10/13/07 - Dems reappoint Wood party chairman

(As Published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel Reporting)

Cortland County Election Commissioner Bill Wood was re-elected as the county Democratic Party chair at a Democratic Committee organizational meeting Oct. 6.

County Legislator Sandy Price (D-Harford and Virgil) is the vice-chair; Alice Starmer was appointed treasurer; and Sean Mack is the secretary.

“The only nominations were the people that were elected. There were no nominations from the floor,” Mack said Friday morning.

The vote was unanimous, he added.

Mack said about 25 people were in attendance at the meeting, with a total of 4,169 weighted votes, including proxy votes submitted by absent committee members — this was about 1,000 more votes than needed for a quorum, he added.

There are about 84 members of the Democratic Committee, for a total of just fewer than 5,900 weighted votes.

The meeting — held at attorney and committee member Ric Van Donsel’s law office on Church Street — was initially adjourned because there did not appear to be a quorum, but was reconvened shortly thereafter when weighted votes were tallied and a quorum was evident.

Wood confirmed that the meeting had taken place and that he was appointed chairman, but he would not comment further.

Incumbent Alderwoman Shannon Terwilliger (D-2nd Ward), who failed to receive the party endorsement in her bid for re-election and then lost the September primary to Democratic challenger Clay Benedict, said she showed up at the meeting with four proxy votes that she was not allowed to cast.

A former committee member herself, Terwilliger was told she was off the committee — her loyalty to the party was questioned — and that the proxy votes she was carrying could not be accepted.