By Michael Kochler
“The Cornwall republican organization now fears us, and with good reason.” —Jon Chase, Chaiman of the Cornwall Democratic Committee.
A new year beckons and the work of your Cornwall Democratic Committee continues. 2018 ends on a high note with Democrats nationally making historic strides forward. Locally Cornwall led all Orange County towns in voter turnout with Democrats outperforming Republican voters for the first time ever. There is much to do in 2019.
One of the biggest lessons learned was the importance of the ground-game and how to run it. Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and the current President’s 2016 effort clearly demonstrated that a dedicated team putting devoted partisan boots on the ground, in every district, can pay divedends on Election Day. When Hilary Clinton’s campaign ignored that lesson the results were catastrophic for the nation.
In James Skoufis’ successful run to turn the 39th Senate District Democratic for the first time in living memory over 100,000 doors were knocked on.
Matt Rettig’s campaign for the 99th Assembly District, while not as successful, saw a little known candidate with a late start (thanks to clever Republican maneuvering) run a tight race against a much better known candidate with a massive organization behind him. Again it was volunteer boots-on-the-ground (and Matt’s bicycle tour of the district) that made it close by delivering his message.
Matt now says that going forward we have no excuses. We have learned how to campaign. We have laid the foundation. We are organized and the momentum has shifted in our favor. Now we run to win.