A Message From DelCo Dems Chairman
Dear All UP Dems,
Congratulations and thank you to all of our candidates. What an unbelievable effort yesterday. The Delaware County Democratic Committee took a giant step forward in our effort to create a Democratic majority throughout the county. On the county level, our candidates substantially closed the gap – Sally-Ann Heckert-Bikin ran just 6,668 votes shy of the Republicans. Similarly, in the county council races, our candidates ran approximately 11,500 votes behind the Republicans. That is substantial progress. We are now within striking range. Jayne, Keith and Lin as well as Sally-Ann, Larry and Michael were significantly outspent. Republicans had many mailers as well as television. We ran an old fashioned grassroots campaign, knocking on thousands and thousands of doors. And we faced a continued environment of apathy and disengagement by the voters both nationally and locally. Despite that, our county candidates ran hard, they carried our banner proudly and we owe them a debt of gratitude.
Here are the some of the municipal highlights:
Chester: Our team swept all races electing John Linder Mayor and Liz Williams and Nafis Nichols to City Council. We also elected four members to Chester Upland School District and two members to the Chester Township Board of Commissioners. An outstanding and historic result.
Folcraft: Democrats captured the Folcroft Bourough and seats on the Southeast Delco School Board. Congratulations to all the newly elected members there and Southeast Delco Democratic Committee Chairman Cliff Wilson.
Radnor: Democrats won the majority on the Radnor School Board and increased by one the majority on the Radnor Township Board of Commissioners.
Upper Darby: Congratulations to Marah Manners on the election to the Upper Darby Township Council. The at- large candidates Barbarann Keffer and Sekela Coles, who although not victorious, ran close and substantially narrowed the gap.
Morton: Committee Vice chair Mario Cimino won re-election and Democrats captured an additional seat.
Media: Democrats swept and solidified the majority.
Darby, Yeadon, Lansdowne, East Lansdowne, Millbourne, and Swarthmore retained their Democratic councils.
Norwood: Three Democrats were elected to Council
Sharon Hill: Democrats maintained three slots on council.
We unfortunately lost the races in Brookhaven Borough and the town has gone Republican for the first time in 19-years. We thank Janice Sawicki for her many years of service on the Board and the rest of the Brookhaven team for valiantly trying to maintain a Democratic majority.
In Colwyn we retained two Democratic seats and welcome two newcomersto Colwyn's council; Patricia Williams and Marguerite Thomas. Congrats to Tonnete Pray and the Colwyn Dems.
In the Chadds Ford-Unionville School District Democrats took three
seats--two of them in Region C which encompasses part of Delaware
County.
With all of these results, we have positioned ourselves for substantial gains in 2013. In the meantime, we have to get ready for 2012 and the re-election of President Obama, Senator Bob Casey, and State Treasurer Rob McCord, and congressional, state senate and state house have races
Finally, I must thank our Executive Director, Kat Caudle for her tireless work keeping everything organized and moving. She had invaluable assistance from our intern Andrew Daluisio and from our OFA organizer Justin Benn. Our Solicitor Manly Parks did an outstanding job organizing and running our voter protection team of lawyers who were deployed throughout the county.
We will be having our annual holiday party in Decemsber and the invitation will be sent out by the end of the week. I look forward to seeing all of you there.
What is really exciting is how many of you are pumped up and working towards
2013 already. We do need to focus now on the 2012 elections. I'm sure
you have all read about the horrendous redistrting plan for Delco.
We've got a lot of things coming up that we will continue to discuss
with you. Our legal team is working on submitting our objections to
the new lines. If you have not seen how the new lines will effect
Democrats in 2012, please
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
We are also working on recruiting candidates for state house races in
2012. If you're interested in running, or if you are aware of someone
who is interested in running, please
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The State Party will be conducting a briefing on delegate selection
for the 2012 convention. Stay tuned for details.
Finally- we are working on two important projects that will help us,
not only in 2012, but also in years to come. First, we will have a
primary focus on committee building in 2012. When our committees are
fully-functional we have a greater chance at winning seats that haven
not been held by Democrats in decades. We are also working on a
training schedule. We expect the training schedule to include items
for committee members as well.