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Submitted by jenny on April 6, 2008 - 12:02pm.

We hope you will join in an online discussion forum for PCDO members. In order to participate you need to be registered with this site, a simple process using the link on the above right that requires your name and email address. Your email will not be shared or used for anything other than retrieving your password if you lose it.

Note that the discussion is moderated and that any post deemed objectionable will be removed. This means keeping things respectful and not personal.

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Comment by carahughes on July 3, 2008 - 2:08pm
It is a great and fabulous idea to insist that the University pay its fair share of property taxes. I was most pleased to read in the Town Topics this week that this is being discussed via a proposal by the Princeton Democrats. I cannot understand why this hasn't been done before. The University is a wealthy, wealthy organization that greatly benefits from the safety and general prosperity of the town and its great location and citizens and should be obligated to pay taxes as all of the towns residents do. I would like to wholeheartedly support this effort. Our taxes are out of control and something like this would make an incredible difference. Cara Hughes 42 Dorann Ave. Princeton NJ 08540 609 933 1400
Comment by Dan on April 11, 2008 - 8:53am
Jon, I agree that the representation part of the Committee person's job needs to be greatly enhanced. For a start, we will undertake efforts (at least in the Township) to connect all Committee people with the PCDO members living in their districts. Outreach to the broader universe of Dems will follow. The Municipal Committees traditionally have operated in relative obscurity ... as I've noted elsewhere, not necessarily by design, but more likely just out of habit and lack of impetus to do otherwise. We've come a long way in the last few years in opening up the entire process, but clearly need to keep going. Everyone's ideas on how to improve are certainly welcome and appreciated. Dan
Comment by Jon on April 10, 2008 - 6:37am
The Democratic Committees in Princeton are elected, true, but here is one other important consideration: Committeepeople (myself included) don't reach out to their constituents to ask which candidates they should support in the endorsement votes. Hence they (we) are elected but not necessarily representative. I think this is a real issue, because a democratic system must uphold the "chain of representation" back to the actual voter.
Comment by Dan on April 9, 2008 - 12:23pm
Virginia, Your main point seems to be based on a misunderstanding of what the "slogan" is. The slogan that the County Chair is talking about is merely the set of words that appear under a candidate's name on the ballot, something that most voters will see only for the minute that they're inside the voting booth (it will also appear on the sample ballot that arrives a few days before). All three candidates will be on the Democratic ballot in the Democratic primary. All three candidates can refer to themselves as Democrats in any other situation in any way they choose - in letters, campaign lit, web site, whatever. All three candidates were well aware of the two-step endorsement process in the Township, and participated fully. The PCDO and the Democratic Committee are distinct but complementary entities. The PCDO is a party club where the membership fluctuates depending on interest and a willingness to pay $15 dues (or at least a $5 minimum). The Democratic Committee is established and governed by NJ state law, is geographically diverse (each of the town's 14 voting districts are represented) and balanced by gender. The committee people are elected - by their fellow Democrats - to serve 2-year terms. They represent Princeton Township at the County level, register voters, work on campaigns, and get the vote out for all Democrats on election day. The Committee does labor in relative obscurity, but that's not by design - we'd love to have more people aware of it, ready to help and to serve on the Committee. Finally, these "super-Democrats" did not overturn the "will of the PCDO." The County Chair took the endorsements of both groups into consideration. At the PCDO, all three candidates earned the 40 percent necessary to make an "in the column" recommendation, but fell short of the 60 percent required for full endorsement. In the Committee vote, two candidates met the full endorsement requirement (for in-column and slogan) and one fell short on both requirements. The resulting compromise, to which all 3 candidates agreed, preserved in full the PCDO's in-column recommendation for all 3, while adding the Committee's further support for two of the candidates by awarding them the slogan. Three more points: 1) The Committee and the PCDO have made consistent efforts in recent years to open up the nomination and endorsement process to all comers, and to encourage competition. The fact that we now have the second competitive primary in three years - after countless years with NO intra-party competition - is a testament to the success of this effort. It is still relatively new and we're learning as we go along ... and public awareness and education on these matters is still in its infancy. Everyone with ideas on how to improve the process should speak up and participate. 2) The recent votes by the PCDO and the Committee were advisory to the County Chair and were not binding - decisions about ballot placement are fully up to the County Chair. The PCDO - or the Committee - can huff and puff all they want about what the decision should be, but it's still up to the Chair. Is this unjust and should the law be changed? Perhaps. Meanwhile, I think the Chair used his powers wisely and fairly in this matter. 3) Finally, all this relates to how and where the candidates appear on the Democratic Primary ballot - not IF they can appear. Any candidate who filed a valid petition by this past Monday would have appeared on the ballot regardless. And the ultimate decision regarding who the two Democratic nominees will be will be made by the Democratic voters who vote in the Primary on June 3 - and no one else. Dan Preston Democratic Party Municipal Chair Princeton Township
Comment by VaKerr on April 8, 2008 - 8:13pm
I am heartened that the three candidates who received significant plurality support at last week's PCDO meeting will be placed in the Democratic column on the primary ballot. I am astonished, however, that a "compromise" has been reached which prevents Casey Lambert from referring to herself as a Democrat. She is a Democrat. All of us who belong to the PCDO are registered Democrats. Rich McClellan is the County Chair of the Democratic party. Yet, the e-mail forwarded by Jenny from Rich McClellan states as follows: "Bernie and Sue would be entitled to use the slogan "Regular Organization Democrat." Casey would be entitled to use another slogan upon my consent with the understanding that she could not use the words Democrat or Democratic or any phrase which implied formal endorsement." Surely this cannot be true. Casey Lambert cannot call herself a Democrat or use the adjective "Democratic" because this would imply "formal endorsement?" Why, then, bother to place her name in the column? There was a huge turnout of Democrats at the PCDO meeting,many of whom believed that it mattered that they turned out to vote for Township Committee candidate(s). Many had no idea that the local Township Municipal party committee had the power to overturn their preferences by selecting its own two-person slate the next day at a private meeting. No one could have imagined that the next step would be to place the third person in the Democratic column but tell her she could not call herself a Democrat because it might imply endorsement by "the organization.' If she were not in the Democratic column, could she call herself a Democrat? One must ask, at this point, what is going on here? What is the "organization." Presumably, to judge by Richard McClellan's email, the "organization" consists and only consists of the small group of 20 or so people who are on the Township Municipal Democratic Committee and not of the 240 or so registered Democrats who turned out for the PCDO endorsement meeting and who more or less evenly divided their votes among three candidates. Evidently, at least in the mind of the County Chair, this small group of seeming "super-Democrats," has the power not only to overturn the will of the PCDO but also the even more extraordinary power to define who can and who cannot claim to be a Democrat on the primary ballot. As a longstanding Democrat, I object.