Cape Ann Dem

Gloucester Political Update

2005-08-12T13:44:00.000-04:00

With nomination papers due on Tuesday, the races for City Council, Mayor, and School Committee are moving into full swing.

Thursday's paper brought the news of one candidate dropping out. Douglas MacArthur won't be running for an at-large seat on the City Council. This leaves six candidates for the four spots, with only two incumbents among the group. Otherwise, the candidate list hasn't changed, and there are only races in three of the five council districts. At the moment, the only preliminaries will be for Ward 1 Council and for Mayor.

The School Committee race hasn't gotten much press lately. As I noted before, the progressive side of Gloucester was in search of a candidate. It got to the point a week ago that your correspondent took out papers to run. Fortunately for my sanity, we've got someone to step forward; once he's a confimed candidate, I'll let him talk about the race.

Gloucester's Sidewalk Bazaar (why does everyone pronounce it Bizarre?) was last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and there was a fair political presence mixed in with the retailers, community organizations, food stands, and entertainment on Main Street. I spent some time at the booths of the Democratic City Committee and my church. One observation: people don't talk much about politics when it is very hot. They want to get their shopping done and get out of the sun.

More importantly, the single-most important issue that came up in listening to the folks who came to our booth is health care. People believe that the system doesn't work for them. While health care reform has always been a major issue of mine, I think that we're approaching a spot where the public officials who address health care effectively have a real opportunity. More importantly, this is a real grass-roots opening to change the system. If people come together, they can really push something through. That's why I like the work going on around the ballot initiative for next fall. The petition drive that will go on this fall will start to build a coalition to address the problem, either through the legislature or through the ballot box.

Help! We need a School Committee Candidate

2005-08-01T12:22:00.000-04:00

I’ve been posting news about the upcoming Gloucester elections for some time now as an interested observer. Now I’m trying to help make the news.

Friday’s paper brought the announcement that four-term member Michael Faherty will not be running for re-election. This means that there are two vacancies out of the six elected committee spots (the mayor is the seventh). While there are three challengers for the seats, one is running as a clear conservative, and neither of the other two has made a strong impression.

So we need a candidate, before the August 16 filing deadline. We’re recruiting, but it’s a rather thankless job.

Part of the problem is that the School Committee is not ground zero for the issues facing Gloucester schools. Because the main issue is money, the real fight is at the City Council level. For example, the recently-passed state budget contained extra money in the Chapter 70 program. Chapter 70 is the major school-aid program, but each city and town is free to use the money elsewhere, as long as minimum standards are met. Since this money was not tied down, the conservative majority on the City Council decided not to use this money on schools, but rather to substitute for what they saw as shaky revenue estimates in the original budget.

So this means that the people who really want to make a difference in the city are running for City Council, because a moderate/progressive majority there could make a real difference in the schools.

So, my wife asks me, why don’t I run? That's a scary thought, mostly because I think that a lot of other people could do a better job in elected office than I can. But who knows? Stay tuned for more.

And if you know any progressives in Gloucester who want to run for School Committee...

Door-to-door Democrats

2005-08-01T12:16:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday’s Boston Globe North regional section contained an article talking about a project that I’ve been involved with in Gloucester for a couple of years now. The Democratic City Committee has been going door-to-door to talk with unenrolled voters about becoming Democrats.

Why are we doing this?

''We think this is absolutely essential if the Democratic Party is to regain power in Massachusetts," said city committee chairwoman Catherine Bayliss, noting that the state has been without a Democratic governor for 15 years.

Bayliss, who is also a Democratic State Committee member, said the city committee came up with its canvassing strategy after the 2002 governor's race.

''We were concerned when Gloucester went for [Mitt] Romney," she said. ''We began looking at the huge number of unenrolled voters in Gloucester." Of the city's 19,639 registered voters, 59 percent are unenrolled. Democrats account for 28 percent, Republicans 12 percent, and smaller parties a combined 1 percent.

What does it take? We get the voter lists from the city clerk’s office, organize them by neighborhood, and then send people out. We do some practice for first-time volunteers, and a follow-up for people to share the lessons that they have learned.

There’s some indication that the Democratic Party is moving towards this kind of strategy statewide. The Victory 2006 campaign will be oriented around door-to-door identification of voters in neighborhoods, with the intention of targeting the undecided voters next fall.

I think that this is absolutely the right way to be doing things. The big-budget media campaigns almost always work to the advantage of the Republicans, because they normally have more money and their message plays much better in the media environment. We have an opportunity to put a local face on politics, and create an attachment to a political party that is based on more than media ads. I know people who voted Democratic because they knew me (even if I sometimes had to tell them who the Democrat was in each race). If we can replicate that model with under 20 voters in each precinct throughout the state, the Democrats win the governor’s office again.

More Gloucester Candidates

2005-07-16T08:14:00.000-04:00

Three more candidates for Gloucester offices took out papers late this week, following my rundown on Wednesday.

Most importantly, Robin Hubbard announced for mayor. This would set up a preliminary election on October 4 city-wide. Hubbard is best remembered for her challenge to Mayor Tobey in 1999, and probably will have the support of the conservative leaders of the city. I suspect that Mayor Bell has been expecting this challenge, whether from Hubbard or one of the other leaders of the anti-tax, anti-government set.

In Ward 3, the previous incumbent wants his job back. City Council President Jim Destino didn't run two years ago for family reasons, only to watch one of his council rivals take the seat. While Jeff Worthley and Destino are both on the conservative side of the council politically, they are stylistically much different. With a third announced candidate, there would also be a preliminary election here.

Finally, the School Committee race got its sixth candidate (for the six seats) as Gerald Mahieu took out papers. The article in the paper presents two campaign positions: supporting the teachers and pushing to teach creationism in the middle school. OK.

More news as it develops.

Sorry, Deval, I wasn't home

2005-07-13T15:44:00.000-04:00

Deval Patrick talks by phone with bloggers. Or at least some of us.

Lynne of Left in Lowell admits to missing out because she can't keep up with her e-mail.
Well, me too, Lynne. One of the many items that came in while I was away on my honeymoon was the invitation to talk with Patrick. Like Lynne, I intend to get back to the campaign soon and set up a conversation.

Blue Mass Group (each member) talks about their hald hour here, here, here, and here.
Sco of .08 Acres and a Donkey runs down his discussion here.

I give the Patrick campaign a lot of credit for doing this, and the candidate a lot of credit for making this part of his time. Unlike traditional media, where the campaign pretty much knows the questions going in, it's possible that one of us bloggers could pose a really challenging question based on our own knowledge or interests. (I can be every bit as technical as Charley from BMG when it comes to health care financing issues, but I don't think that would be the best use of my time with Patrick.)

I like what I'm seeing from this campaign. My instincts tell me to stay the course, and work to build the Democratic Party organization for the day after the primary. But if this is an indication that this campaign is going to do the things that need to be done to win in November, while the other Democrats take a page from the O'Brien/Harshbarger playbook, then I may be convinced to join the team.

Gloucester city candidates, latest update

2005-07-13T15:33:00.000-04:00

The week after Independence Day has brought a lot of changes to the landscape for the fall municipal elections in Gloucester. The Gloucester Daily Times has run several stories recently.

After three decades, Khambaty to leave city politics (at-large councillor retires)
Tobey bids for political comeback (former mayor running for at-large council)
Normand seeks 20th year on committee (one school committee incumbent in...)
Gross to leave School Committee (...while another one retires)
Council chronology (headlines of stories since January on council races)

Note that the Gloucester Daily Times links survive for a week before disappearing into cyberdust.

On the School Committee side, there are 4 announced incumbents, 1 retiring incumbent, and 1 unstated incumbent, to go with a single challenger. This means potentially an empty seat if Michael Faherty decides not to run again. The School Committee has not had a happy lot in recent years, coping with severe budgetary limitations imposed by the mayor and council, and has rarely had a surplus of candidates to take on the task.

The at-large City Council race is clearly going to be the most visible in Gloucester. There are five challengers joining two incumbents for the four spots. Significantly, all five challengers supported the mayor in his recent battle with the council majority. At face value, their election would swing the council to the mayor’s position on at least this one issue. It is less clear that a solid 5-4 majority could be established on a permanent basis, in order to elect a new council president and set a new direction for the budget process.

Three ward races also have the potential to affect the balance on the council. Ward 1 will be the most crowded. With three candidates in the race, this is currently the only seat that would require a preliminary election in October. It also pits two incumbents from opposite sides of the council, as Dean Harrison steps down from his city-wide seat to run against Joe Ciolino in a race with clear philosophical differences. Jason Grow’s progressive challenge for this seat reflects the frustration many school parents have with the city’s undercommitment to education. The assumption is that Ciolino will survive the preliminary, and then face opposition that may be united by their opinions of the incumbent.

Ward 4, with Vito Calomo’s retirement, has only one candidate, Jackie Hardy, who lost to Calomo in the open race last time. She is seen as a supporter of the mayor. In Ward 5 (my own), incumbent Ed St. Peter faces a rematch from Walter Peckham. On a partisan basis, this is the only Democratic versus Republican race (Peckham’s the Democrat).

Last but not least, no challenger has appeared to run against Mayor John Bell, aside from perennial candidate Dan Ruberti. Should one arise, this would require a city-wide preliminary; otherwise only Ward 1 will vote in October. While Bell has had his critics, the progressive bloc is not strong enough to challenge him, and the conservatives seem to prefer to sit around and just vote down the mayor’s proposals rather than building ones of their own.

Health Care Initiative Update

2005-07-12T08:54:00.000-04:00

I attended the strategy meeting for the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (www.gbio.org) last night in South Boston. I won’t say more about the details, as that’s not my place. But some general impressions are in order.

First of all, the health care ballot initiative is for real. The most critical period for the initiative is the period from September to November this fall when signatures are gathered, and the organizing is going ahead for this time period. GBIO is one of about eight partners in the ACT! Campaign (www.massact.org), along with Health Care for All (www.hcfama.org), Neighbor to Neighbor (www.n2n.org), a couple of unions, and others. I’m looking at getting the local Progressive Democrats on board with the process.

Secondly, there are a lot of priorities in the health care reform, access, and affordability area. A few of these are competing priorities, but by and large they are independent of each other. For example, some of the priorities discussed last night are: restoring dental coverage to MassHealth; bringing MassHealth payments to providers up to adequate levels; subsidizing middle-class health insurance; taxing employers who don’t provide coverage; and so forth. None of these are mutually exclusive, but if you make things too complicated, you get an easy target for defeat (remember the Clinton initiative, anyone?)

My question is, what are the issues that can provide a winning majority next fall? One of the real problems with health care is that everyone has a problem with health care. Any initiative that doesn't fix the problem of the average voter is not likely to get his or her vote. So it's not enough to fix the situation of the uninsured, but rather go beyond that. To my mind, this means addressing the affordability issues. Tell the average soccer mom that her premiums are too high, and need to be made more affordable, and she'll agree with you and listen to your proposals. And while you're at it, you can address the issue of making sure the single mom on MassHealth has decent coverage with doctors who are getting paid enough for their work.

The Blue Bishop

2005-07-12T08:37:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned a few days ago, our church (St. John’s Episcopal in Gloucester) had an interesting visitor on Sunday. Retired U.S. Representative Amo Houghton visited and gave the sermon. Houghton was one of the last moderate Republicans in Congress, representing central New York state. He is currently serving as an intern in the office of our bishop, Tom Shaw, which is certainly an interesting role for a retired congressman.

What Rep. Houghton had to say inspired me to write this. He talked about his friend, our bishop. And he made an appeal for those of us in the parish to follow the bishop’s leadership and vision. Finally, reading between the lines, I believe that he really thinks that Bishop Shaw’s leadership is needed at the national level.

In order to understand the importance of this, you’ve got to understand something of the structure of the Episcopal Church. It is a blend of the ancient traditions found in the Roman Catholic Church with the democratic impulses found in revolutionary America. Our bishops are elected by representative assemblies. Bishop Shaw, for instance, is the “Bishop of Massachusetts,” which is to say the eastern half of the state. The “presiding bishop” is elected nationally by the bishops at our General Convention and becomes the center of unity for the national church. Unlike the Roman church, this doesn’t give authority over the local bishops, but he or she does become the visible figure to the outside.

As you may know, the Episcopal Church has been affected by the tendency of all Protestant denominations to split. In recent years, the major controversy has been the election and consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, notwithstanding the fact that Robinson is openly gay. A minority of Episcopalians have been extremely vocal in their opposition, including several bishops. At the same time, there has been an extremely strong progressive movement in the church, which would clearly include Bishop Shaw. As is often the case, the moderates in the church hold the balance of power. The support of leaders like Houghton or retired Senator John Danforth (an Episcopal priest) would make the difference between a presiding bishop who can speak for the progressive plurality and one who can speak for the whole church (minus the obligatory dissidents).

The crucial point is that Tom Shaw is a blue bishop if there ever was one. He’s been a strong supporter of many progressive causes, as well as a strong supporter of rebuilding the Episcopal Church in communities that have not heard a strong progressive Christian message in recent years. As presiding bishop, he would become a natural voice for the progressive Christian values and an obvious face for the media to “balance” the right-wing Christians.

The next presiding bishop will be elected by our next General Convention, which is in Columbus, Ohio, starting June 13, 2006. Watch for more updates as it approaches (I may even try to get press credentials and blog from GC, as was recently done for the UCC meeting). And keep an eye out for Bishop Shaw.

Return of the Prodigal

2005-07-09T20:23:00.000-04:00

This blog is back in business.

As reported elsewhere, I got married (June 18) and followed it up with 3 weeks of honeymoon/family vacation (my wife has a 12-year old son). So it's been four weeks of family priorities. I'm getting very good at "Yes, dear."

Not that you want to be bored by my vacation details, but one place we found really stands out. It's an animal conservation center (or game preserve, if you prefer) called The Wilds (www.thewilds.org) in east central Ohio. On reclaimed mining land, there's a "Jurassic Park"-like compound that hosts endangered species from Asia and Africa, along with butterflies and wild birds. If you don't have the money to see rhinos, zebras, musk oxen, antelope, or the like in their native setting, this sure beats a zoo.

Back to more blogging in a day or two. There's been some updates on the city races in Gloucester to report.

Our church, St. John's Episcopal in Gloucester, hosts one of the more unusual church interns on Sunday. Retired Congressman Amo Houghton, a moderate Republican, is an intern in Bishop Tom Shaw's office (returning the favor for the time the bishop spent in D.C.).

Who's Calling the Democrats?

2005-06-03T11:08:00.000-04:00

I got another phone call from the Deval Patrick campaign last night. No, not one of the robo-dial calls as described in .08 Acres (and a Donkey). A real call from a campaign staffer/volunteer, following up with me as a delegate to the state convention. This was a change, as I'm used to getting phone calls from the various fundraising arms of the party (DNC, DCCC, DSCC), but it got me thinking.

How come the phone calls only come from the candidates? Think of all the people who attended the convention as a delegate. They've got to be the potential volunteers for all party activity, not just for a particular campaign. But if the only people who are calling and asking for help are the candidates, that's where those potential volunteers are going to go.

So what would you want to be called about? If you were a Democratic delegate in my district, what would you want me to ask you to do? Is it enough just to keep in touch and know that other Democrats are talking about the same issues and problems, or do we need to form concrete activities for people to get involved with?

Fast and furious - Gloucester council races

2005-06-03T10:39:00.000-04:00

The last two days saw two campaign announcements for Gloucester City Council, to go with Jason Grow's campaign I blogged about recently.

First, at-large incumbent Dean Harrison will be running in Ward 1, against Grow and incumbent Joe Ciolino.

Harrison explained that his decision to forego a citywide campaign was made to allow him to give full voice to his ideas in the city's ward that mustered the highest level of support for last year's override.

Hopefully, this is not the case where two progressive candidates cancel each other out. It's clear from the newspaper article that both Harrison and Grow are motivated by their views of the incumbent's work.

Then Thursday, firefighter Douglas MacArthur announced for the at-large race.

He said the city's first need is to revive the school system.

"We're in a crisis," he said, "and education is too important." He said the city must find a way to obtain its fair share of state and federal aid.

MacArthur joins fellow challengers Terry Segal and Michael MacLeod, along with the three of the four incumbent at-large councillors (with Harrison now running in Ward 1).

Clearly, education is a major issue in Gloucester right now, and it's good to see three candidates pressing the issue at the City Council level.

In a related story, local parents are forming a chapter of Stand for Children. According to a Gloucester Times story,

More than 50 people, including city and school officials, attended the May 19 kickoff meeting for Stand for Children, a national nonprofit organization that works in local communities to campaign for education. They came up with a list of issues facing Gloucester, including state funding for education, child nutrition and the availability of quality child care.

When I moved to Gloucester seventeen years ago, education was not a huge priority in the community. This was in large part due to the success of blue-collar lifestyles due to the fishing industry and light manufacturing in the city. As the Massachusetts economy has evolved, it has become clearer that the traditional pathways in the community no longer work for the next generation. This has finally sparked support for education across a broad segment of Gloucester. Note the ages of the three pro-education candidates: 40, 59, and 74. It's not just the young parents who see this as an issue.

I am a strong believer that the core issues of education, health care, and housing will provide a basis for progressive Democrats to reach out to parts of the citizenry that has been disengaged. It's good to see local candidates running on this basis.

Gloucester budget hearing

2005-06-01T15:07:00.000-04:00

The city budget for next year (starting July 1) hit the city council's Budget and Finance Committee last night. The fight is between two sets of interests, as the article in the Gloucester Daily Times put it:

Education interests pushed hard last night and the budget masters of the City Council pushed back.

Basically, there are two outstanding and intertwined issues. One is that the council is not sure that it believes the mayor's revenue projections. The other is that an extra $203,000 will be available if the legislature's budget goes through, as extra school aid.

The trick is that school aid does not need to be spent on schools, and if the council thinks that the revenue projections will come up short, they'll be inclined to keep expenditures as originally developed.

The full council takes the budget up next week.

Introduction to Cape Ann Dem

2005-05-27T10:32:00.000-04:00

OK, we’ve been open for business a few weeks now, so it’s time for the grand opening. In which I’m going to try to explain what “Cape Ann Dem” is all about, and what I hope to accomplish.

In a given month, my meeting schedule includes the Gloucester Democratic City Committee, the First Essex Middlesex Democratic Coalition, the Cape Ann chapter of the Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, and the Democratic State Committee. I’m also involved with the Episcopal City Mission. In my non-political time, I’m part of the Boston and Maine Railroad Historical Society and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Gloucester.

For the last four years, I’ve been heavily involved at the grassroots level in the Democratic Party. Some of this time has been spent listening, some of it working in teams, and some of it in my own research projects. I have seen the great strengths of the Democratic Party and some of its incredible weaknesses. I’ve worked with candidates whom I was proud to support and with candidates who deserved support only because the Republican alternative was so hideous. Through it all, one conclusion keeps coming back to me.

Democrats need each other.

We need each other because that’s the kind of people we are. Our political philosophy of working for the common good of the body politic is impossible to sustain if our internal debate is not about working for the common good of the party. So when Republicans shut each other out, that’s simply their way of doing things, but when we do it, it hurts our credibility in getting our message out.

But unity does not mean uniformity. We also need the true diversity of skills, talents, and resources that all of our members bring to the table. One thing that is abundantly clear to me is that the old way of doing things does not guarantee future success. This will not come as a surprise to anyone who reflects on the pace of change in our broader society. The Democratic Party has to find the new ways of doing politics, and this requires reaching out to all members of the party.

We also need to develop new leadership models. Unfortunately, politics in this day and age lends itself to a “generals and privates” model. We feel motivated through an attachment to a candidate (as in the case of the Deval Patrick phenomenon) to do things on our own. We need to develop the “sergeants” who job it is to keep things together as a unit, so that everyone knows where to go to get things done together. We also need to think about how to let everyone play the role of “lieutenant” in their own area of passion or expertise; all of us should be leaders sometimes and followers other times, if we’re really serious about strength through diversity.

This blog is part of my attempt to reach out and find those talents. I hope to recruit writers to join me in explaining what is going on in politics in Gloucester, Cape Ann, the North Shore, Massachusetts, and the United States. I hope to find readers who come here to discuss what they’ve read, and then take their new knowledge out to the rest of their world. I’d like to think that this is a way to make connections, not just for gripe sessions, but for the larger work of changing our communities for the better.

- Patrick

P.S. As I write this in Microsoft Word, the spell-checker objects to two words: Deval and blog. Somehow I have the feeling that both words will become household names in Massachusetts soon.

Running at the roots

2005-05-26T08:57:00.000-04:00

Wednesday's Gloucester Times has an article on local City Council candidate Jason Grow. Gloucester, like most cities, holds municipal elections this fall (primary in September, final in November).

His priority stands out:

Jason Grow started his campaign to win the East Gloucester seat on the City Council by addressing the core of his issues.

"Funding, funding, funding — we don't have enough money," he said yesterday.

To that, he added civility inside the government and trust of it from outside.

I've met Jason, and I think that he'll be a forceful advocate for his positions, and a valuable voice for progressive concerns on the council. He's running for the Ward 1 council seat, which covers most of East Gloucester, which is the most politically-involved part of the city. The incumbent, Joe Ciolino, represents the traditional politics of Gloucester, which is very much focused on business and development issues, and less on the needs of the working people of the city.

It will be interesting to follow this race.

Retrospective: MA Democratic Convention

2005-05-16T18:08:00.000-04:00

As I’m sure you’ve read from other blogs, and some comments on my Friday entry (great report, Jesse!), there was a fair amount of controversy generated by the process of the state Democratic party convention. To which I can only say, what were you expecting? This has been standard operating procedure for the state party for a number of years, and is not likely to change any time soon.

The Deval Patrick campaign operation certainly came on strong this weekend. This should come as no surprise, either. Patrick’s campaign is not the insurgent campaign that we saw four years ago from Bob Reich or Warren Tolman, but very much the insiders campaign. Patrick clearly has the backing of much of the state party establishment that followed John Kerry to Iowa and beyond. His language, however, reaches out to the social activists that want to believe that he is one of their own. Perhaps his strongest hook is a Dean-like insistence that the grassroot members of the party have a role to play.

Friday night of the convention I attended a party volunteer meeting where the field staff of the party laid out an embryonic approach to the next eighteen months’ field activity. The most interesting aspect of it appears to be an approach that will free local volunteers to do whatever they want, rather than relying on a top-down approach. At the same time, the communications staff intends to have a two-way conversation about what’s working in the community, so that new ideas would get tested at the pilot level and then the successful ideas would get pumped out to all activists state-wide.

Finally, look for some feedback here in the coming weeks. I intend to survey the delegates from my local senate district to find out their opinions about the convention and the party process, with an eye on letting people in the state committee know what we need to do more of and what we need to fix. I’ll share some of the conclusions on the blog.

MA Democratic Convention

2005-05-13T11:02:00.000-04:00

I'm heading off to the MA Democratic Party Convention today, and I'll be very curious to see what I find there.

I’ll try to add to this blog Friday night after the breakout sessions, and then late Saturday or Sunday.

The official business of the convention is the party platform, for which more on below. But the real work of the convention will be to bring together Democratic activists together to talk and start the planning for working together in 2006.

It doesn’t really matter what the platform is, or who the candidates are, if we can’t figure out how to work together, rather than for our own separate agendas. Very few will really pay close attention to the details of the party platform (I don’t recall either party platform being an issue in the last election for governor, or even the presidential race). Frankly, very few people will dig into the records and proposals of the candidates for office, as the election of Mitt Romney and George Bush will attest.

So where do we go from here. Democrats need to take names, and follow up. We need to find the places in our communities where we need to be to listen, and then recruit help to be there in force. That’s what this weekend is all about. Learning how to work together.

(Off the soap box, back to the news)

So the candidates will be there, trying to get backing for nomination in 2006. The convention will hear 5 minute speeches from Reilly, Galvin, and Patrick, as the three apparent candidates from Governor. When I heard them two weeks ago at the Gloucester Democratic breakfast, they were all in top form, and the overall effect was very uplifting. Likewise, we'll see the candidates for Lt. Governor, the next AG, and the Middlesex DA candidates out in force.

We'll also see a platform "fight" (if that word can be used for the non-hostile speech-making that characterizes party business). The current platform has been under fire for being too long. it runs to 95 paragraphs that each contain about four policy recommendations, or 11 printed pages.

The proposed platform has not been posted officially (or if it is, it's well hidden) but is available courtesy of a couple of delegates, Brad Johnson and Jesse Gordon. It has, by my count, 139 single-sentence planks, or a roughly 60% reduction. The most controversial item is the elimination of the foreign policy section, although the media (and John Kerry) have focused on the inclusion of an item supporting the Supreme Judicial Court's decision on marriage rights.

There have been several proposals to modify the platform, and if they get 500 delegate signatures (out of the roughly 8,000 delegates), they'll be discussed and voted on.
There are a number of proposals to change the party’s charter, none of which seems that notable to me. But since I haven’t seen these anywhere on line, I’m reprinting the list from Kate Donaghue’s DDemDispatch e-mail list.

1) DEFINITIONS The following language is added:Ward shall include the term municipal districts.

2) CONVENTION RESOLUTIONS Current: "The Democratic State Committee shall have general responsibility for the affairs of the Democratic Party between State Conventions, subject to the provisions of this Charter and to resolutions or other actions of a State Convention." The proposed change eliminates the words, "subject to the provisions of this Charter and to resolutions or other actions of a State Convention."

3) CHANGE TO "PUBLIC SUPPORT" CLAUSES Please refer to the "Delegate Guide 2005" for the exact context. The language of the charter is changed to use terminology "publicly endorsed or supported a Republican or other major party candidate in any of the two most recent biennial elections" in two places. The sections potentially modified include:-use of party resources for candidates who qualify-grounds for removal of state committee membersThe proposed amendments change the standard from public support of an opponent of a nominee of the Democratic Party. This change would allow individual candidates or DSC members to support unenrolled candidates and candidates who are not the nominee of a major party.

4) CHANGE TO TERM OF FOUR YEARS FOR CONFERENCE ELECTED DSC MEMBERS The proposed amendments change the term of conference elected members from two years to four years.

5) CHANGE TO LANGUAGE RELATIVE TO ADDITIONAL MEMBERS OF THE DSC The proposed amendments substitute - "elect" for "appoint"- "elected" for "appointed"- "candidates for election" for "appointments"in the section of the charter relating to "affirmative action" members of the DSC and other additional members. In addition, language relative to MDF members of the DSC is moved within the charter.

6) SUB-COMMITTEES OF THE STATE COMMITTEE The proposed amendment changes from "The State Committee shall appoint such sub-committees" to "The Chair of the State Committee shall appoint such sub-committees" in the section relating to sub-committee appointments.

7) NUMBER OF MEETINGS OF THE DEMOCRATIC STATE COMMITTEE The proposed amendment changes the required number of meetings per year from SIX to FOUR.

8) REPORT TO CONVENTION The proposed amendment changes the language from "Written Report - The State Committee shall submit to the Chairperson of town, ward and city committees and to the delegates to each State Convention, at least two weeks prior to the commencement thereof, a written report on the activities and finances of the State Party since the preceding State Convention." to "Report to the Convention - The Chair of the State Committee shall provide to the delegates to each State Convention, a report on the activities and finances of the State Party since the preceding State Convention."

9) TWO THIRDS CONVENTION VOTE FOR RULE CHANGES The proposed amendment changes from a majority vote to a two thirds vote requirement when an amendment to the "Rules of the Convention" is made from the convention floor.

10) ENDORSING CONVENTION The proposed amendment changes the following language from: "Endorsements for state-wide office of enrolled Democrats nominated at the Convention shall be by majority vote of the delegates present and voting, with the provision that any nominee who receives at least 15 percent of the Convention vote on any ballot for a particular office may challenge the Convention endorsement in a State primary election." to "Endorsements for state-wide office of enrolled Democrats nominated at the Convention shall be by majority vote of the delegates present and voting, with the provision that any nominee who receives at least 15 percent of the Convention vote on any ballot for a particular office, in accordance with the Rules of that convention, may challenge the Convention endorsement in a State primary election."

11) REGISTRATION DEADLINE FOR CAUCUS PARTICIPATION The proposed amendment sets the cutoff date by which a caucus participant must be a registered Democrat to the last day of December preceding the local caucus.

12) USE OF MOST RECENT DEMOCRATIC REGISTRATION The proposed amendment changes to "most recent" Democratic Party registration from "in August of a state election year" relative to the basis for delegate allocation.

13) REQUIREMENT OF CHAIRS TO HOLD CAUCUS The proposed amendment would make the ex officio status of town and ward committee chairs contingent on the chair conducting a caucus, by adding the language, "provided the chair held a caucus for the most recent convention."

14) OPENESS Current: "All meetings of all Party committees, or sub-units thereof, at all levels shall be open to the public, and no vote shall be taken by secret ballot." The proposed change replaces the above language with: "All meetings of all Party committees, except workshops or drafting committees, at all levels shall be open to the public, unless an executive session is authorized by a two-thirds vote and no vote shall be taken by secret ballot."

15) LOCAL BY-LAWS Current: "Party committees at the local level shall adopt by-laws consistent with this Charter and subject to review by the State Committee." The proposed change replaces the above language with: : "Party committees at the local level and/or political organizations permitted to use the word Democratic shall adopt by-laws consistent with this Charter and subject to the approval of the Chair of the State Committee."

Welcome To Cape Ann Dem

2005-05-11T22:40:00.000-04:00

This is the beginning of what I hope is an interesting exercise in democratic communication here on Cape Ann.

I look forward to keeping in touch with the currents of political life on the North Shore.