What's the County Committee??

rbenghiat

Subject: What's the "County Committee??"

doing our due diligence for the primary, and unless i have my sample ballot wrong, it seems we need to vote for female county committee members? delegates to the judicial convention? alternate delegate to the Judicial Convention?? what that heck are these?

no information, let alone endorsements, to be found. and I thought my Chicago days of voting for "water reclaimation district" board members were wierd..

homeowner

The county committee is the body that elects the county leadership for each party. The committee is made up of two members from each district, a male and female representative. All of those representatives get together and choose a leader for their county. The various county leaders in turn will select the leadership of the party on a statewide level.

The judicial convention is a similar set-up. It selects judges for the Supreme Court in the County. From a practical standpoint, the county leader puts nomimees before the convention and the members of the convention vote yea or nea. I think that this system was overturned in a legal challenge recently, so it may no longer be in existance after this election year. The idea was to prevent judges from having to raise money and run campaigns, but the reality has been that judges have essentially been hand-picked by the county leaders (Democrat and Republican) and have a free pass if the leader can control the votes of the members on the committee.

raulism

The Country District Leader (male and female) are unpaid positions that have back room influence. These are party positions, but they can influence how things like which streets are paved and whether the Democratic Party empowers its most corrupt members.

It is rare to have a contest in this race, and there is none for the male District Leader. However, for the first time in maybe 16 years, we have a challenger to the incumbent, Freddie Hamilton.

I like Freddie, and I think she is committee, sincere activist. However, she signed on the Ratner's Community Benefits Agreement, and I think that this is a conflict with her duty as a public servant. She is a strong supporter of Ratner and Roger Green.

Olanike "Ola" Alabi has run a vigorous campaign, and she often repeats that she is opposed to the Ratner project. Ola is a fine candidate, and I think she will win on Tuesday. This is going to send shockwaves around the political establishment, because it will show that the voters of our district do not want our government to be run by unelected developers like Bruce Ratner.