Anne Hart, Chair of the Sullivan County Democrat party expressing her pride in their team and hoping the newly elected officials will bring a government that functions effectively.
She also mentions the importance of addressing the Adult Care Center at Sunset Lake situation.
Transcript:
Tim Bruno: [00:00:00] How are you feeling this morning?
Anne Hart: Tired. How about you? It was a great night for Democrats last night. I’m so proud of our team.
Tim Bruno: Yeah.
how did you find out about this turn of events here with the Democrats securing the legislature? And how did you feel?
Anne Hart: I felt very good. Yeah, I’m glad It’s time to turn a page, it’s time to bring our government back to the kind of government that functions well, and I’m really looking forward to the good work that they’re all going to do.
Jason Dole: And do you have any take on the turnout yesterday? I know the, there was this, there’s a big democratic win in the legislature, but were you keeping an eye on how many people actually voted at all and do you have any feeling for that?
Anne Hart: I was keeping an eye on it. We were not expecting a high turnout.
It’s an off year to begin with. And there weren’t any contested races at the top of the ticket, except for the Supreme Court races. So we were expecting a lower than usual turnout. And I think it, it held in that way. We were [00:01:00] trying to get some more people out and we didn’t, but, I’m glad for the result.
And I’m glad for the way that the numbers. Pulled in as the voters pulled in
Patricio Robayo: reflecting on this most recent election, you know Can you share some insights and some things that the Democratic Party was looking to face in the upcoming
year?
Anne Hart: Oh, I think the first thing they’re going to have to face is the fate of the care center Are you said Democratic Party.
Are you talking about the new legislature? I guess I misunderstood your question the
new legislature.
Patricio Robayo: We’ll
start there
Anne Hart: The new legislature, definitely, they’re going to have to address the situation with the care center and make some decisions about what they can do. They’ve got to learn a little more than what they know right now, but I think that’s probably item number one is really to address that situation, which has became so dire over the last three and some years.
Tim Bruno: We’ve been focusing a lot on the legislature and are there some town level races that you want to point out and tell folks [00:02:00] about who won and prevailed there?
Anne Hart: The Bethel Democrats did really well as expected. It’s a great team over there in Bethel. And we had a really good upset in the town of Highland with John Pizzolatto and Laura Burrell.
For supervisor and town board member respectively. They’ve worked really hard over there. They ran two years ago and we’re very happy to to see that, that they prevailed over there. And we’re looking for the possibility of a third when they’re depending on the rest of the absentee ballots coming in.
So congratulations to them.
Tim Bruno: And when did those absentee ballots come in? And can you remind us the date of that?
Anne Hart: They have to have been postmarked by yesterday, and they have to be received at the BOE, I believe, by November 14th
Tim Bruno: So we’ll get the final results in the next week or so. Yeah. Fairly
soon.
Anne Hart: There’s some things that the Board of Elections has to do to make everything completely legal. They have to go through the affidavit balance. The military ballots are still out there. So there are still some things that need [00:03:00] to happen. But we’re not expecting any… Major upsets
Tim Bruno: And Matt McPhillips, who we spoke to earlier from District one and Cat Scott just before you were on.
We’re talking about this sense of unity and the sense of the legislature as a team, regardless of party affiliation, how do you see that? Do you see it the same way?
Anne Hart: I do. I think I, I’m looking very much forward to seeing a group of people work together as a team to listen to each other respectfully, to have compassion to, for each other and for the residents of this town.
And I’m really looking forward to see that, to seeing that happen there. We, there it’s. It’s been so divisive, we forgot what it looks like when it works well, and I’m looking forward to seeing that and having that as a model for everyone else really who is in a situation where their government is divided and divisive.
Jason Dole: So and we already asked you what’s next in terms of the Democrats in the legislature. Let’s go the other direction with it. What’s next in terms of the Democratic Party? Party [00:04:00] in Sullivan County. Next year’s a big election year with a more bigger, congressional and presidential type races, things like that.
What’s next for you and the Democrats and more importantly, what does yesterday’s election mean for the work that you’re doing next year?
Anne Hart: What it means for the work that we’re doing next year is that we have been able to establish good working relationships with the people in our towns, the committee members and the volunteers in our towns and that we expect and hope that will carry through and become stronger next year so that we can focus on what is a very big, it’s the presidential year, it’s congressional year.
State Senate year. And of course we hope to see Aileen Gunther reelected yet again next year. It’s been this year a lot about party building, about building infrastructure, about creating, about really having our party become what it. What it should be. A group of people from different areas of the county with different ideas about things with different [00:05:00] problems with different obstacles come together for a common goal, which is to really have government work for the people.
And that not only is that local level, it goes all the way up to the
Tim Bruno: top. All right. And heart chair of the Democrats here in Sullivan County. Congratulations. And also thanks for joining us.
Anne Hart: Thank you very much for having me on.