“The only thing that will stop us is complacency,” Congressman Jim Himes told a gathering of about 100 people at the Wilton Democratic Fall Barbecue last Saturday, Sept. 10, at Merwin Meadows. Himes, running well ahead in the contest for Connecticut’s 4th Congressional district, urged attendees to celebrate the last eight years of the Obama Presidency, but to work hard for continued Democratic leadership. “Our job now,” he said, “is to see to it that we extend that legacy.”
Himes joined CT’s state attorney general George Jepsen, the state comptroller Kevin Lembo, Secretary of State Denise Merrill, the state director of elections Peggy Reeves, Wilton’s Democratic registrar Carole Young-Kleinfeld and Democratic Town Committee chair Deborah McFadden in stressing the urgency of this fall’s elections.
“This [presidential] election is different,” Himes said. “It’s not a Democrat versus a Republican. It’s a Democrat versus a person the likes of which we have never seen before. You have to harken back to Joseph McCarthy to match the dark forces that have been unleashed during this campaign.” Himes called on all Democrats, Bernie Sanders supporters included, to unite around Clinton.
“What’s really at stake here are the values of our country,” said Merrill. Lembo warned of the rise of religious nationalism fanned by the campaign, which “makes me nervous because of all of the genies that have left the bottle. ” Included, he said, was the assertion by some on the Right that if Clinton wins, “somehow the election has been rigged.”
The election officials present, from Merrill to Young-Kleinfeld, assured the gathering that this was impossible and that electronic tampering would never happen in Connecticut. They reported that registrations are high, helped by new sign-up via the Department of Motor Vehicles. “The number of people registering to vote is astonishing,” said Merrill. In Wilton, Young-Kleinfeld said, registrations have reached nearly 12,000, with more than 3,300 of them Democrats.
Young-Kleinfeld reminded attendees of registration deadlines:
October 7: Printed absentee ballots available to applicants from the town clerk’s office
November 1: Mail-in registration (received or postmarked), online voter registration, and in-person registration from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m..
Though Democrats view the registration numbers as positive for their party, McFadden cautioned the crowd not to take the election for granted and urged them to help get out the vote on Nov. 8. “Our biggest issue in this election is complacency,” she reminded the gathering.