Ferndale Area Democrats

By Dave Cottrill

Not too long ago the Ferndale Democratic Club made it’s reappearance at the Loving Touch after four guys interested in politics had noticed that Ferndale’s Democratic Club had dwindled into non-existence.

In the State records, Ferndale was listed as a dormant club with one member, our last treasurer. He, like the previous president of the club, had become a city councilman. Their schedules become occupied with setting policy, participating in commission meetings and solving the problems that came up. The baton was passed; the new chairs started operating the club and then stopped. The club dwindled and became dormant.

Some of us joined nearby clubs such as the Oak Park/Huntington Woods Dems Club. And a school teacher originally from Iowa joined the Hazel Park Dems Club. He later worked for the City as a voter expert.

The Oak Park Huntington Woods Club brought in speakers, and new candidates emerged such as Councilwoman Regina Weiss. Reports were given from the Oak Park Mayor, Maryann McClellan and County Commissioner Helane Zack.

Judicial candidates came to our meetings in search of nominating signatures to get on the ballot. They come to the club with their elevator speech and tell us who they are, their experience as an attorney, some cases that they are especially proud of. One such candidate was Jake Cunningham who ran for Circuit Court judge. The OPHW Club endorsed him. Later, when Roe-v.-Wade was reversed by the United States Supreme Court, Judge Cunningham issued the temporary stay order so the 1931 abortion law would not go in effect. Supporting judges running for office is important.

After the big extravaganza at the Loving Touch, four guys (Jason Storms, Tim Krzyczkowski/Secretary, Jordan Smellie, and Josh Miller/Treasurer) began reforming the club. We went through a few different meeting places, including the comedy club where Tim worked, a Ferndale Library meeting room for a while and the WAB. For about a year we met at the B. Nektar Meadery on the East Side south of Nine on Jarvis Street.

After using Zoom during Covid, thanks to some Elks members who believe that civil and human rights are important, the Ferndale Area Dems settled into our current location: the second floor of the Elks Club. We meet at 7:00 P.M. generally on the fourth Thursday of the month.

THE HARD PART: STARTING A CLUB IS DIFFICULT. Restarting a club has its own challenges. Drafting the bylaws is tedious but is important and necessary. The bylaws need to establish who is a member. Our club is for citizens of Ferndale and Pleasant Ridge and a sufficient quorum is required to allow the club to operate. To vote, our club, requires a percentage of board members and general members to attend. Besides the chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer, members do things such as making phone calls, informing citizens of the club and reminding them of the primary or distributing campaign literature is vital.

Then there is the part of keeping the club relevant, representing the concerned citizens, and letting people know that you exist: Inviting relevant speakers to the meetings, so you can talk to your county commissioner, county executive, state representative, and maybe your city council person when their schedule permits.

Many of the Ferndale Area Dems members are also either precinct delegates whose job is to keep in touch with the voter and get out the vote for the general election. Many work for their favorite candidate before the primary or for city elections.

When you get further involved in the process of elections, various trainings become available. DPDOC, the Democratic Precinct Delegates of Oakland County, came about after the 2016 election, to train, inform, encourage and provide a method to exchange ideas and best practices amongst the precinct delegates of Oakland County. There are tools to find likely voters and voters that have not been voting for a while. In some instances, a non-voter is someone who has moved. The precinct delegate can inform people of the move and begin the long process of correcting the voting list.

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