After about seven months in Woodbridge, I finally got around to attending my first Woodbridge Democratic Town Committee Meeting. It was also the Delegate Selection Meeting upcoming caucuses which provided additional motivation for me to attend.

The meetings took place in Room 16 at the Woodbridge Center starting at about 8 PM. Woodbridge Democrats needed to select five delegates for each of four upcoming conventions.

The State Democratic Convention, which will take place on May 10th will vote on DNC committee members and possibly minor rules changes. Since the three DNC committee members are all running for re-election and are unlikely to be challenged and any rule changes are likely to be minor, if there are any at all, a lot of people aren’t all that interested in attending the State Convention. A slate was proposed by a nominating committee and was approved without much discussion.

The Third Congressional District Convention, which should take place on May 12th, attracted a little more interest, not because there is any question about the outcome, but because it should be a fun celebration. Everyone expects this to a straight forward affair celebrating what Democrats hope will be another successful run for Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro. Since it is likely to be a big fun party everyone wanted to make sure that the right people got the best seats at the party. There was a little juggling around on who should go, but there was consensus on the set of delegates.

The Seventeenth State Senate District Convention had similar considerations. State Senator Joe Crisco is running again and the convention should be a similar sort of party. However, Sen. Crisco could face a more serious challenge. The new public financing of campaigns levels the playing field and Sen. Crisco will have to work harder making sure that he has the three hundred donors from within the district and presents clearly and persuasively why he should be re-elected. The slate of delegates proposed by the nominating committee was easily approved. This convention should take place on May 19th.

The Hundred and Fourteenth State Representative District Convention provides the other side of this. The level playing field should make it easier for a Democratic challenger to take on the Republican incumbent. There have been discussions about possible candidates and the town committee and the delegates will need to find the strongest possible candidate. As people thought about this there was some juggling as to who the best possible delegates would be, but consensus was easily found. The State Rep convention should take place on May 20th.

With the delegate selection meeting over, the Town Committee meeting began. Reports from various committees were heard. To me, the most interesting was a report from the conservation committee about an old farm that had been left to the town of Woodbridge. The conservation committee has been exploring the possibility of running this farm as part of a community sustainable agriculture program.

Kim and I signed up for a CSA program last year in Oxford and have signed up for the same program again this year. It would be very exciting if Woodbridge could have a CSA farm of its own. In addition, there are many wonderful spin offs of such a program that are being investigated. I hope that a CSA program can easily be established here in Woodbridge. I hope to write more about this as I hear it.

There were various reports about the budget process. It sounded like the budget process has been going incredibly smoothly and everyone is pleased.

There was also a brief discussion about Rid Litter Day. It is going to take place on April, 26th, Earth Day. Everyone was strongly encouraged to participate.

When the meetings ended, many people hung around and chatted. All in all, it was a very pleasant set of meetings and I look forward to continuing to attend the Woodbridge DTC meetings.