Blue note 5 6

►The Bimonthly Newsletter of the Dorchester County Democratic Party◄ ►The Bimonthly Newsletter of the Dorchester County Democratic Party◄

December 2013/January 2014 Volume 5, Issue 6

Do you know in less than 12 months we will be in-volved in the most important election in many a year? On November 4th, 2014, we will be voting for governor of South Carolina, all the state offices, two U.S. Senate seats, our U.S. Representative spots, four County Council seats, all of our state representative districts, and probably some important initiatives, too. As the core of the Dorchester County Democ-ratic Party, we have our work cut out for us! We did great in the last election, coming out early against the regressive suggested increase in sales tax – and we won by an overwhelming majority! So you need to get ready to do your part – register people to vote, energize volunteers, and get ALL Democrats out to vote! This includes advertising, telephone calling, knocking on doors, and contributing. The Democratic Party has a great message – healthcare for all, full support to public education, revive our infrastructure, fair wages, and jobs for all. Please enjoy your holidays, and get ready to work hard this new year, 2014, to turn Dorchester County and South Carolina BLUE! Richard Hayes, Dorchester County Democratic Party Chair

A 2013 Victory: No New Tax!

When a “reverse Robin Hood” tax was proposed earlier this year by three Re-publicans on Dorchester County Council, your county Democrats stepped up to the plate. And we hit a homerun, too!

We were in the news—newspaper and television—11 times in only four weeks, telling the facts that the proposed sales tax increase/property tax decrease was unfair to renters, and even to most homeowners, as well. We also let voters know by telephone and blogs.

And the result? A higher-than-expected voter turnout rejected the proposal, with 67 percent voting NO. Let’s keep it up for 2014!

New Election Year Underway

IN THIS ISSUE Precinct reorganization meetings—

page 2 County convention—page 3 Obamacare is working—page 4 Spring Fundraiser—page 5 DCDP Yard Sale planned—page 7 New website—page 7 Follow Congress with your smart-

phone—page 8 Elections 2014—page 9 Calendar of Events—page 10

All Dorchester County precincts meet at one of the following lo-cations:

10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 15

Lower Dorchester County County Council Chambers

500 N Main St in Summerville The precincts to meet here are:

Archdale Archdale 2 Ashborough East Ashborough East 2 Ashborough West Ashborough West 2

Ashley River Bacons Bridge Beech Hill Beech Hill 2 Brandymill Brandymill 2

Briarwood Briarwood 2 Briarwood 3 Butternut Carolina Central Central 2 Clemson Clemson 2 Clemson 3

Coastal Coastal 2 Coastal 3 Coosaw Coosaw 2 Cypress

Delemars Dorchester Dorchester 2 Flowertown Flowertown 2

Germantown Givhans Givhans 2 Greenhurst Greenwave Irongate

Irongate 2 Irongate 3 Kings Grant Kings Grant 2

Knightsville Lincoln Miles/Jamison Newington Newington 2

North Summerville North Summerville 2 Oakbrook Patriot Saul Dam

Sawmill Branch Spann Stallsville Tranquil Tranquil 2 Trolley

Tupperway Windsor

Upper Dorchester County Waggoner County Services Building

201 Johnston St in St. George The precincts to meet here are:

Four Hole Grover Harleyville Indian Field Indian Field 2

Reevesville Ridgeville Ridgeville 2 Rosinville Rosses

St. George 1 St. George 2

Delemars Precinct Only 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 15

Sand Hill U.M. Church Family Life Center

1961 Summers Drive in Ridgeville

By David Rison

Precinct reorganization occurs every two years. The precincts are the build-ing blocks of the county party. Dorchester County now has 74 precincts. The precincts in the lower end of the county will meet in the County Council Building (500 N Main St in Sum-merville) and the precincts in the upper part of the county will meet at the Kenny Waggoner Building (201 Johnston St in St. George). Both meetings start at 10 a.m. on February 15. Both groups will break up into individual precincts to elect precinct officers. A list of offices and the requirements for each office will be given to each person who attends the precinct meetings. Individual precincts may also adopt resolutions to be presented to the county convention and, if adopted by that body, be presented to the state convention that meets in Columbia on May 3. Each precinct also elects delegates to the county convention. The state party reporting form indicates how many delegates that each precinct has. Dele-gates should be divided evenly between men and women. The County Con-vention will take place on Saturday, March 22 at the Ridgeville Municipal Building. New party officers will be elected for the 2014- 2015 term. Precinct reorganization is the foundation of the Dorchester County Democ-ratic Party. Precinct presidents work to strengthen their precinct and execu-tive committee men and women represent the precinct on the county Execu-tive Committee. Please come out on February 15 and support your county Democratic Party. Everything starts at the precinct level.

Every precinct can select up to eight (8) of its own officers at the February 15 Precinct Reor-ganization Meeting. Here’s a listing of those precinct officer spots, and a brief description of their duties:

County Party Executive Committee Mem-ber

Serves on DCDP Executive Committee; attends the monthly Exec Comm. meetings; votes on actions, activities and expenses of the county party; informs his or her precinct of county party news.

Precinct President Organizes and presides at precinct/neighborhood meetings; works to inform the public in his or her precinct; encourages voter participation; provides feedback to the county party on what those voters want and need.

Vice Presidents The first Vice President must be of a race other than the President. The Second Vice President must be of opposite sex from the President. The Third Vice President must be under 30 years of age. They have such duties as are assigned to them by the President.

Secretary Responsible for recording notes of meetings and activities, as well as recording and submit-ting the precinct reorganization form to the County Party.

Treasurer Responsible for the budget and disbursement of all precinct funds.

Alternate Executive Committeepersons Each precinct may elect one or more Alter-nates to represent it in the absence of the Executive Committeeperson.

Precinct Officers to be elected on February 15

Precinct Reorganization Meetings on Feb. 15 Be an active part of the county party!

Party Officers to be elected on March 22

All are for two-year terms

Traditionally, each candidate is formally nominated at the convention by a sponsor, and a direct vote follows thereafter. Party Chairperson—elected first at the con-vention in order to determine candidate eligi-bility for the 1st and 2nd Vice Chair positions 1st Vice Chair—must be a different ethnicity from the Chair 2nd Vice Chair—must be opposite sex of the Chair 3rd Vice Chair—must be under 30 years of age State Party Executive Committee Repre-sentatives—one male and one female to attend the regular state party executive com-mittee meetings State Party Executive Committee Alter-nates—one male and one female who can fill in for regular state executive committee members when they can’t attend the state party meetings

If you’d like to run for any of these county party offices listed above, please notify chair-person Richard Hayes ([email protected]).

State Party Delegates are also selected at this county party convention.

County Party Convention on March 22 Be a very active part of the county party!

By Richard Hayes Our county party convention is very critical this year, as not only will we elect our State Convention delegates, but we will also be electing our County Officers, including a new County Party Chair-person. Richard Hayes has served two consecutive terms as Chair, and tradition dictates that he turn the reins over to the next genera-tion of leaders! We have some outstanding new leaders ready to carry on, so please plan on attending this critical County Convention, espe-cially if you would like to be a delegate to the State Convention. The County Chair Person you elect will be the leader of our County through the 2014 elections and for the next two years. We will also elect three vice chairs: the 1st Vice Chair must be of a different race than the Chair, and the 2nd Vice Chair must be of a different gender. The 3rd Vice Chair must be under 30 years old, and will be key leader to lead getting the young Democrats out to vote. We plan on having several important speakers, including our state party chairman Jaime Harrison, to help motivate us to support the Democratic Party and turn our state BLUE in November 2014!

Remember: To be a state party delegate and attend the SCDP convention in 2014, you must be a county party dele-gate first! And to be a county party delegate, you must be attend the February 15 Precinct Reorganization meeting!

And so can you!

Open House on Obamacare this Thursday

Planned Parenthood Health Systems is hosting Open House sessions about the Affordable Care Act all over the country, including an Open House in Charleston. The event is from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 5th at Planned Par-enthood’s local office (200 Rutledge St. in Charleston). There’s no cost to attend, but Planned Parenthood would appreciate an RSVP if you plan to attend—just click here to make your reservation.

South Carolina Appleseed, a legal justice center, created a new website to provide regular and up-to-date information about the healthcare marketplace. Called “Signup SC,” the site offers detailed information on how to enroll in the Afford-able Care Act, and even how to watch out for insurance scams.

“Many South Carolinians are suffering eco-nomic hardships and have preexisting medical conditions, previously making healthcare totally out of reach,” the site says. “Inability to afford healthcare can result in further hardship and crippling debt, so SC Appleseed is dedicated to helping those in need understand and access these impor-tant benefits.” Visit the new signupsc.com website for more of the information it provides in many different categories.

Despite all the rightwing attacks and media attacks, www.healthcare.gov is WORKING!

The declared goal of the Obama administration is to enroll 7 million Americans into medical insurance policies, and in six months ending March 31, 2014. It had a slow start, registering only 36,000 in the first week, but over 2 million were visiting the site on its very first day. That high traffic jammed the site, making it work very slowly (and which was the goal of some groups that were encouraging folks to tie it up). But in the third week, it registered almost 400,000, and over 500,000 regis-tered in the fourth week. Operating at this current pace, the goal of 7 million can be met many weeks before March 31.

Even when the healthcare.gov site was operating slowly, it was still faster than private insurance websites! During the very busy first week of the site, when news media kept saying how difficult it was to register for Obamacare, some-one filmed a comparison of online registration. It took him 49 minutes to register at healthcare.gov; he then went to a private insurance company website, where it took him two hours and 16 minutes to register. See it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql9RVy6FWkg

The website is just one of four ways to register for Obamacare, too. Registration is also being done by telephone (1-800-318-2596), by regular mail (see bit.ly/PaperApplication) and in person (see LocalHelp.healthcare.gov).

SC Pro Net helping with Obamacare registration The South Carolina Progressive Network is one group in the state help-ing folks register in person. The organization received a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to train “navigators,” who can help people sign up for medical insurance. The local navigator for the Charleston region is Loreen Myerson, who can be reached by email ([email protected]) or telephone (843.475.2859).

You can also contact the main “navigator” office at 803.445.1921.

Recently I was working with other volunteers in the kitchen in the hall at my church. One of the ladies questioned if anyone was in favor of Obamacare. I of course raised my hand and stated I was in favor. She told me I didn’t have to be; it was not the law, she said. I firmly told her it was the law and she pro-ceeded to tell me she knew all about Obamacare. She told me that when I got into my 70’s---I interrupted her and asked just how old she thought I was and she said 65. Well, needless to say I smiled and assured her I was in my 70’s. She then told me when I fell and broke my hip Obamacare would not pay for surgery. She told me she watched the news on CBS and ABC and read the papers, and I interrupted with “and you watch FOX.” I then asked if she ever watched MSNBC and of course she quickly told me she did not. I assured her that Obamacare would pay for my surgery as long as I had Medicare and Supplemental Insurance. Obviously I could not take anymore and I told her, after asking her name, if I ever fell and broke my hip and surgery was not paid for by my Medicare and Supplemental Insurance, she would be the first to know. Long story short, the kitchen cleared out. Now what I should have said: extracted from http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-facts.php. It is not “Obamacare” it is the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 to reform the health care industry, and was upheld by the US Supreme Court on June 28, 2012.

It doesn't regulate your health care it regulates health insur-ance and some of the worst practices of the for-profit health care industry.

It offers a number of new benefits, rights and protections such as:

1. Permits young adults to stay on their parents’ plans until they are 26 years old

2. Prohibits insurance companies from dropping you when you are sick or if you make an honest mistake on your application.

3. Prevents against gender discrimination. This means no more higher rates for women.

4. Bans insurance companies from making unjustified rate hikes.

5. Eliminates life-time and annual limits on insurance claims.

6. Allows you the right to a rapid appeal of insurance company decisions.

7. It expands coverage to tens of millions. 8. Health insurance costs are subsidized, if needed. 9. The law requires all insurers to cover people with pre-

existing conditions.

The Affordable Care Act Now Contains: Ten Essential Health Benefits including emergency care,

hospitalization, prescription drugs, maternity, and new-born care must be included on all non-grandfathered plans with no annual or lifetime dollar limits.

Free Preventive services including yearly check-ups, immu-nizations, counseling, and screenings must be included on all non-grandfathered plans at no out-of-pocket costs.

Again, refer to http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-facts.php for additional facts. This concludes the “would have, should have, but now you know and won’t make the same mistake that I did”. Stand up, speak up, be counted, be a Dorchester County Democrat!

Election 2014 – Volunteers Needed! While it may be the holiday season now, we continue to focus on Election Year 2014. During the last couple of months, we have held several successful phone-banking sessions and will continue these with more frequency in 2014. We have also held several voter registration events and are plan-ning two major drives next year using the voter ID mobile unit. One of these events will take place on February 1st in the Brownsville area and the other will be held on March 1st in the Boone Hill area. For more information and to volunteer to help, contact 1st Vice-Chair Ethel Campbell at 843-442-4346 or [email protected], or 2nd Vice-Chair Dorothy Brown at 843-576-9558 or [email protected].

Spring Fundraiser We are planning a fundraiser! The Red, White & Blue Jazz BBQ event will be held this Spring. For more information or to volunteer to help with the fund-raiser, contact 1st Vice-Chair Ethel Campbell at 843-442-4346 or [email protected], or 2nd Vice-Chair Dorothy Brown at 843-576-9558 or [email protected].

Personal Encounters With a Public Misinformed About Obamacare By Marty Turney

SEE OUR ENTIRE MENU ONLINE AT

www.italianbistrosangaree.com

1625 N Main Street In Sangaree Bilo Shopping Center

832-6001

Mon-Thurs: 11 am-10 pm Fri & Sat: 11 am-11 pm

Sun: 12 pm-10 pm

New York-Style Pizza

Specialty Pizzas

Stromboli * Calzones

Specialty Dinners

Appetizers * Giant Wings

Salads * Cheeseburgers

Grilled Chicken Sandwiches

Hot Subs * Cold Subs

Wraps * Steak Sandwiches

and Desserts

Full Dinners (Chicken, Veal,

Seafood and Baked Pasta) served with Salad & Bread

~We Even Have a Kids’ Menu!~

CATERING AVAILABLE

INCLUDING FULL

ITALIAN DINNERS

Buy Any 2 Dinners

Get One Bottle of

House Wine FREE Cannot be combined with other offers

DINE IN ONLY

Buy Any Large Calzone

or Stromboli Get 12 Garlic Knots & One

2-Liter Soda

FREE Toppings extra, cannot be combined

with other offers PICK UP ONLY

Lunch Special Combo Any 12” Sandwich,

French Fries & Soda

$7.50 Plus Tax. Toppings extra, cannot be

combined with other offers

16” Cheese Pizza With 12 Wings,

24 Garlic Knots and

2-Liter Soda

$23.00 Plus Tax. Toppings extra, cannot be

combined with other offers PICK UP ONLY

NOW SERVING BEER & WINE!NOW SERVING BEER & WINE!NOW SERVING BEER & WINE!

Sun-Mon Special

Buy Two 12” Sandwiches

Get 12 Wings

FREE Toppings extra, cannot be combined

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Buy 2 Orders of Wings

Get 3rd Order of Wings

FREE Toppings extra, cannot be combined

with other offers PICK UP ONLY

Family Feast:

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combined with other offers PICK UP ONLY

Large 16” Cheese Pizza

$8.99

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What you can donate to the

Dorchester County

Democratic Party

Yard Sale? Yes, we are having a yard sale for the Dorchester County Democratic Party. Well, we don’t think you will be starting your spring cleaning this soon but if you donate for Febru-ary you won’t have to move your donations from one place to another. If you donate after Christmas we can store the priced items. Since we did not have an auction at our dinner in Septem-ber, we thought a great fundraiser would be a yard sale for our party. We need money for the upcoming elections and this will be a lot more fun than asking for contributions and a lot less painful for many. Plus, the yard sale will be a good chance to get together and remind everyone of our Precinct Reorganization Meeting on February 15 and our Dorchester County Democratic Convention on March 22. Items we need: Everything legal. Items must be tagged with a price which may be lowered during the morning to make a sale. We also need bags & boxes to hold goodies once they are sold. Coffee & goodies will be under the tent for sale. We need volunteers to help sell items, and keep things moving. Will you please help?

February 8, 2014 8:00 A.M. till 12:00 P.M.

The location is 207 Bryan Street, across from Glover’s Fu-neral Home. This is where Bryan and Walnut Streets come together. Bryan Street is 3 blocks south of Alston Middle School.

Councilman Aaron Brown stated he has had great success at this location with community yard sales and other events. Please come, donate, buy and be a contributing member of your Party. For questions or additional information, contact Marty Turney [email protected] 843-851-1191 or Dianne Urig [email protected] 843-303-3453.

New Website for DCDP!

www.scdp.org/dorchestercounty

The Dorchester County Democratic Party has a new website, complete with new website address! Featured on the state party’s website, this new site lets us maintain prime design, and at no cost. Please visit our new site, which you can do simply by clicking on the address below.

Want to get immediate updates on current bills in Con-gress? How about all the latest news on your congres-sional representatives? A new app for smartphones, and in both iPhone and An-droid varieties, can do just that for you.

Appropriately named “Congress,” this mobile application software for smartphones is created and updated by the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit organization based in

Washington D.C. that promotes transparency in govern-ment. The Foundation’s mobile app provides very regular updates on members of Congress, congressional commit-tees, hearings, bills and votes.

“Congress” can be personalized, too. You can select spe-cific bills and elected officials you want to receive up-dates about.

You can download the app at no cost from this site: http://congress.sunlightfoundation.com/.

Follow Congress with your Smartphone!

This is the homepage of the app, which shows all the bills for upcoming vote. The menu on the left side lets you select recent voting records, hearings topics and other information.

You can personalize the app to keep track of particular members

of Congress.

You can get detailed information on individual congresspersons, including contact information and voting record, and the app will also show

recent news articles that include those specific representatives, too.

The app gives details on recent votes, too.

Races that will appear on Dorchester County ballots in 2014:

Governor Lieutenant Governor Secretary of State State Treasurer Attorney General Comptroller General State Superintendent of Education Adjutant General Commissioner of Agriculture U.S. House of Representatives (Districts 1 and 6) U.S. Senate (for full term against incumbent Lindsey Graham) U.S. Senate (for partial term through 2016 against incumbent

Tim Scott) State House of Representatives County Council (District 1, 2, 3 and 7) Soil and Water District Commission (elect two—nonpartisan) School Board District 2, At Large (elect four—nonpartisan) School Board District 4 (seats 4 and 5—nonpartisan)

2014 Election Calendar

March 16, starting at 12 noon Candidates begin filing with county election commission for countywide and smaller of-fices, and with state election commission for statewide and federal offices.

March 30, ending at 12 noon All candidate filing closes

May 10 Deadline to register to vote in the primary races

June 10, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Primary Election Day

June 24, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Primary Runoffs (if necessary)

October 4 Deadline to register in general election

November 4, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. General Election Day

Democratic incumbents who’ll appear on the ballots in 2014 U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn—District 6

State Rep. Patsy Knight—District 97

State Rep. Joe Jefferson—District 102

State Rep. David Mack III—District 109

State Rep. J. Seth Whipper—District 113

County Councilman Willie Davis—District 1

Other declared Democratic candidates for other offices For Governor—State Sen. Vincent Sheheen

For Lieutenant Governor—State Rep. Bakari Sellers

For U.S. Senate (against Tim Scott)—Richland County Councilwoman Joyce Dickerson

For U.S. Senate (against Lindsey Graham)—Jay Stamper

Three Very Hot County Council Seats! County Council Seats 2, 3 and 7 are WEAK, which makes them ripe game for Democratic candidates. The incumbents (David Chinnis, George Bailey and Jay Byars, respectively) all openly supported the recently proposed sales tax increase/property tax decrease, which even their own county Republican Party was against. That tax proposal was soundly de-feated at the polls in October, and each of them can be defeated in 2014, too. See map of County Council District 2 http://www.dorchestercounty.net/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=5224

See map of County Council District 3 http://www.dorchestercounty.net/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=5223

See map of County Council District 7 http://www.dorchestercounty.net/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=5219

Dorchester Democrats Fantasy League

Week 12 Standings Division One: Lowcountry League Jake’s NFL Greats 9-4 No More Mr. Nice Guy 8-5 Mort’s Killer Kats 7-6 Winning 4-9 Ziggy’s Patriots 3-10 Division Two: Palmetto Pack Rob’s Roosters 11-2 Mamasez 7-6 Turney’s Tornadoes 6-7 GCharp62 5-8 Rison’s Raiders 4-9

Calendar of Events

December

December 5 Affordable Care Act Open House

6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Planned Parenthood Health Center 200 Rutledge Avenue in Charleston

RSVP by clicking here

December 23 AHA Registration

To have new health insurance start on January 1, you’ll need to complete registration by this date.

December 25 Merry Christmas!

December 26—January 1

Happy Kwanzaa!

January

January 1 New Year’s Day Resolution

“I (state your name) do hereby resolve to be a very active Democrat in the 2014 election year.”.

January 13

Executive Committee Meeting 7 p.m. at the County Code Building

500 N Main St in Summerville

January 18 Monthly Breakfast Meeting

9 a.m. at Ryan’s, 1314 N Main St. in Summerville You can pay the $10 for breakfast buffet and coffee in

the front room where our meeting is held.

January 20 Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act: 105 million Americans are paying less for preventive care, including more than 47 million women. 105 million Americans are no longer subject to lifetime limits. 17 million children with pre-existing conditions are no longer being denied coverage or charged more. 7.1 million seniors and people with disabilities who reached the donut hole have saved $8.3 billion on

their prescription drugs. This year, the law is helping 8.5 million Americans receive money back in their pockets and purse by mak-

ing sure premium dollars go to health care, not overhead or profits. In 2011 and 2012, $3.9 billion in pre-mium savings were returned to Americans as insurer accountability and transparency policies kicked in.

129 million Americans have a pre-existing condition for which they could have been charged more, or denied coverage, which is prohibited beginning in 2014. An estimated 43 percent of people with individ-ual market insurance (about 5 million) have a pre-existing condition.

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