Chester County is BLUE for the first time in history!
See the Chester County Democratic Committee Website for details.
County
Raise the Flag!
Jim Salvas (West Chester Democratic Committee Chair & Property Management Chair) asked Chrissy Houlahan to have this flag flown over the US Capital as soon as she was elected the first Democrat and woman to win the 6th Congressional Seat in the US Congress! Our flag is thus the first flown at Chrissy’s request.
Pictured is Dick Bingham (CCDC Chair) and Marsha Peltz (CCDC Vice Chair) raising our flag over Chester County Democratic Headquarters at 37 S. High Street in the Borough of West Chester.
Jim donated the flag; CCDC paid for the flagpole and the solar light above it.
Other constituents can request a flag be flown for them by applying here:
https://houlahan.house.gov/services/flag-requests.htm
2019 COUNTYWIDE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES
The Chester County Democratic Committee Website
has complete details on each candidate.
Remarkable First-timers
By Frank Bruni and Liriel Higa
Usually you only get to dream about a candidate like Chrissy Houlahan. People in the Philadelphia suburbs actually get to vote for her.
She’s brainy: a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Stanford, a master’s in technology and policy from M.I.T. She’s bold: service in the U.S. Air Force. She has entrepreneurial bona fides from her years as the chief operating officer of an athletic wear company but also had a top job for a group promoting childhood literacy. She’s a wife and mother, with two grown daughters.
So why, at 51, has she set her sights on the House of Representatives, when she never ran for any office before?
The answer is Nov. 8, 2016. To vote for Hillary Clinton, she put on a pantsuit. Her gay daughter wore all white, honoring suffragists. That night they broke out the Champagne. “I thought that history would be made,” Houlahan recalled.
When it wasn’t, her father, a Holocaust survivor, cried, fearing what Donald Trump’s victory could mean for the vulnerable and the powerless. Her daughter panicked about L.G.B.T. people. “Unnerving,” Houlahan called it, and her response was “to be part of the solution.” She has since raised about $3 million and emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s best bets to turn a red seat blue.
There are many ways to measure the urgency with which Democrats are approaching the 2018 midterms but perhaps none better than the mettle, motivations and number — much larger than in recent congressional elections — of first-time candidates who have jumped into the fray.
They’re creatures of an atypically tense moment with especially high stakes. They’re mirrors of the anxieties that so many Americans feel. They’re emblems of a yearning for new faces and approaches. They’re the year’s biggest stars and stories.
THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM
The Chester County (Pennsylvania) Democratic Committee believes in Freedom, Fairness, and Opportunity for all Americans, regardless of what they believe, who they are, and where they came from. Join CCDC in making Chester County a better place for all!
We have a chance to fundamentally shape the future of our country.
But that will only happen if all of us work together — starting right now.
Every four years, the Democratic Party puts together our party platform, the ideas and beliefs that govern our party as a whole.
What follows is our 2016 platform — our most progressive platform in our party’s history and a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.
This party platform was voted on and passed by our membership at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in 2016. The platform will be updated and re-approved at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
Download 2016 Party Platform PDF
Platform Contents
To read the entire platform, choose a section to jump ahead or scroll down.
Raise Incomes and Restore Economic Security for the Middle Class
Fight for Economic Fairness and Against Inequality
Bring Americans Together and Remove Barriers to Opportunities
Protect Voting Rights, Fix Our Campaign Finance System, and Restore Our Democracy
Combat Climate Change, Build a Clean Energy Economy, and Secure Environmental Justice
Provide Quality and Affordable Education
How did West Chester Dems do in the 2018 primary election?
The interesting part of primaries is usually the turnout, which measures the enthusiasm and commitment of voters and, through that, also the effectiveness of party activists.
We usually compare unofficial results right after each election to the corresponding election 4 years earlier, but so much has changed so fast that the 4-year comparison isn’t as meaningful any more as comparing to 2017, a breakthrough year in Dem turnout and success.
Dems comprise 53% of all registered voters in the Borough and slip to 49% only in wards 1 and 5. The registration high point is wards 2E with 72%. The County as a whole is only 39% Dem compared to 43% R and 18% I), but the County D to D+R ratio did increase by .4% in the past year. Chesco Dems are probably in a good period for registrations, though not comparable to 2008. The countywide R lead in registrations (now a bit over 15,000) has been declining slowly since the Dem Obama surge in 2008; but fortunately, our candidates clearly received a good number of R and I votes in the 2016 and 2017 general elections.
Overall the Dem share of D+R registrations in West Chester has risen about 1% in the last year. That makes up for lost ground since the Dem share went down 1% in 2013-17. The D % of D+R reg declined only in precincts 2E (probably reflection Union Station’s continued growth) and 4 (due maybe to large number of I’s, the highest of any precinct at 26%).
WC Dem turnout was 1% less than a year ago. That isn’t surprising, because Dems were extra-ready to act in May 2017, the first election after the surprise of Nov. 2016. Also, 2017 had an exciting the 3-way mayoral primary; and WC D turnout already almost doubled from the 2013 to the 2017 primary. 2018 Dem turnout was down from 2017 by 5% in wards 1 and 2E and by 3% in ward 7, but up slightly (though still low) in wards 5 and 6. As usual, wards 7 and 1 led the way in turnout with 31% and 30%. Overall D turnout of 20% in the Borough, though not intrinsically impressive, was way above R turnout of 12%.
The County Dem turnout increase of 4.4% from 2017 to 2018 is very encouraging. As usual (though not the case in 2017) West Chester Dem turnout was somewhat lower than the County’s, by 3.3%, reflecting our younger and more mobile demography.
Our job now is to hold all our primary voters, and to add a lot more votes, of whatever party, for our candidates in November.
VOTE Tuesday, May 15, 2018! Get your SAMPLE BALLOTS HERE!
Make voting easier on yourself. Get familiar with this SAMPLE GENERIC BALLOT FOR WEST CHESTER.
The Chester County Democratic Committee (CCDC) endorses the candidates marked with black ovals.
Consult your precinct committeepersons for information about State and WC Democratic Committee candidates.
To answer questions, Democratic committeepersons are working the polls all day; they are there to help you.
Don’t know your Precinct number or polling place?
The PA Department of State does.
2018 Primary Generic Sample Ballot PDF
for West Chester Borough
Supreme Court refuses to stop new congressional maps in Pennsylvania
[Supreme Court declines to get involved in Pennsylvania gerrymandering case]
The U.S. Supreme Court deliberated nearly two weeks before turning down the request to stop the map from being used in this fall’s elections. Generally the justices stay out of the way when a state’s highest court is interpreting its own state constitution.
WHAT IS GERRYMANDERING?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/e447f5c2-07fe-11e6-bfed-ef65dff5970d
Supreme Court upholds new Pa. congressional district map, rejecting Republican challenge
Supreme Court upholds new Pa. congressional district map, rejecting Republican challenge
by Jonathan Lai & Liz Navratil, Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/19/18 [Good! All Chester County is definitively within one district, PA-06, in line with the anti-gerrymandering principle.]
HARRISBURG — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to the new congressional map imposed by the state high court, assuring that the redrawn lines would be used in the 2018 elections.
The action came hours after a federal-judge panel dismissed a similar suit, saying Republican lawmakers who brought it had not legal standing. With the back-to-back rejections — both coming on the eve of the petition-filing deadline for congressional candidates — no legal challenges to the map remained.
The new map lines could have an impact on the makeup of the 2019 Congress, with Democrats hopeful that they could pick up at least a few more seats in Pennsylvania….
keep reading at Philadelphia Inquirer
Gerrymandered no more?
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court released its new maps of U.S. Congressional districts today. West Chester remains in the 6th District, but the district itself is very different, now encompassing all of Chester County plus Reading in Berks County. If this maps holds up to the expected Republican court challenge, the new districts will go into effect for this year’s elections.
WHAT IS GERRYMANDERING? https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/e447f5c2-07fe-11e6-bfed-ef65dff5970d
West Chester Borough Democrats 
You must be logged in to post a comment.