NORWICH – Chenango County Democrats gathered at the Canasawacta Country Club Sunday afternoon with representatives from the state and national level in the party’s first summer picnic.
The Chenango County committee hosted the summer picnic from 1 to 5 p.m., drawing in nearly 200 party members and friends in what is hoped to become a recurring event.
Attendants purchased $40 single or $70 couple tickets for the event, in which they were given the opportunity to converse with United States Representative Michael Arcuri of the 24th Congressional District, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli and New York State Assistant Attorney General Dennis C. McCabe of Binghamton along with a number of local Democratic representatives. In exchange for their donations, guests also enjoyed a live DJ, an open bar and lunch buffet.
“We wanted to do something like this before, but were unable to get it together. After taking over as county chairman in 2008, we set ourselves this goal of sponsoring a party picnic. We wanted to invite area members to come and casually converse with local county, state and national Democratic leaders while having a good time and supporting the party,” said Chenango Democratic Committee Chairman Patrick McNeil.
McNeil said the Democratic minority presence in the mostly Republican county was growing as a result of a combination of factors including local interest stimulated by the national presidential campaign of Barack Obama and the polarizing legacy of former Republican President George W. Bush.
McNeil also said that leadership changes in the Chenango County Democratic organization had also helped to bring the party closer together.
“People who have never become involved in the process are becoming involved and in increasing numbers. I can’t think of a better sign of health for the party than that,” said James J. McNeil, City of Norwich Supervisor for Wards 1,2 and 3, who is running for reelection this year.
The chairman noted that more Democrats voted in the 2008 election, which including the presidential race, than any other election he could personally recall.
Within minutes of arriving at the event, Arcuri was approached by several citizens, many of them wishing to voice concern or seek clarity on the health care issue looming before national lawmakers.
“I’d just like to say I was thrilled by the fact that I wasn’t even asked my first question about health care until I was under the pavilion,” joked Arcuri with the crowd.
The representative also discussed the plight facing local dairy farmers and the current status of NYRI, which he opposed.
The congressman mingled among the crowd for over an hour, often talking one-on-one for several minutes at a time. Retired Norwich third grade teacher Eileen Krouse approached the congressman to discuss her own personal experiences with the failings in the current health care system.
“There is no education of the health care system. I thought I was a fairly educated person, but after falling into it, I realized it was virtually impossible to intelligently navigate,” she said.
Krouse said she had a daughter who was involved in a motor vehicle accident nearly a decade earlier who suffered traumatic head injuries and then a husband who suffered from a stroke in 2001.
“The doctors in my daughter’s case wanted to allow her to continue with three more months of physical therapy, but the insurance company overruled them saying it wasn’t necessary. People complain about the government making life and death decisions for them, but right now private insurance companies are making our decisions for us instead,” she said.
“I like to look at Chenango County as ground zero. It’s in the middle of my district, and it’s a rural area with small, urban communities. I believe that in order to understand my district, I need to understand the issues facing Chenango County,” said Arcuri.