About 35 local Democrats, including some political newcomers, attended the Democratic Town Committee caucus on Thursday night and elected a new chairman to join the acting chairman who is now the vice-chairman. Two other officer positions will likely be elected in March.
Ray DiStephan, the former Democratic Board of Education chairman who lost his seat in the recent Republican and minority party sweep in November, was elected to head the party in the coming year. He will join Ron Jaffe, who also lost his Board of Finance seat in November, as vice-chairman. Jaffe became acting chairman right after the election when attorney Dan Smolnik resigned the post.
At the caucus, 25 town committee members were also elected. Those names will be forthcoming.
“It was a good group,” Jaffe said Friday morning. “People are energized, concerned about what happened in the last election, and they want to move forward.”