Democratic Town Committee Launches Unusually Open Process For Candidate Selection

The municipal election season is underway, with 4 Democrats already having announced their
candidacy for Mayor. Mary Bartolotta, Geen Thazampallath,  Billy Russo, and Valeka Clarke will each hope to gain the endorsement of the Democratic Town Committee (DTC), which would automatically qualify them for a spot on the ballot.

As in past years, the DTC will form a nominating committee to make endorsement recommendations to the general DTC membership.

The formation of the nominating committee itself will be an open process to ensure that all Democrats in the city have a voice in setting ballot access. The committee will be composed of 5 current DTC members and 4 community members who are also registered Democrats.

Unlike in past years, the leadership of the DTC will not control the endorsement process by hand-picking the nominating committee. Rather, the composition of the nominating committee will be determined by a vote of the entire membership of the DTC. This vote will take place at the May 16 meeting of the DTC (7PM, Council Chambers), fully open to the public.

Anyone wishing to be considered for a position on the nominating committee should send an email expressing their intent to dems.middletown@gmail.com. They will then receive an email confirmation of their interest and be on the list prior to the May 16th meeting.

No candidate who is seeking an endorsement from the DTC can serve on the nominating committee.

The nominating committee will recommend endorsements not only for Mayor, but also for Common Council, Board of Education, Planning & Zoning, Treasurer, and Board of Assessment Appeals.

For more information, read the FAQ below the break.


What is the purpose of the Democratic Municipal Nominating Committee?
This year Middletown voters will head to the polls to vote for local leaders, ranging from Mayor to the Common Council to Board of Education and more. The role of the nominating committee will be to vet, interview, advise and recommend to the DTC a slate of candidates to endorse at our convention on Thursday, July 18th, 2019.

Are the recommendations made by the committee binding or can the DTC still vote differently?
No, the nominating committee's recommendation for endorsement is not legally binding and the DTC can still make their own determination as to whom they will vote to endorse. However, the nominating committee will have spent a good deal of time interviewing candidates, getting to know them a bit, asking questions about their ideas and learning why they want to run/serve.

What will the makeup of the nominating committee be?
This year's committee will be made up of 9 members, the following make up will be five (5) current 2018-2020 Middletown DTC members and four (4) members of our community that are not on the DTC Community members can be from local non-profits, church groups, athletic leagues, arts, business, veterans, education or other areas.

Who cannot be on the nominating committee?
In the spirit of fairness, transparency and ensuring an open process where everyone has the same opportunity, the following will be prohibited from serving on the nominating committee:

• Individuals that wish to run for office in the 2019 municipal cycle
• Individuals that are employed or receiving compensation from a local campaign

What happens if there are more members that want to serve than nominating committee slots available? Hint: ballots
For example, if 6 current 2018-2020 Middletown DTC members or 5 members of our community that are not on the DTC Community members want to serve on the committee, interested nominating committee candidates will have 2 minutes to give their "pitch" as to why they would like to serve on the committee. Then the DTC will vote via ballots (similar to how we have for filling a DTC vacancy), and the top 5 DTC candidates receiving the highest votes or top 4 non-DTC community members receiving the highest votes will be the members that will serve on the nominating committee.

When will we vote on the nominating committee?
Only 2018-2020 Middletown DTC members can vote on who will be members of the nominating committee and will do so on Thursday, May 16th at 7pm.

What will the time commitment be for nominating committee members?
The work of the nominating committee will be extremely critical and helpful to the DTC but will not be overly time consuming or burdensome. Nominating committee members should spend time reviewing accompanying candidate documents like resumes, statement on intent to run or policy platforms prior to conducting candidate interviews. Committee members should plan to hold 4 nights (tentatively a Monday, a Tuesday, Wednesday and a Thursday) for 3 hours each (probably 6pm-9pm) in latter part of June to conduct candidate interviews. Depending on the length of interviews, additional nights may be reserved. Candidate interviews can be as long as the committee deems necessarily but typically are 15 minutes or so long. Committee members will then gather one last time to deliberate among themselves, discuss candidates and vote among themselves on who they will recommend for endorsement prior to the convention on Thursday, July 18th, 2019.