Hamilton County Democratic Party elects female chairs for the first time ever

[TexasTowelie]

Hamilton County’s Democratic Party will be led by women for the first time ever after a Saturday morning vote to elect new leadership. The county’s 258 Democratic Party precinct chairs chose to make former state Rep. Connie Pillich and Springfield Township Trustee Gwen McFarlin co-chairs of the party. The two replace retiring chair Tim Burke, who has served in the role for 25 years. Precinct chairs also elected new faces to the party’s nine-member executive committee. Party members have touted that body’s diversity — it includes four black members and five women.

Pillich and McFarlin’s elections come as Democrats gain more clout in Hamilton County — more Democrats than Republicans turned out for the May primary in the county, and Democrats now hold a 2-1 majority on the Hamilton County Commission after the 2017 elections.

Pillich, who served in the Ohio House from 2009 to 2014, ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination last year, but dropped out of a crowded field earlier this year. McFarlin has been a Springfield Township Trustee for 23 years and is also the head of the Hamilton County Tax Levy Review Committee.

“Hamilton County is on the cusp of something great,” Pillich said. “It might not be easy. It might be bumpy, but Hamilton County is going to be blue.”

https://www.citybeat.com/news/blog/21008757/hamilton-county-democratic-party-elects-female-chairs-for-the-first-time-ever-more-news
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[elleng]

1. replace retiring chair Tim Burke, who has served in the role for 25 years.

as Democrats gain more clout in Hamilton County — more Democrats than Republicans turned out for the May primary in the county, and Democrats now hold a 2-1 majority on the Hamilton County Commission after the 2017 elections.

“Hamilton County is on the cusp of something great,” Pillich said. “It might not be easy. It might be bumpy, but Hamilton County is going to be blue.”



Hamilton County is a county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2010 census, the population was 802,374. making it the third-most populous county in Ohio. The county seat is Cincinnati.

[CincyDem]

2. Them's my peeps.

Connie has been a shining light for a while and it's good to see her in a leadership role. I've seen a lot more organized activity in the past 6 months then in the past 6 years. Better communication, better GOTV activity at the events, more diverse events that draw bigger crowds.

That said, Hamilton County has a key issue that the Dem will have to address, IMHO. What I call "the West Side Issue". Hard core red. There are 3 county wide elected Dems and one of them, Dennis Driehaus (sister of former Congressman Steve Driehaus) comes from a hard core entrenched West Side political family. She would have won running on the Pastafarian Ticket...lol. County Dems have to do something to crack into the West Side on issues that matter vs. simply personality.

The West Side is Steve Chabot land. Not only do they elect him year after year but they genuinely admire him and his positions. He doesn't win because he's the R running - he wins because he IS who they are. Interesting thing about Chabot's race this year is that OH-1 was gerrymander into kind of a dumbbell district with the West Side on one side and the fast growing Northeast 'burbs on the other - connected by an expressway for all practical purposes. When they drew the lines, I don't think anyone saw the explosive growth in the NE burbs and even the R's up there are sane (vs. the West Side).

I think Aftab - a young corporate lawyer who connects well with the NE burbs has a great chance to take advantage of that number shift and pull in a lot of the center folks who leaned Trump in 2016 but have been embarrassed once too often. Said another way - NE burbs went trump but they're not his "MAGA base" so they might be flippable.

Good to see we've got a new energized team on the ground.