I hope everyone is having a nice holiday season. Thankful that all of you folks are here today giving up your holiday time. Thank you for all who brought unwrapped gifts for all ages for the 6th Street homeless center.

We talked last month about the Precinct Committee People position that is coming up for election this year. Some groups and people I felt were interested in the task of recruiting candidates gathered 2 days after Thanksgiving to start organizing a ground effort. A few people where upset I didn’t invite them. So, we opened it to a larger grouping of people and organizations and had a second meeting on Dec 10th. There was a letter in an email that went out from Murat Guzel which invited everyone to the meeting if they were able and wanted to join. The meeting was successful, and even though some tension was expressed we are all able to move forward.

Murat Guzel is our DNC representative and is also a national donor. He lives here in the Lehigh Valley and is very passionate about organizing in the Lehigh Valley. He is working on a way to hire a full time professional executive director to organize Lehigh and Northampton Counties’ Democratic organizations. In full disclosure I work for Mr. Guzel helping him for the New Americans Caucus for the PA State Committee.

Next steps for PCP (Precinct Committee People) recruitment: we are looking for active Democrats that will help organize their precincts come election time, recruit volunteers, make us aware of local issues, and help find candidates.

There will a training for Precinct Committee People in January led by Bob Elbich and small team of volunteers. They will be talking to the state party as well to help with this effort.

We are looking for 2 people in every voting precinct to be Precinct Committee People. We will find many here in East Penn Dems but we also need to look at other groups such as: PTAs, campaign volunteers, issue based organizations, ethnic organizations, unions, Resistance Groups, Church, work, etc…

Once our training sessions are announced please make sure you are inviting these potential candidates to the sessions.

November’s elections have been certified and newly elected officials are being sworn in this month and next month.

We have had some candidates announce their races for office: Mark Pinsley announced his run for State Senate, Tom Applebach announced his run for State Rep for District 134.

There is a rumor that Charlie Dent may not finish his term because of a TV gig. We don’t know this to be for sure, but if it happens there will be a special election for the Congressional district. The state party will nominate a candidate to run in the special elections. The state party will take a recommendation from the county parties; there are 5 counties in congressional 15 and every Precinct Committee Person and every county executive board will have a vote on who to recommend as the candidate for the special election.

We have some somber announcements: Ellen Zimmer Lewis has resigned her position as our secretary. Ellen just ran a great race for East Penn School Board and now wants to focus on her family. We do need someone to fill this position. If you are interested please let me know.

A member of our organization, Scott Dillensnyder, passed away around Thanksgiving. He was diagnosed with cancer in August and he quickly went down hill from there. Let’s us all keep him, his wife Louise, and his family in our prayers and hearts.

February 9 and 10, 2018 is the PA Dems State Committee Meeting in Harrisburg. Go to http://www.padems.com/winter/ for all information on schedules and room bookings.