Wednesday afternoon was the deadline for challenge slates to submit signatures to qualify for the March 4 Democratic Town Committee primaries. Elections officials are busy checking petition sheets for the five percent signature threshold required for ballot access. Seven district primaries are possible with 17 slates and upwards of 150 candidates. Yikes. That’s a lot of ballot printing.
The 90-member Democratic Town Committee conducts party business, endorses candidates for public office and selects a chairman. Black Rock District Leader Danny Roach is weighing a challenge of Town Chair Mario Testa, depending on the makeup of the town committee following the primaries. Could political operative Americo Santiago be lurking as well?
The town committee action in part is an extension of last September’s primary drubbing of all endorsed Democrats for City Council and school board. The makeup of the town committee will impact endorsements for this year’s legislative cycle as well as the mayor’s race next year.
As far as I can tell there are 7 districts that will have primaries for town committee seats. If 5 districts change it could mean Finch won’t get the nomination next time around. The winds of change are blowing. It will get interesting.
*** The machine has the A/B’s on their side even before the start of the election day! All the challenge slates must get the word out, inform the voters and pull them out and to the polls on election day. *** This is good and hopefully only the beginning of political things to come, no? ***