At our November meeting, the Four Freedoms Democratic Club adopted a resolution endorsing the Baker-Schultz proposal to regulate carbon fuels, and adopted a list of "health care must-haves" that should be part of any healthcare law. The club also began the process of nominating candidates for 2018 Officers, a process that concluded December 5, 2017. Elections will be held at our January 8, 2018 meeting.

The Club's Policy Committee prepared the resolution endorsing the "Baker-Schultz proposal" -- a carbon-fee and refund proposal developed by a group of prominent Republican elders, including former Secretaries of State Baker and Schultz, that puts a real and substantial price on fossil fuels. The resolution states that while the Club does not agree with all aspects of the Baker-Schulz proposal, we advocate its use as a starting point for building a bi-partisan consensus on climate change legislation.  To our knowledge, we are the first Democratic Party organization to adopt this proposal and we will now reach out to other Democratic Party clubs and organizations and our elected leaders to promote its adoption.  

 The list of "health care must haves" is a checklist developed by the Club's Healthcare Subgroup of the Club's Activism Committee. The Activism Committee saw the need to create this list in response to the myriad proposed changes to healthcare law that have been before the Republican-controlled House and Senate this year.  The checklist is a tool for evaluating the adequacy of any proposed healthcare law.  As the Affordable Care Act continues to be under siege, the Club will use this list to guide its activism and will promote adoption of the list by other Progressive organizations and elected leaders. 

At our November meeting, the Club also began accepting nominations for the leadership for next year.  The nomination process is now closed and the candidates are:

President (1 position): Bridget Cusick
Vice President (1 position): Frank Wilkinson and Abraham Salcedo
Treasurer (1 position): John Bartos
Corresponding Secretary (1 position): Jerry Ferguson
Recording Secretary (1 position): Matthew LoCastro and Lauren Trapanotto
Executive Board Members-at-Large (6 positions): Ilyssa Fuchs, Roberta Jacoby, Arlene Kayatt, Matt Lombardi, Elana Schwartz, Teresa Malyshev, Bob Menna, Pierre Ratzki, Adam Roberts, Barbara Rudder, Tricia Shimamura, John Wagner, and Esther Yang