Johnson County Democratic Party
Guest Speaker/Business Meeting
November 2, 2021
Meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm by Greg Haas, Chair.
Attendance in person: Mitch Black, Lois Petersen, Sharon Case, Dudley Case, Greg Haas
Attendance online: Vikki Chenette, Ted Hanlon
Secretary Report:
Minutes from October 5 do not need to be approved since it wasn’t an official business meeting.
Treasurer’s Report:
Mitch Black gave the report for Suzi Black. Mitch reported current bank account balance including recent donations.
Chair Announcements:
Greg asked if anyone had names of possible candidates for elective offices. Lois Petersen said she has put together a list of names of potential candidates.
Greg proposed having an election or candidate committee meeting to discuss potential candidates. Mitch and Lois volunteered to be on the committee. Dudley Case suggested that the precinct committee people should be on the committee. Greg Haas said that we should try to get as many precinct committee people on the ballot as possible.
Introduction of Guest Speaker:
Greg Haas introduced the guest speaker, Ted Hanlon, who spoke on Precinct Committee Seats. Ted is from Laramie County and is a precinct committeeman. Ted is a native Wyomingite and has a passion for precinct committee people.
Ted said if we don’t get two people from each precinct to be precinct committee people then we will lose elections. We need to canvass Democrats and find people willing to serve as precinct committee people and then have them sign up for training.
He suggested for the 2022 election we should concentrate on getting precinct committee people on the ballot, because organizing at the local level is really important for winning elections. We can use Vote Builder to get the contact information for Democrats so we can contact them. Ted recommended the book “Plunket of Tammany Hall” to find out how to organize to win elections.
Ted suggested sending postcards to all Democrats in a precinct and he showed an example of such a post card. He said it might cost $150 to $200 to print and mail the postcards. Ted said that mini grants might be available for paying this cost. Then after the postcards are sent out you would need to go door to door to talk with Democrats.
Ted also suggested having social events for the precinct people to help make it fun for people to be precinct committee people. These events would help foster a sense of community. Lois Petersen described the social event that the JC Dems and Sheridan County Dems ran during the summer. Greg Haas suggested small quarterly social events in the county or a precinct.
Ted said we need a ground game at the precinct level over a number of years to be successful and we can’t count on the National or Wyoming Democratic Parties to do this for us.
Platform/Position Paper on Top Five Priorities:
Dudley Case suggested health care in Johnson County as a priority. Vikki Chenette suggested economic issues since coal plants are closing and people are losing their jobs. Vikki Chenette volunteered to write a draft paper on a few platform issues that are important in Johnson County.
Announcements from the Floor:
Mitch Black bought some books to hand out such as, “On Tyranny”, “Plot to Destroy Democracy” and “Our Endangered Values”.
Upcoming Meetings:
December 7 in Room 108 of the Bomber Mountain Building. Craig Cope will be speaking. Lois Petersen said she will write one or two sentences on Craig’s topic and send it out to JC Dems.
January 4, 2022 will be a business meeting.
Adjournment:
Greg Haas adjourned the meeting at 8:10 pm.