Please see the latest bulletin here.
It includes the following message from the DRC Chair, Judith Hunter:
Dear Friends,
Please plan to join us in Liverpool on April 17-18 for 2020 Vision! The presidential straw poll should be especially exciting, and all conference registrants will be able to vote. See the details below, and feel free to contact me with any questions.
In other news, several DRC officers/Board Members and two additional county chairs went to Albany in late January to lobby for DRC priorities: improving broadband access in rural New York and getting relief on signature requirements for our nominating petitions. We had uniformly positive and supportive meetings with Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, and several other State Senators and Assembly Members. With unified Democratic control of the Legislature, we need to build and strengthen our relationships there. We plan to lobby each January going forward. We were warned that getting the petition signature requirement lowered by 25% would probably not be supported by downstate Assembly members, who don’t understand how difficult it is to circulate petitions in winter weather in rural counties, where voters are few and far between. But we continue to push (the one-year reduction passed last year wasn’t finalized until well into the petition window). So any calls you can make to Albany could help. Please ask for support for S7326, being carried by Senator Rachel May, and A9703, being carried by Assembly member Billy Jones. We are also resending the letter from DRC members to Senate and Assembly members.
In October I testified before the Public Campaign Financing Commission hearing in Buffalo. My testimony emphasized that rural counties are generally not as wealthy as suburban ones, so a one-size-fits-all approach would disadvantage candidates in rural New York. Fortunately, that view prevailed in the final Commission plan, which sets lower fundraising thresholds for candidates to get matching funds in counties with lower incomes. I also spoke to how important it was in local elections to retain the option of creating independent (small-i) ballot lines, which will be unaffected by the new plan.
Please keep the DRC in mind when you’re planning events for this coming spring and summer. I have spoken at 3 counties’ dinners in the last few months (Wyoming, Cattaraugus, and Yates), and I will be happy to give brief remarks about the DRC in as many other counties as I can. There are other Officers and Board Members who would also be willing to speak.
Feel free to contact me about issues pertaining to the DRC or Rural New York. You can email me at Judith.hunter@gmail.com or call me at 585-615-2986. See you in Liverpool!
Judith Hunter, Chair
Democratic Rural Conference of New York