The caucus of the Democratic Town Committee on Tuesday brought in several new members, including a number of young voters.
The meeting re-elected William Satti as chairman and Shirley Gillis as secretary. Although reduce the size of the committee to 60 members—20 from each of the three voting districts—the change will not go into effect for the new DTC. Satti said a member challenged the bylaws because the change did not occur within 60 days of the caucus, and the districts chose a total of 75 members.
Satti estimated that approximately 35 percent of the DTC’s members are joining it for the first time.
“It’s new blood, obviously,” he said. “We saw it through this general election, from the primary on up. It’s a strong showing for the Democrats of New London.”
Zak Leavy, executive assistant for Mayor Daryl Finizio and a newly elected member of the DTC, said New London has a young median age and that several young voters were brought to the polls by Finizio’s campaign.
“It shows the diversity,” Leavy said of the elected slate. “We have young people who are energized. We have current members, who are still working hard.”
Matt Covey said he chose to run for the DTC as a way of bringing ideas to the party. He said New London’s younger population is becoming more strongly attached to the city by purchasing property and having children.
“I think many younger people have not felt empowered for a long time,” he said.
Shannon Richardson also said she wanted to join the DTC as a way of getting involved with local politics and taking an active role in it.
“We’ve all been involved since the election began, and we wanted to keep being involved,” she said.
Finizio said he was happy with the results of the caucus.
“I’m very pleased to see the new energy surging into the DTC tonight,” he said. “I think we have a very good, unified town committee.”
