BY CRAIG COLWELL
The Libertarian Party of Chemung County participated in the 1st annual Cinco de Mayo street fair held in downtown Elmira on Friday, May 5, 2023. The event was organized by a loosely organized group of local businesses known as The River District, whose members include Colwell Creative Content, the digital marketing agency owned and operated by our Chair and Secretary Craig and Nicole Colwell. The city let us block off a section of Water Street downtown, bring in vendors to support local businesses, and throw a party that won’t be soon forgotten by the thousands of revelers.
Most of our executive committee members were on hand to man the table; including Craig and Nicole, our Vice-Chair Jonathan Lerche, Treasurer Heather Saxton, and at-large member, Grace Galactica. We all took turns talking to people that were interested, had questions, or just wanted to heckle us; many had been imbibing and weren’t shy. Some great connections were made and many more people now know they have a local LP that has candidates running and meets multiple times a month for regular business and for trivia nights just for fun and relationship building.
Craig had his petitions available to sign for his campaign for Elmira City Council and spoke to other elected officials that stopped by to chat. Other long-time county party members that are running for local office but are registered as other parties are Nick Grasso and Charles Cerio for their races for City Council in their respective districts. Some other party members stopped by to say hi, and a couple of random strangers yelled out, “Taxation is Theft” as they strolled by. They were met with nods of approval by those of us at the table.
There was plenty of cerveza, margaritas, tacos, and quesadillas being consumed with a DJ spinning lots of fun music. The event wrapped up at 9 pm but I’m sure many of the die-hards continued partying into the wee hours. Exciting things are happening in Chemung County with the LP and we invite libertarians from elsewhere to join us at our various events; especially those in the neighboring counties of Tioga, Schuyler, and Steuben. Follow our Facebook page for event announcements. Trivia Nights are the 4th Wednesday of every month at the Ill Eagle Taphouse in Elmira at 6:30 and we invite you to visit, bring your knowledge, and have a good time.