Building the Democratic Slate for 2011
The LDMC met on Tuesday, November 16 and spent the first part of the meeting debriefing the recent election. We were pleased that our efforts were successful in electing John DeSimone and Darryl Whitter to the Leonia Town Council. We were also proud that we were able to deliver a complete Democratic victory in all contests at the national and county level in Leonia. However, only Representative Steve Rothman was successful in his race to return to the U.S. Congress from District 37, while all the county contests were lost to the Republican slate
Most of the meeting was focused on the process for selecting a Democratic slate of local candidates to run for Mayor and two Council seats for the 2011 primary election. To be included on the ballot for the June primary, candidates must have their petitions (with 40 signatures) submitted to the County Board of Elections by March 2, 2011. The LDMC decided on an initial list of Leonians to contact to determine their interest in running for local office. We will continue this process until we have a “short list” of interested candidates. These people, along with the current incumbents, will be asked to interview with the entire LDMC, sometime in January. The LDMC will use the interviews to determine the final slate of candidates.
The LDMC also spent time at the November meeting discussing what role we want to play in trying to bring about reforms in the Bergen County Democratic Organization. We asked a sub-committee to give this topic further attention and to come back to the entire committee with a suggested plan for moving forward.
