Candidates’ forum for Miami-Dade Democrats’ elections

UPDATE: An updated post on this topic went up on Monday Dec. 1, at this link.

Dec. 3 is the date of our elections for officers in the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. The location is the Miami Association of Firefighters Local 587 at 2980 NW South River Drive in Miami, a balmy location on the lovely Miami River. Here's a Google Maps link to the address: 2980 nw s river drive miami fl - Google Search

Be there at 6 p.m. on Wednesday Dec. 3 for a careful sign-in procedure to make sure you’re a voting member of the DEC, our Democratic Executive Committee, and to receive ballots.

At stake are all the officers’ slots for the next four years: the chairman (only men are running this year), the first vice chair (who must be opposite gender of the chair, and thus only women are running), the state committeeman and state committeewoman, the vice chair for programs, the vice chair for outreach, the secretary and the treasurer.

A candidates’ forum was held Tuesday night at the American Legion hall in Miami, with some 50 people attending to hear candidates state their platforms and respond to written questions moderated by Wendy Sejour, president of Democracy for America Miami-Dade.

The forum will happen again on election night, so if you missed the first one, it’ll be on again, sort of like the presidential debates but with no ending time ordained by TV schedules. Bring a snack.

Your blogger is remaining neutral in this contest, so I’ll just name the candidates in alphabetical order and not try to avoid misquoting their campaign speeches by not quoting them at all.

FOR CHAIRMAN:

--BJ Chiszar

--Eric Copeland

For First Vice Chair

--Daisy Black

--Bess McElroy

For State Committeeman

--Bret Berlin

--Dr. Thomas Pinder

For State Committeewoman

--Ann-Lynn Denker

--Teresa Gevalda

--Millie Herrera

Secretary

--Charlotte Klieman

--Fanny Olmo

For Program Vice Chair

--Elizabeth Collins

For Outreach Vice Chair

--Henry Crespo Sr.

--Dave Patlak

Nominations remain open until the voting, so this list is not complete. No one spoke up for treasurer, for instance. The election process is fluid and someone who loses an early contest can run for an office contested later on election night. This is your hint to read the Bylaws, which are on the MiamiDadeDemocrats.com website.

Voting members of the DEC are hearing from some of the candidates by phone, mail and email. Those who weren’t at the candidates’ forum and don’t know the candidates may email this blog, and I’ll try to put them in touch with the candidates directly.

This may be risky but I’m going to suggest also that candidates can post platform info by adding a comment to this blog post. Please limit comments to 250 words. To get started on a comment, click on the hotlink at the end of the post where it says "0 comment" or "1 comment," etc. The editor reserves the power to remove and stop comments.

Good luck to all!