| Tonight's CFL kickoff was quite an event - with six members (plus Stuart Korchin) in attendance, elections, debate, and a great variety of the MLN community as well just socializing and lending support. CT Bob's got a great roundup with photos here, and of course video is still to come.
I arrived with Harriet just after 6:30, and found Stuart talking with Melissa Bailey from the NH Independent (who I mistook for Jennifer Medina, sorry, Melissa!) For those interested in the continuing drama of Stuart's claim, he only attempted to register as a CFL member once, in August. As Professor Orman could tell you (and did tell the Connecticut Post), you have to return to your registrar after the party is officially recognized to register as a member. My local registrar's office confirmed that standard operating procedure if someone attempts to register with an invalid party is to register that person as not affiliated with any political party, so Korchin is on pretty shaky ground. Nonetheless, he used his position as Fantasy Chair to call a Connecticut for Lieberman party meeting on August 9th of this year at his house in Cheshire, which he announced as he was hustling out the door.
Stuart, if you really wants to go to court over this, it was probably pretty stupid to show up to a gathering of every member of the CFL party, enjoy the snacks and appetizers, and then blow out of the room just before the voting starts. But good luck, mate.
Anyway, after adopting the rules (which limit elections to an annual January organizational meeting, rules changes to a month advance notice, and official meetings to the exclusive prerogative of the Chair), Professor Orman was elected Chairman 5-1, as well as Jon Kantrowitz as Vice Chair and Sue as Secretary by acclamation. There was actually some debate over Orman's proposed CFL platform, with a few items modified, and a call to establish recall elections dumped off the list (good call, guys.)
The whole meeting, including the audience-driven attempts to follow parliamentary procedure, and Jon's awesome "alternate platform" (presented for comedic effect) was a lot of fun, actually not too different from British Parliament for you C-SPAN geeks around here. Official Party business together with a blogger-oriented party (small p) atmosphere was a pretty good mix: perhaps the CFL meetings and the proposed monthly MLN get-togethers could be joint events?
And while there are no bank accounts or specific fundraising plans drawn up just yet, there was a committee was formed to explore candidate endorsement policies, and some talk of 2007 races that might be worth CFL's involvement. So stay tuned. |
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