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Recent Posts

• Message from the Chair
  June 10, 2024
  Who Wants to Win in 2024? RAISE YOUR HAND! Local Democratic communities lost two well-respected, influential members this spring: Janice Newman Esman, who died at age 104, and Daniel Konowalow, who was 95. Janice was a member of TCDC and served as Treasurer at a time in the late 1980s/early 1990s when local Democrats flipped Tompkins County from red to blue. She would reach across the aisle to [more ...]
• House Sitting
  June 10, 2024
  Marc Molinaro: Defender, or Defunder, of Senior Citizens? by Ann Reichlin Having recently received a mailer trumpeting how local congressman Marc Molinaro supports seniors and wants to save Social Security, I decided to check out Molinaro’s voting record on issues that pertain to seniors. The Alliance of Retired Americans gave him a score of 10 percent, based on the nine out of ten of his votes [more ...]
• Looking Back
  June 10, 2024
  Tompkins County and the On-Again, Off-Again Student Vote by Carol K. Kammen Things are different today, but after the opening of Cornell University in 1868, many people wondered what would happen if students were allowed to vote. They found out in November 1870, when it became clear that Cornell students had influenced the outcome of a local election. Two hundred students voted that year: 30 for [more ...]
• Looking Back
  May 1, 2024
  When Democrats Turned Blue by Carol Kammen Following my April essay describing “When Tompkins County Turned Blue,” County Legislator Mike Lane pointed out that Democrats have not always been represented by the color blue. It reminded me of a time when the Democratic Party was represented by red, the Republicans blue, following the British coding system of blue for conservatives and red for [more ...]
• Looking Back
  May 1, 2024
  When Local Clergy Went Underground: The Last Time Abortion Was Illegal by Carol Kammen In 1968, women with troubled pregnancies had no place to turn. Abortion was illegal, and, when available, often unsafe.That was the year local clergy stepped in to help, led by Rev. David Evans of the First Baptist Church in Ithaca. When the Clergy Went Underground is a readers’ script that I have developed [more ...]