The Morgan County Democrats have secured a very visible piece of real estate for their headquarters for the current election season. The party’s headquarters are located at 909 South Main Street and held an open house for the location on Saturday afternoon with two area candidates
Democratic candidates George Petrilli, who is running in the District 18 Congressional race against incumbent Darin LaHood, and Brandon Adams, who is running for state representative in the 100th District against incumbent C.D. Davidsmeyer, were on hand to meet local voters.
Judy Nelson, President of the Morgan County Democrats said the space will be the center for information about Democratic candidates on the ballot: “We have all of our [candidates’] signs there, and we have some written information about candidates that people can take with them. We are only going to open at the moment, 3 days a week – Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:30 to 6:30 in the evening and Saturdays from 11:30 to 1PM. We will be there some other times when we are having some training sessions because we will be using some of this space to train people on ways to canvas without breaking the rules of social distancing and all that dealing with COVID-19.”
Nelson says the training session will include information about phone canvassing and door-to-door canvassing. Nelson says the location as well as the massive amount of space allows the membership to meet safely during a challenging campaign season: “The reason we really like our headquarters is it’s a great location. If you are just off of Morton Avenue, you can actually see our headquarters and our signs. If you are stopped at the stoplight [at Main and Morton] heading West, and you look to your right, you can actually see our headquarters and our signs. It’s a good location. We also like the fact that it’s a small building because we don’t want a bunch of people gathering in there. We’ve got a huge parking lot, and so people can bring lawn chairs and wear masks when we get together and do things with groups of more than 4 or 5 people. It’s going to really work out. There is lots of off-street parking available and plenty of room for us to put chairs up and socially distance while we have a meeting.”
Nelson says that the location is seeing a big demand for yard signs during this election cycle. She says that even people who are from across the aisle are visiting their office to ask for signs this year: “We are seeing more than usual demand for signs. I think people are wanting to make a statement with a sign. We are having former [Republicans], or they may still be Republicans, come and ask for a sign because they aren’t currently in support of the current president. I’m kind of encouraged because I think there is going to be a really big turnout for the election this year.”
Nelson also says that the location can also help people get registered to vote if they have not ever voted before or recently have moved to the county and need to register.