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Commission On Local Town Committees

I recently attended a State Senate hearing from the Elections committee. It was my first time giving testimony. The topic was my bill on changing the rules for local town committees. Expanding the number of members to unlimited and reducing the period of elections from 4 years to 2 years. I’m looking for more help getting the word out about the bill, ping me if interested.
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/S410
In the session I listened to other petitioners for other bills, and you’d think the elections committee would be dry and dull. Rather than dull, we heard from people talking about Russian influence on elections, to Boston city Councillors about their elections.
One bill promoted by a to set up a commission to explore how the state can increase engagement from voters during primary elections. From that last conversation I was thinking about another idea, and bill. The idea of setting up a commission to review local elections in the charter for the Commonwealth. I’ve noticed that Connecticut has regularly updated their laws, I don’t think Massachusetts has in the same way. Here in Massachusetts the rule for reducing the number of members in local town committees down to 35 was changed in 1938 from unlimited.  I want to set up a commission to explore how we can get citizens more involved in local town committees. Local political party committees are the foundation of our political infrastructure.
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Democratic Leadership — Is your vision with the Republicans or Democrats?

Ordinary hard working Democrats are putting up a fight to support the Massachusetts Democratic candidate for Governor, Jay Gonzalez. We stand at intersections; make phone calls, and canvass door to door, putting in hours and hours of time to help elect Jay Gonzalez.

Governor Baker portrays himself as a “moderate”, it’s a big part of Baker’s campaign strategy.

And, recently media reports and Baker video ads have appeared featuring democratic mayors endorsing Governor Charlie Baker.

What a shame when Democratic leaders work against ordinary hard working Democrats; who are members of Democratic town committees, and the coordinated campaign. Party leadership cannot be promoting a strategy that runs counter to the efforts of ordinary Democrats in the field.

Two Calls To Action

If Republicans, specifically Governor Baker, are using the endorsements to help win the election. Then a critique of Democrats who endorse Governor Baker is not a personal attack, but rather two calls for action. One, a call to all Democrats to counter the Democratic opposition to our Democratic candidate. Two, a call to those Democrats who do endorse the Governor to relinquish their democratic leadership in the party.

In the 2018 gubernatorial debates the biggest argument against Baker; is that he doesn’t have the vision to make the investments in education and transportation the commonwealth needs. Yes, he might do a reasonable job on some parts of government to manage things okay, but that’s not enough!

We as ordinary Democrats know that the reason we need to support Democratic candidates, is to give ordinary Americans the opportunities they need on education, transportation, jobs and more, not just a few.

Conservative Democrats & The Platform

A raise in taxes is required to achieve the Massachusetts Democratic platform. Conservative Democrats who endorse Governor Baker share his vision that the future of the Commonwealth means not growing revenue.  Democrats who support the Republican platform should really rethink their position in the party. If you cannot support the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s vision for the future please be honest and say so, don’t pretend to be a Democrat in name but follow the spirit of the Republican Party and Charlie Baker.

There are 47 mayors in Massachusetts. 22 Massachusetts mayors; including 10 Democrats, 7 independents and 5 Republicans have endorsed Baker’s re-election campaign.  There are more Democratic mayors supporting Baker than Republican mayors. This is a lot of Democratic mayors, but I’m not naming names because I want to focus on the issue rather than the personalities. I want to make the point to hard working democrats that the Democratic leader you just defended and supported isn’t supporting the Democratic vision for the Commonwealth.

If you endorse a Republican who doesn’t believe in investing in the future of the Commonwealth you are giving many ordinary Democrats cause to rethink their support of the party. You go against the wishes of the majority of the ordinary democratic voters to have an investment in the future of the Commonwealth.

An endorsement of Baker is a sign of support for no growth, and a lack of support for the Democratic platform. It may not seem as if there’s a direct line between endorsing Governor Baker and the election of President Trump.  There is. Democratic leaders who don’t vigorously defend the Democratic platform, cause confusion and a decline in support for the Democratic Party. If you are against the actions and policies of Republicans like President Trump. The way to stand up is a strong show of support for the Democratic Party Platform to grow our Commonwealth with revenue not populism.

We should expect our local Democratic leaders to support our Democratic candidates publicly. If our leaders are not able to lend their support. Okay, vote privately, never help republican candidates like Governor Baker in the media and in campaign ads. Democratic leaders need to take a stand with the Democratic Party Platform. If not, we as hard working Democrats in the Jay Gonzalez campaign should expect those Democrats who publicly help Governor Charlie Baker, to be honest with themselves, and the party, and step down from their leadership positions in the party.

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A Good Deal For The 21st Century

Portrait of the president on a postage stamp.

In the summer of 2016 I visited some relatives in New Hampshire near the border of Vermont. Everyone was a Bernie Saunders supporter. However, I was skeptical he would win over Trump, Clinton was the candidate for me. I was confident Hillary Clinton would win the Presidency. After Trump was elected President my lack of understanding about people’s frustrations with politics came down with a bump.

It’s been over a year of working to activate Democrats through my local town Democratic Committee, and not much progress has been made in the effort to recruit all registered Democrats.  First it took six months to get a meeting, and after we did start meeting again.  I found that when I did suggest anything those ideas were discredited. I now believe that Bernie Saunders was right about existing politics. Continue reading “A Good Deal For The 21st Century”

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Comparing Democratic & Republican Town Committees In MA & CT

Reviewing the level of financial activity of Democratic Town Committees (DTCs) in Massachusetts compared to DTCs in Connecticut, 41% of Massachusetts DTCs spent money in 2016, compared to 96% in Connecticut.

If we compare the Democratic town committees to Republican town committees (RTCs) we see 37% of RTCs in 2016 in Massachusetts were financially active compared to 95% of RTCs in Connecticut

If local political Town Committees are the starting point for political parties in the State of Massachusetts, it indicates some serious issues with how our democracy is working at the local level. And with the comparison of Democratic and Republican town committees and their close approximation across the two political parties in the two States of Massachusetts and Connecticut, there seems to be some structural issues happening with both States.  Continue reading “Comparing Democratic & Republican Town Committees In MA & CT”

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Worcester Beats Boston On Democratic City Committee Finances

Okay, so I just got back from the Mass Democratic Convention. I was wondering what the DTC numbers were for 2017. I haven’t run the numbers yet for last year.

Reviewing Boston again because for the election year 2016, I didn’t put anything down for the city. However, that isn’t entirely true. A number of the wards have committees, and in 2016, they collected and spent money.

For 2017, guess what, out of the 22 wards in Boston only 7 have active treasury reports into the State site for campaign finance for local democratic town committees. I assume that means only 7 wards are active out of 22 in the city.

Here the financials for all of the Boston wards together Continue reading “Worcester Beats Boston On Democratic City Committee Finances”

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Updating The Political Campaign Playbook

Political campaigns can be changed to reflect the latest best practices of marketers. Marketing has increasingly become an effort to connect with customers at an earlier point in their decision-making process.

I look at how political campaigns are run and compare that effort to get out the vote, to the methods of business to business marketing that aren’t always effective. Continue reading “Updating The Political Campaign Playbook”

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The 15% Rule – Democratic Conventions

Known as the 15% rule. There’s a requirement in the Massachusetts Democratic Party that candidates for state wide office receive fifteen percent of the State party delegate vote at the State Convention to appear on the ballot for office.

Folks disagree with the rule, proclaiming the rule should be changed.

Dan Cohen on “15% rule promotes insiders, has to go: Mass. voters prefer CEOs, outsiders.”

Jerfold Duquette on “Party Matters Matter.”

And in the article “Time to kill 15% Rule before it kills the Dem Party.” Continue reading “The 15% Rule – Democratic Conventions”

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41% of Massachusetts Democratic Town Committees are Spending Money

Massachusetts has a reputation for being Democratic.  New research into the financial activity of Democratic Town Committees indicates that all is not well with the bedrock of the Democratic party here in the Bay State.

41% of Democratic Town Committees (DTC) in Massachusetts are filing financial reports, and only 31% of committees spent more than $100 in 2016. The new map of financial expenditures is especially surprising when shown next to the map of Connecticut, where 96% of DTCs are spending money. Continue reading “41% of Massachusetts Democratic Town Committees are Spending Money”

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96% of Connecticut Democratic Town Committees are Spending Money!

Democratic Town Committees in Connecticut Expenditures 2016
Democratic Town Committees in Connecticut Expenditures 2016

Connecticut is a state where Republicans are seriously giving the Democrats a run for their money, the State Senate has parity with Senators, and Democrats only have a slight majority in the State House. In local politics, we find there’s a high chance, 96%, that a Connecticut Democratic Town Committee will spend.

Though the expenditure statistic doesn’t tell us where the cash is being spent, most hopefully, on electioneering and canvassing, where Democratic Town Committees do spend it’s an indicator that the committee is active. Continue reading “96% of Connecticut Democratic Town Committees are Spending Money!”