Wednesday, October 10th, 2012
WASHINGTON COUNTY DEMOCRATS
Meeting, October 10, 2012
Washington County Democrats met Wednesday, October 10, 2012, at 7 p.m.
in the Democratic Party headquarters on Main Street. Eleven people were
present: County Chairman Pete Morrison, Kay Ciha, Dave Ciha, Robert Spenner,
Dawn McCoy, Doris Park, Steve Maxon, Sandra Johnson, Terry Philips, Nan Stark,
and Loebsack campaign worker Brian. Campaign Organizer, Ian Gray joined the
group with several volunteers later and made a report.
Chairman Pete called the meeting to order and led the Pledge of
Allegiance.
Minutes of the September meeting had been sent to e-mail addresses, and
also published in the blog. No changes or corrections were needed, so the
minutes will be filed as reported.
Kay Ciha presented the treasurer’s report and provided printouts. The
cash on hand as of September 12, 2012 was $1,207.88. Income September 12 to
October 10, 2012, was $2,155.00, and came from memberships, fundraiser and
donations, breakdown of which follows: Iowa Democratic Party, $600; from 57
meals served at the fundraiser, $570; donations and checks written over the
dinner cost and pie raffle, $334; starting cash back, $250; from 2013
memberships, $160; donations received at headquarters, $142; and “pass the hat”
at fundraiser, $99. (We cleared $768.40 from the fundraiser.) Expenses were:
John Patterson, $500, for rent from 10-15 to 11-15; Washington County Fair
(damage deposit, which will go back into the account when it is returned upon
inspection of the room), $250; Federated Bank (starting cash), $250; Mediacom
(phone, cable & Internet), $173.86; Terry Philips (meat & buns for
fundraiser), $446.60; Fareway (supplies for fundraiser, $21.48; Custom
Impressions (grommets added to signs), $10.70. Cash available on October 10,
2012, was $2,112.24. There were no objections or corrections to the financial
report, and Pete declared that it would be filed for audit.
Pete gave the Report of the Chair. The 2nd District meeting had been
held after the fundraiser. Steve Maxon and Doris Park are representatives on
the 2nd District and reported that there had been some discussion and concern
expressed during that meeting about voter suppression attempts being made in a
number of states.
Old Business: A good number of volunteers have been coming in every day
to the headquarters. GOTV is designed for the last big effort to get out the
vote. There are some supplies, such as printer and clipboards, which can be
stored after the election and used again in two years.
New Business: Brian reported that they are looking for volunteers for
Representative David Loebsack and for the county supervisor races. Brian said
Henry hoped that there could be one night of calling each week. He will send
down one of the interns to help with that and to bring the lists of registered
voters. We have many cell phones available to us for calling. NRCC has dumped
lots of money in the Quad Cities area, and we are being pummeled there.
Financially we are doing what we need to do. Brian is finance assistant for the
Loebsack campaign. The question of “the John Deere issue”came up. We need to
try to find a way to show that Archer is “kind of a slick person” and a little
out of touch --has investments in manufacturing in other countries. Dave
Loebsack has repeatedly stated that we don’t have an issue with John Deere, as
a company; we are proud to have it in our state, etc. The issue has sort of
died down now; they are going on to other issues now, such as: “John Archer is
the embodiment of management.” Thanks were expressed to Brian for coming and
representing the Loebsack campaign.
Ian Gray, the county campaign organizer, is working very hard on the
Obama campaign and headquartered in Washington County, spoke about GOTV. He
said there were 50 absentee ballots out that need to be collected. He has been
doing GOTV recruitment and will try to provide everyone with get-out-the-vote
cards. A satellite office will be opened in Riverside and will be run by Mary
Paterson of Riverside. Staffing for that will come from the Riverside,
Ainsworth and Wellman areas.
He brought up some questions we need to be asking people -- “Have you
thought about voting? How are you going to get to the polls? How are you going
to get that absentee ballot in?”
Ian has yard signs available and needs to have people come in and get
some of them. Sandra Johnson asked about requirements for proof of residency
and about valid Iowa-issued picture ID documents. Brian said we should also ask
voters if they are registered at their current addresses. The question arose
about poll watchers. There will be election judges. Terry spoke and said that
the emphasis is to get out the vote. GOTV is to get the people to the polls. If
we detect some kind of voter suppression, there is a hot line to call with
lawyers in Des Moines. Also, two Republicans and two Democrats are supposed to
be present at the courthouse to watch the opening of the absentee ballots on
Monday, Nov. 5.
The voter protection hot line number is 855-868-3174. This is the number
to call if we are concerned about any aspect of voter registration. This number
may be given out to as many people as we want. We should have no problem in
finding Democratic lawyers in Iowa City.
Supervisor candidates need funding, and Terry asked if the Washington
County Democratic Party had thought about that. Discussion centered briefly on
the need to find out how much money we will have in the treasury after a couple
of bills have been paid, and from that we could decide out much we have
available to give.
Bob Spenner moved that we give to the supervisor candidates. Terry
seconded. The amount intended would be $250 for each candidate, for a total of
$750. There was also discussion about whether the party should use part of the
funding to pay for advertising, or let each candidate take care of his or her
own advertising from the funds. The vote was taken on providing each candidate
with $250. Kay abstained from the vote. The motion carried. Kay wrote the
checks and informed everyone that she was dating them October 15, and a check
would be ready for each candidate that evening. The supervisor candidates
thanked the group for their support.
Terry noted that the county attorney has been very quiet lately.
The meeting was adjourned. The next meeting will be Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. at
the Washington Public Library.
The meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Nan Stark, Secretary
