By James Cullum
Alexandrianews.org
Clark Mercer (Courtesy Photo)
Monday night marked the beginning of a new era for the Alexandria Democratic Party. Clark Mercer, a 30-year-old City native was elected unanimously as the chair of the Alexandria Democratic Committee. Julie Jakopic, who ran two successful campaigns for City Councilman Rob Krupicka and advised Delegate Charniele Herring’s campaign, was elected Deputy Chair for Finance and Administration. The election was held at the auditorium of the T. C. Williams High School Minnie Howard campus.
“We’ve got a really strong foundation in the ADC,” Mercer said. “But we need some fine tuning. We lost two City Council seats last election and we saw the statewide election of one of the most conservative tickets in recent memory. We need to recruit strong candidates not just a month before an election. We want to get those two [council] seats back and one of the ways we’ll do that is by redoubling our outreach efforts in the community.”
Susan Kellom, who served as chair for 10 years, will continue to serve on the ADC executive committee. “Do you all know the difference between the Democratic Party and the Boy Scouts of America?” she asked, in an effort to quiet ADC members during the election of ADC precinct captains. “The Boy Scouts have adult leadership. Let’s have some quiet!”
Mayor Bill Euille thanked Kellom for her service. “For everything, God bless you and thank you,” he said.
Kellom responded, before going to other business. “I didn’t bring my Kleenex,” she said.
The ADC reorganizes every two years. Mercer ran unopposed for ADC chair. His plans include increasing ADC outreach efforts, candidate recruitment and training, working with precinct captains to identify and recruit Democratic supports and for the ADC leadership to motivate its members with targeted events in precincts throughout the year. “We need to talk with civic groups, business groups, ethnic and minority groups and get plugged into community issues like the Winkler preserve, the Scholarship Fund, education, parks and recreation and housing. That’s what gets people involved in Civic activities,” he said.
Newly elected ADC Vice Chair Julie Jakopic was not at the meeting. In her statement of candidacy, she wrote: “This year presents us with a chance to take the systems we’ve built as a party to a new level. My experience working on campaigns and in the party has taught me that winning elections for Democratic candidates takes two things – effective fundraising and persuasive voter outreach.”
There are some old faces among ADC officers. Parliamentarian Craig Fifer, technology officer Holly Wallace, clerk May Lyman and treasurer Elizabeth Campbell retained their posts. New officers include: Tania Blagrove as Deputy Chair for Precinct Operations – East; Dak Harwick as Deputy Chair for Precinct Operations – West; Dick Hobson as Resolutions Officer and as chair of the Resolutions Committee; Richard Fowler and Gail Donegan as ADC Community Outreach Officers and Patrick Mulloy as ADC Leadership Circle Chair.
John Chapman is the new ADC Co-Volunteer Coordinator. “My goal is to engage the members a little bit more by just getting us more involved in community service. It’s one of the things we need to improve on,” he said. “I think folks in the community will see that politics is not all we do here.”