Sakalas: “Together we can take our party to the next level.”

LEBANON, OHIO, AUGUST 17 – At their meeting on Wednesday night at the Warren County Administration Building, the Executive Committee of the Warren County Democratic Party elected Kelly Sakalas as their new county party chair, as outgoing chair Bethe Goldenfield is retiring after decades of service to the party.

“I’m deeply honored to have been chosen as your new chair,” remarked Sakalas.

WE DID IT!

The votes have been cast and counted, and the NO side has won a decisive victory in Ohio! Issue 1, which would have made it all but impossible for citizens to put an amendment on our state constitution, has been defeated by a margin of 57%-43% statewide.

Party leaders: “Our movement has all the momentum right now.”

The Warren County Democratic Party and Butler County Democratic Party announced on Wednesday that they have collected over 10,000 petition signatures to put the Reproductive Rights Amendment on the November ballot, significantly exceeding their counties’ respective goals.

Warren County reported collecting over 6,000 signatures — more than doubling their initial goal of 3,000 — and Butler County reported over 4,000 signatures, exceeding their county’s goals as well.

A quick update on our progress gathering signatures for the reproductive freedom amendment: As of yesterday, we’ve officially met our minimum goal of 3,000 signatures! We’ve still got a month or so to go, so we’re going to keep gathering signatures in pursuit of our stretch goal of 6,000 signatures.

A huge thank you to our regional team leads, our data team, our petition circulators, and especially to everyone who has signed so far!

If you haven’t had the chance to sign the petition yet, you can drop in at WCDP HQ (1231 Columbus Ave., Lebanon) on Saturdays 10-4 or Sundays 1-4 to sign.

In case you missed the news yesterday, the Ohio GOP is so desperate to cancel our basic freedoms that they’ve called a special election on August 8 to try to ram through new restrictions on constitutional amendments that would make it all but impossible for We The People to serve as a check on our gerrymandered, far-right state legislature.

On Sunday, we were proud to be one of the sites to collect the initial set of signatures for the Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety amendment to go on the ballot in 2023. We collected 120 signatures at our county party headquarters, and today the coalition announced that they’ve gathered the required 1,000 signatures to file the amendment paperwork with the state’s attorney general!

Thank you to everyone who helped out with the event and everyone who signed the petition.

Last week, the WCDP Women’s Group relaunched with a Valentine’s Day donation to Safe on Main (formerly ARCS).

Due to all the generous and caring WCDP Women’s Group members who supported Safe on Main’s residents and clients, we were able to donate about $1,150 to Safe on Main along with our personalized Valentine’s cards!

Thank you to our “artistic director” Diana Contario, for creating this beautiful basket to deliver our cards, and to everyone who joined us and contributed to make this relaunch a success!

“Tulip Garden” is a queen sized quilt done in spring colors and bordered in coordinating fabrics. The soft pinks yellows and blues bring springtime to mind. The quilters also used some hand dyed pieces for this one.

The quilt will be awarded at the November 2023 (November 15th, 2023) Executive Committee meeting.

Donate $5 for one or $20 for 6 opportunities to make this quilt your own.

100% of the donations generated from the quilt sale support the Warren County Democratic Party, including training and supporting candidates running for office.

Now that the dust has (mostly) settled from Tuesday’s midterm elections, we’re taking stock of where we are — our victories and our defeats.

First, the good news: We’re going to have a new Democratic congressman! Greg Landsman defeated Steve Chabot to claim victory.

What an inspiring afternoon at our Warren County Democratic Party 2022 Gala and Silent Auction! Fantastic speeches from our candidates, great conversations at our tables, some wonderful items to bid on at our silent auction, and over $20,000 raised to help us turn Warren County blue this November!

THANK YOU all of the volunteers, table sponsors, and guests who made this event possible.

And a huge thank you to the following people:

Silent Auction Team: Diana Contario and Bethe Goldenfield (Coordinators), Kathlene Applegate, Sharon Campbell, Chris Ohlinger, Carol Sleeth, Melva Soderlund, Caryn Weckstein Volunteer Coordinators: Diana Contario, Bethe Goldenfield, John Marrone Graphic Design: Laura Kujawa Ticket and Campaign Finance: Bethe Goldenfield and Chris Ohlinger The fantastic staff at the Manor House Everyone who volunteered to help set up and clean up, staff the silent auction, check-in, and nametag tables, and do all the other little things that made our Gala & Silent Auction so great.

We’d also like to thank all of the candidates who were able to join us to make the afternoon such a success:

Cheryl Stephens, Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor Greg Landsman, Democratic nominee for US House, OH-01 Taylor Sappington, Democratic nominee for state auditor Judge Marilyn Zayas, Democratic candidate for Ohio Supreme Court Joy Bennett, Democratic nominee for Ohio House of Representatives, HD-56 Paul Zorn, Democratic nominee for Ohio House of Representatives, HD-55 Nabila Babar, Democratic candidate for Warren County Commissioner

Here are some pictures from the event: