The Marbletown Democratic Committee held a biennial organization meeting July 18, electing Carolyn Hansen as chair, John Harrington as vice chair, Jacob Sherma as secretary, and Doug Adams as treasurer.

Before the July 18 election Phil Ryan, former long-time chair of the Marbletown Democratic Committee, had announced his intention to step down. "Chairing Marbletown Democrats has been a privilege, and I’m thankful for all the support I’d gotten over the years. We play a role in prompting Dems to turn out at election time, and I take enormous satisfaction in the fact that our Democrats have about the highest rate of turnout for any town in the county, right up there with Woodstock and Rosendale. I’ll continue to serve as member of the County Democratic Committee.”

The new Chair, Carolyn Hansen, has been serving as vice chair for the past two years and served on the Democratic National Committee from 1992 to 1996. She commented that “it has been a pleasure and honor to work closely with Phil and to learn all the responsibilities of Chair. Phil has very quietly overseen a complex process for many years... The Marbletown Democratic Committee will be very busy this year getting Democrats registered and encouraging them to get to the polls on election day."

The next committee meeting will be held outdoors on August 15, at the pavilion at Marbletown Park on Tongore Road, starting at 6:30 p.m. and lasting one hour.

Guest speakers will be Jen Metzger and Ulster County Comptroller March Gallagher. Gallagher and Metzger are two of three candidates (the third being Marc Ryder) running in a special election in late December to fill the position of Ulster County Executive. Ryder will speak at committee meeting in September or October.

At the August 15 meeting, there will also be reports on an upcoming September 25 fundraiser, and the coming primary and general election. In the August 23 primary, Democratic voters will nominate the Democratic candidate for District 18 in the US House of Representative for the November 8 general election, and vote in a special election to fill the remainder of Antonio Delgado’s term this year in the US House of Representatives. Three candidates, March Gallagher, Jen Metzger and Marc Ryder, have announced their candidacies for County Executive. The special election August 23 is a contest between Pat Ryan (Democrat), Ulster County Executive; and Mike Molinaro, (Republican) Dutchess County Executive.