PUTTING THE PARTY BACK IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY

What a weekend! First and foremost, thanks to all of the great Democrats who joined us out in Lancaster County this past weekend for two days of events. A special thank you to Lancaster County Chair, Bruce Beardsely and Lancaster Democrats Lois Herr, Tracey Lynn-Arriola and Ben Donahower for all of their help. This was one the most exciting and energized State Committee meetings in our history and I'm sure it is indicative of the energy we'll see throughout this exciting election year.

Those of you who weren't able to make it -- you missed a weekend that is certain to become party legend. We started off on Friday with a great series of workshops for party activists. Topics ranging from campaign finance, to messaging, to use of the Web were all explained to rooms full of Democratic activists. Here are just some of the remarks made on the program evaluation sheets:

"Always have interactive workshops!";
"It's great to have these types of sessions at State Committee.";
"Trainings have attracted more than just State Committee people. Keep up the good work!"

We also appreciate the feedback we received and the suggestions on how to improve the programs. And we hear you! We will explore ways to schedule them so that more Democrats can attend and we will make sure in the future that questions are held until the end of the presentation. If you would like to suggest topics or provide further feedback, please email our Executive Director, Mary Isenhour at maryp1016@aol.com.

Dancing with Democrats was a huge success and many thanks to all who purchased a ticket and joined us on the dance floor. The money we raised at this event helped us defer the costs of the workshops and put a little bit into our absentee ballot fund for next year. Thanks to DJ Tor Michael McCartney who is, by day, Chief of Staff to Rep. Scott Conklin for keeping everyone on the dance floor! Congratulations to Ed Scurry who won the dance card contest. I bet if he works as hard getting voters to the polls as he did keeping the ladies on the dance floor we're going to sweep Venango County. And who knew that Rachel Moore, our very well-organized and hardworking President of the PA College Democrats, was a dancing queen?

With that thought in mind, keep checking www.padems.com all week as we post more videos and pictures from the events.

Congratulations to supporters of Senator Hillary Clinton, the winner of our Presidential Straw Poll! Please check out the stories in the News and Development section in our homepage. Our friend at Pennsyltucky Politics has an interesting take on Dancing with Democrats that will make you chuckle. And one of our other friends, The Pennsylvania Progressive, wrote some nice things about the weekend. Make sure you check them out. Thanks to all the bloggers who attended for your interest in our activities, and we'll make sure the WiFi works better next time!

On Saturday, members of the state committee endorsed Jack Wagner for a 2nd term as Auditor General and John Morganelli for Attorney General. I plan on doing all I can to help them, and I hope you will too. The state committee chose not to endorse a candidate in the state treasurer's race, but I'm counting on all Democrats to get behind whichever candidate the voters choose in the April primary. We'll have to if we want to defeat the Republican candidate and have a sweep of row offices in November.

Thanks to all for such a great weekend -- members, activists and our hardworking staff. Stay tuned for more exciting events with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party including a Super Fat Tuesday Watch Party on February 5th which also happens to be Mardi Gras. And whatever you do, don't forget to help our candidates with petition circulation between January 22nd and February 12th! Look for more excitement at our next meeting in June!

Sincerely,
T.J. Rooney, Chairman

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