.

Expect to see and hear from our democratic candidates and representatives at this dinner.

November membership meeting…. Our next meeting will be held on November 20 at the Whitetail Wilderness Restaurant & Bar located approximately one mile north of the village of Webster along highway 35. The meeting will start at 7:00 p.m. You can arrive at 6:00 p.m. and join us for some supper before the meeting.

Richard Costerisan