(Originally published at My Left Nutmeg)

In the comments to a blog post over on Connecticut Local Politics, there has been a lively discussion about the decline in party politics. BDRubenstein888 commented on the importance of the State Party in the delegate selection process and his great honor and privilege of having been a delegate to the National Convention.

The process of becoming a member of local town committees and becoming delegates to state and national conventions is one of the areas where local party politics retains importance. I’ve encouraged people to get involved with their Democratic town committees and we have just completed the caucus process. I was glad to see information on when town caucuses where, and reports of people joining their town committees. However the process still needs a lot more work.

In spite of being fairly involved in Democratic politics, neither my wife nor I ever found out when and where the DTC caucuses were in our town. I suspect most people in our town never knew.

Last week, I received an email from a Democratic Town Chair announcing the results of the DTC caucuses in his town. Seventy percent of the districts in the town had vacancies, and this is a town with a very dynamic DTC chair, and a lot of new members.

Our town is bit different from other towns. I believe we have a full slate of town committee members and we often have primaries for membership in the town committee. Over the weekend, a friend came over with a petition to be on the ballot for town committee.

Today, I received an email from a friend in another town complaining about the machinations of the district committee to keep the committee under the control of old guard party loyalists. He referred to an email announcing an upcoming district committee meeting with less than 48 hours advance warning.

BDRubenstein888 is right to note that the delegate selection process, and with this, I would expand it to include most of the traditional committees and rules of party politics is the last great vestige of traditional party politics. Unfortunately, these rules are too often used to keep new people out, instead of to bring new people in.

If the Democratic Party in Connecticut and its towns and cities wants to stay relevant and grow stronger, then it would do well to look at expanding its rules to make more people aware of caucuses, committee meetings, and other ways that people can become more involved.