Tonight, I attended the monthly Watertown Democratic Town Committee Meeting. I have been to many of these meetings (I am an Associate Member: who knew?) and this is by far the most people I have seen at one. The big turn out was due to the fact that State Rep Rachel Kaprielian is leaving her seat to become the head of the RMV. Rachel spoke at the start of the meeting and talked about the mixed emotions she had leaving the post she has held for 13 years. After her speech she received a standing ovation. Then the real fun began; Committee Chair Steve Owens gave the run down of the convoluted process of whom if anyone would be on the Democratic Ballot in the primary. What is most likely going to happen is that there is going to be a caucus next Tuesday night at the Watertown Town Hall with 18 delegates from Watertown and 7 Delegates from Cambridge who are also part of the district. Since Watertown has over 2/3 of the Delegates at the caucus, the Watertown delegates pretty much could control who if anyone should be on the ballot. After debate on the issue, most people seemed to lean that in the interest of fairness given the short time since Representative Kaprielian left her position till Tuesday’s caucus that the Watertown Delegation should vote to not have anyone’s names on the primary ballot. It was put to a vote and it was a unanimously voted (with 2 abstentions) that the Watertown Delegation should go into the caucus with the intention of having no one on the ballot. There was much talk about the minutia of how this should be done and if somehow the Cambridge delegation could subvert the process and get one of their people on the ballot. In the end, that seemed unlikely and that no matter what the process is, the end result after Tuesday will be a wide open Democratic Race for State Rep with no one on the ballot. This is going to lead to a sticker/write in campaign and who ever gets the most votes via stickers/write in (it must be at least 150 votes) in the Democratic Primary will get his or her name on the general election ballot. I am proud of tonight’s decision by the Watertown Democratic Town Committee because it is going to open up the process to many more people then the alternative option of someone having a huge advantage vs. write ins by having their name on the ballot. The next few months of Town Politics should be fun!