Chili Democrats

On Saturday, MCDC hosted a county-wide nomination process. Thank you to all who attended! I apologize for the chaos, the plans were for about 200 people and many, many more than that showed up! Yes, there were problems, we were hot (we postponed our vacation due to tropical storm Debby), but democracy is messy sometimes! As a county-wide committee, we nominated Mike Ansaldi for county court. Mike is excited to be on the west side and is more than willing to walk our neighborhoods with committee volunteers.

Tonight was the judicial nomination meeting. As judicial delegates, we nominated John Bringewatt and Ella Marshall for NYS Supreme Court.

In September, we will hold a reorganization meeting. The window for the meeting has not yet been announced by MCDC, but I was thinking of holding it on a Saturday afternoon? I'm open to thoughts about days and times that work best. I am willing to run for Leader again, if you'll have me. If not, that's fine too - we'll just need a nomination for someone else. We should also have candidates for Chair (second in command), Secretary, and Treasurer. I do not want to assume anyone wants to run (again). I know it's a big job!!

Scott Comegys is the democrat running for state senate this year in our district.

Hi everyone,

I've sent 2 emails this evening regarding petitions. Please check your email and get back to me. If you did not receive an email and would like to assist with petitions, please get in touch (dobson . chelsea @ gmail .com).

Committee members: This is a year where each of us, as duly elected officials, need to once again gather signatures to support our positions. I need to provide a list of all committee members who would like to stay on the committee (to petition). If you would like to *not* remain on the committee, please email me (dobson . chelsea @ gmail) by Wednesday, February 14th. Unless I hear otherwise, I'll let MCDC know you all want to continue. Once I return our list of committee members, MCDC will print our petitions.

In the past few weeks, as Chili's leader I've been hearing from candidates who would like to meet with us prior to designation meetings. While I don't think this is a bad idea, I know how hard it is to get all of us in a room for more than a few moments. In addition, I haven't heard from any other towns (but it is early) about designation meetings. And I'd like to also work on our bylaws to allow for virtual meetings, since I think/hope it would allow more of us to join meetings when we do hold them.

So, I'd like to hear from all of you:

1. Should we find a time to do a meeting with potential candidates prior to our designation? If so, what days of the week and times work best for you?

2. What days of the week and times work best for you in mid-January to schedule our designation meeting? We need slightly more than half of us to meet for designation, so if needed I'm happy to use a scheduling tool for this meeting, but I need an idea of when to start.

3. Last year we worked with Riga and Wheatland to hold a group designation - are you interested in participating in something like this again? (with one caveat, for those who attended the one in Henrietta several years ago, I have no desire to participate in one that large geographically again)

MCDC will host their GOTV rally on Saturday, November 4, at 10 am at MCDC. Terfs and literature will be distributed at the rally. If you plan to attend, please sign up at the link below!

MCDC GOTV Rally!

We'll have literature soon for us to do "literature drops" (not yet but soon!). These are meant just to drop on a front porch or trapped in a front door for Marvin and other county-wide candidates. If you're interested in walking in your own neighborhood, please let Chelsea know and we'll get you some pieces to hand out!

It looks like the weather is going to be great for walking with Marvin and Adam tomorrow! Please plan on meeting in the Bill Gray's parking lot at 5pm. You can also sign up at the link below.

Canvass with County Executive Adam Bello and our other Democratic candidates!

Save the Date on October 24th at 5pm - Adam Bello's team plans on doing a coordinated canvas with Marvin! Keep your eyes and ears peeled for more information.

Can't wait until the 24th? Get in touch with Marvin Stepherson to find out when he plans on walking in Chili and Gates!

Did you know you can test out new voting machines at the Board of Elections? These new machines are pretty fancy, meeting a variety of accessibility standards and have a paper trail for all voters / votes. Just visit the BOE during office hours, step in, and experience the new machines for yourself!

Chelsea - Leader of the Chili Democrat Committee

Monroe County, NY - Board of Elections The Board of Elections Department of Monroe County is responsible for administering all aspects of elections in Monroe County to maintain and facilitate participation in a democratic system of government. The Monroe County Board of Elections conducts all national, state, county, city, and town elect...

Would you like to decorate your yard with some candidate lawn signs? Signs for some candidates (like For Family Court) are available at MCDC. Be sure to reach out to the office before stopping by to make sure someone is there.

Thursday, September 14th from 6 - 8 PM Black Button Distillery is hosting an event for Adam's re-election campaign at their brand new facility on University Ave. In addition to supporting Adam, MCDC Chairman Stephen DeVay will be behind the bar as a guest bartender! It is going to be a really fun evening.

Tickets can be purchased at the link below:

I just gave to Adam Bello! Show your support with a contribution.

The Hamlin Democrats will have a booth at the Hamlin July Jamboree on Saturday, 7/29 from 9:00AM - 2:30PM. Stop by Booth #12 to pick up some treasures or find a great bargain!

For county legislature district 20 which covers a part of Chili.

From candidate for county legislature in LD3, Marvin Stepherson.

Hello fellow Dem, tomorrow Saturday April 1st. No April fools I will be walking to solidify my numbers for the ballot in November. Meet me if you can and would like to help @12:30 3160 Chili ave. Tim Hortons to get a walking list and petition. We will be out from 1-2pm if you can commit to more time great. This is the last push. Thanks in advance for the support. 🙏🏿✊🏿 Marvin Stepherson

Reminder: We are meeting this Thursday (the 9th) at 6:30 pm at the Cottage Grove Community Center.

There is a training at 10:30am this Saturday by MCDC. After the training, Team Bello will be hosting a petition kickoff.
If you are planning to attend the training or the Bello event, please let me know.

Due to my work schedule, I'm not able to pick up the petition packets from MCDC. Would someone be willing to grab them for me? MCDC is open week days 9-5ish.

For Chili petitions: I would like to ask our committee members to dedicate one hour to petitioning. I know it's hard, cold work. If we could get enough people to dedicate themselves to one hour, we'll be able to meet the expectations from MCDC. Once I have the packets, I'll know more about how to distribute them, but I'd like to keep you all close to home if possible. If you'd like something more planned when it comes to petitions, let me know.

We also have an upcoming meeting March 9th at 6:30pm. I'm realizing this may not be a good time for everyone, attendance has been sparse. Should we stop hosting monthly meetings? Are updates via email enough? We can't host meetings virtually due to MCDC bylaws, but if it were possible would people be interested in attending?

Let me know what you think.
Chelsea
Leader
Chili Democratic Committee

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share some more information with you regarding our designation meeting this coming Tuesday (the 17th starting at 6:30pm).

Both Riga and Wheatland will be joining us. Many of the candidates overlap - aside from county leg (Marvin) and any town-based candidates.

County offices include:
Monroe County Executive Adam J. Bello - County Executive
Maria Cubillos Reed for Family Court Judge - Family Court
Maroun Ajaka - Family Court
Marvin Stepherson - County Leg

We need 15% of committee members in attendance to have a quorum - for Chili that's 3 people (out of 15). I plan on doing hand counts for votes for Chili committee members. For full transparency, Chili will have a sign-in sheet, do a roll call, and after all voting is complete, voting results will be made available for review.

We'll go in the order above for candidates to introduce themselves and take any questions (assuming everyone is there on time, I'm flexible!). I'm hoping we can have, at most, about 15 minutes per candidate prior to voting. I hope to be done with county-wide candidates by 7:45ish. Once we're done with shared candidates, we can break up into town committees if necessary. According to MCDC bylaws, we cannot take a recess during designation processes.

Candidates, please feel free to bring family, spouses, partners, or other support with you. I know a Tuesday night can be hard on families, especially those with young children. Refreshments will be provided for all who attend.

I've emailed documents provided by the candidates. Please let me know if you didn't receive them.

As I'm getting settled into a new job and also my school semester starts this coming week, texts are easiest for me to get to. Of course, I'll answer any calls I can if I'm available.

Thanks,
Chelsea

Leader
Chili Democratic Committee

Do we want to meet this coming week to discuss possible candidates, per our normal meeting schedule? I have not yet heard from anyone interested in running in Chili elections.

Dear Chili Committee Members,

The Chili Democratic Committee will meet on Tuesday, January 17th at 6:30pm to hold our designation meeting. We will meet at the Cottage Grove Community Center, located off of 4400 Buffalo Road. The Community Center is the first building on the left once you turn into the neighborhood.

Riga’s Democratic Committee will be joining us. Refreshments will be provided for all who attend.

While we are still waiting on the final list of candidates from the Board of Elections, there are four open positions in Chili: Town Supervisor, Town Clerk, and two Members of Town Council. If you are interested in running for any of these offices, please get in touch with me prior to the meeting.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. My number is 585-201-8013 and my email is [email protected]. Letters will be in the email tomorrow.

Thank you!
Chelsea
Leader
Chili Democratic Committee

It's time to set up our designation meeting, which must be in-person. MCDC will help us organize dates to make sure groups don't conflict for shared candidates. I do not yet have a list of candidates - I hope they'll share that Thursday (Jerry will be attending and be my proxy for any votes).

Earlier in the fall, I suggested we meet on Thursdays - so I could offer Thursday dates. However, we would need to find an alternative location than the church.

We can use the church on Tuesdays, so that's another option.

We need to submit a few dates for MCDC to play with. My idea is to offer: January 10, 12, 17, or 19 (6:30pm start time). If it's a Tuesday, we use the church. If it's a Thursday, we ask Jerry to reserve the community room at Cottage Grove off of Buffalo Rd.

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

Thanks,
Chelsea
Leader, Chili Democratic Committee

I've been hesitant to cancel our December meeting, as we have designations in January. However, I haven't heard from MCDC or the Board of Elections about which offices will be open yet. The MCDC meeting in November didn't share a lot of new information, so I don't have much else to update you all with.

With all of that, I'm cancelling our December Chili Democratic Committee meeting. As soon as I know about designations, I'll forward that along.

If you know of someone who would like to be added to our committee, please have them get in touch with me. I can do so until Thursday. If someone would like to be removed from our committee, I need a letter from them that I'll forward to MCDC.

MCDC's next executive committee is December 15th at 6pm. Unfortunately, I have a holiday thing I would like to attend. Is there anyone interested in attending as my proxy? Please let me know.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks,
Chelsea
Leader, Chili Democratic Committee

From our friends at Indivisible Rochester

“The Georgia Runoff Vote Forward Campaign has begun!

Vote Forward (VF) is running a letter-writing campaign to support Raphael Warnock, whose race will likely determine whether Democrats hold the Senate.

If you've done VF letters before, this campaign is like the others. The only difference is you mail your letters as soon as possible rather than wait for a particular "Big Send" date.

If you haven't done VF letters before, this is a great time to start! It's easy. You download blocks of 5 or 20 letters, write short messages on them, and mail them to voters. The messages are non-partisan and simply encourage people to vote. VF picks voters who are unlikely to vote without encouragement, but will likely vote for Warnock if they go to the polls.

All you do is write the voter's first name on the letter, write a short message about why voting is important to you, sign with your first name, address and stamp the envelope, and mail it. It takes about an hour to finish 20 letters and you will speed up with practice.

Go to votefwd.org and sign up today! And then:

-Share photos and updates about how many letters you've written. (Just don't reveal anyone's address.) We hope to hit a big final total!

-Use this page to communicate about letter-writing meetup opportunities.

-Let us know (DM me if you prefer) if you need assistance with printing, envelopes, or stamps. We can help!

-Ask any questions you have.

Letters should go out ASAP but no later than November 29. Let's get started!

Also, share other opportunities to help Warnock here! There's Rochester for Georgia for postcard writing and phonebanking opportunities. This is all hands on deck and there are plenty of ways to help!”

Vote Forward Vote Forward volunteers send heartfelt handwritten letters to unregistered and low-propensity voters encouraging them to participate in our democracy. The letters have been shown to significantly boost voter turnout.

Our November meeting will be in one week - the 10th at 6:30pm. Instead of the church we'll be meeting at the Cottage Grove Community Center in North Chili. I don't have an official agenda, but we can chat about the election, ideas for fundraising, and how to grow our group.

I have signs available for Roman Misula (supreme court) and Kenan Baldridge (NYS Senate). Please let me know if you're interested and I'll put them on my porch or we can arrange a pickup. I also have a walking packet for Harry Bronson, it's listed as 6 hours. If we had a few people it should be done in just a couple of hours!

Chelsea O'Brien
Chili Democrat Committee Leader

Early voting today 9-5

Meeting up with some great candidates in Chili. Thank you Chili Democrats for hosting. Ogden Democrats please check out Roman Misula for New York State Supreme Court - he will be on our ballot and deserves our support!

We're getting close to election day! This Saturday at 10:00 AM there will be a rally at MCDC to get folks out on doors and on the phone to encourage early voting. Harry's campaign has a sign up if you'd like to participate in their Get Out The Vote campaign (link below). We also have a packet if you'd like to walk here in Chili - just get in touch with Chelsea.

"Get Out The Vote" for Harry Bronson and our Democratic Team We need volunteers to help get out the vote for Harry and our other democratic candidates! Please fill out this form and sign up for some phone banking shifts and door to door canvassing! Every shift you sign up for will be located the Monroe County Democratic Committee headquarters at 1150 Universi...

Don't forget we're meeting at Bill Gray's this Thursday at 6:30pm! We'll have a few candidates joining us: Kenan Baldridge (NYS Senate), Harry Bronson (NYS Assembly), and Roman Misula (Supreme Court). We can also discuss how we'd like to address what's happening at the Chili Community Center.