Bay State Banner: A District 5 Forum hosted by PWRR

“District 5 candidates gather for West Roxbury forum” — Yawu Miller, Bay State Banner (5/30/2019)

In a prelude to what promises to be a hard-fought eight-way race for the District 5 City Council seat, four candidates squared off during a recent forum sponsored by the West Roxbury/Roslindale Progressives group.

The forum, held at the St. John Chrysostom Church in West Roxbury, brought out candidates Ricardo Arroyo, Maria Esdale Farrell, Alkia Powell and Mimi Turchinetz. To participate in the forum, candidates were required to respond to a questionnaire by the organizing group and to have submitted enough signatures to appear on the Sept. 24 preliminary ballot.

The Appeal: Felony Disenfranchisement across States

“Debate on Felony Disenfranchisement Is Already Here in State Legislatures Around the Country” — Daniel Nichanian, The Appeal, 5/2/2019

The committee vote was not public. Only four of its 17 members answered my multiple requests for comment about how they voted.

All those who replied told me that they voted to advance the reform. They are state Representatives Russell Holmes and Lindsay Sabadosa, and state Senators Sonia Chang-Díaz and James Eldridge. All four are Democrats, but so are 14 of the committee’s 17 members. “It’s very easy for prisoners to lose hope and their connection to society, and restoring the right to vote would provide an enhanced capacity to stay connected,” Elridge told me. State organizers have taken issue with the secrecy of this process. “When legislators vote behind closed doors to continue to a racist history of disenfranchisement, with no public record of how they voted for their constituents, that’s a fundamental failure of democracy,” Jonathan Cohn, an organizer with Progressive Mass, an advocacy group that supported the proposal, told me in a written message. He added that the lack of public votes is “a systemic problem for activists in Massachusetts because bills can be killed with everyone having ‘clean hands.’

CommonWealth: How Progressive of a Budget?

 “House Progressives get some action on budget priorities” — Andy Metzger, CommonWealth (4/26/2019)

Jonathan Cohn, who chairs the Issues Committee for Progressive Massachusetts, an outside advocacy group, said he wants the House Progressives to reach higher, and keep pushing for progressive increases in state revenue – which could come in the form of higher taxes.

“We always want the House Progressive Caucus to be bolder than they often are in their asks,” Cohn said. “I think that they’re all good causes to fight for, however a lot of budget asks end up feeling like tinkering since without adding to the size of the budget in a meaningful way it will just be very important but small programmatic increases.” ….

Legislative leaders have said they will begin deliberating about proposals to hike revenues later this session, and Cohn wants the Progressive Caucus to keep up the pressure on that front.

2019 Lobby Day News Coverage

“Progressives Push Legislative Agenda” — Trea Lavery, Bay State Banner (4/10/19)

“Especially since out of the White House we’re not going to see a lot of great policy for the next few years, it’s up to the states to show a lot of policy leadership,” said Jonathan Cohn, the chair of the organization’s issues committee, before attendees broke out to attend meetings with individual legislators.

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“Progressives See Potential For House To Shift Left” — Mike Deehan, WGBH (4/5/2019)

“We want the the State House in general to understand that there is a progressive population out there that is really strongly in favor of all these progressive issues,” Watertown Selectwoman Caroline Bays said Wednesday while at the State House for the annual lobby day organized by liberal advocates Progressive Massachusetts. Over a hundred dedicated lefties met with lawmakers to try to push moderate Democrats to dive in on social and economic issues Beacon Hill is reluctant to take up.

But those issues, be it more funding for district schools, enhanced health care for the poor, or expanded service and repairs for the MBTA, need to be paid for in order to balance the state’s budget.

For progressives like Bays, that answer is easy. Tax more, preferably the well-off.

“Today when I was lobbying my state my state rep, I said you’re taxing me too little,” Bays said.

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“Progressives try to push Mass. Legislature to left” — Victoria McGrane and Matt Stout, Boston Globe (4/5/2019)

“Even though the state might not be as liberal as many people think it is, we should make it as liberal as people . . . like to think it is,” Jonathan Cohn, chairman of the group’s issues committee, told members from many of its 16 chapters across the state…..

“It takes people like us to push things to the top of the pile,” Rachel Poliner, of West Roxbury, told them. “Times are different than they were a few years ago. . . . You could say that all of us — as voters and as legislators — have been a little too complacent. Why is the MBTA in the shape it’s in? Right, so we’re upping the ante.”

Bay State Banner: A Push for the Safe Communities Act

“Activists renew push for immigrant protection law” — Yawu Miller, Bay State Banner (2/17/2019)

Jonathan Cohn, issues committee chair at Progressive Massachusetts, said new legislators are ready to push the Safe Communities Act forward.

“They understand that the standard operating procedure of the State House isn’t sufficient and that they need to be taking bolder steps,” he said. “Hopefully, they’ll bring some incumbents along.”

Beacon Hill Roll Call: “Switch ’em, Mikey”

“Beacon Hill Roll Call February 1, 2019,” Bob Katzen, Beacon Hill Roll Call

Jonathan Cohn, chairman of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts: “Too often, House Democrats will vote in lockstep with the speaker, whether he’s right or wrong, without doing their own due diligence about what they are, in fact, voting on. Legislators should come to their own conclusions about bills and amendments based on their own promises and principles and the input from advocates, policy experts, and their own constituents—not just on how the speaker chooses to vote … The House had a long debate about its rules, but for the rest of the session, there needs to be a serious debate about the norms by which the chamber operates and how badly they are in need of a change.”

Boston Globe: A Lack of Transparency at the State House

“Mass. House criticized for lacking transparency amid debate on rules” — Matt Stout, Boston Globe (1/29/2019)

The process, however, stands in stark contrast to how the House’s counterparts in the Senate have approached their own debate. The upper chamber released its initial rules package on Thursday, a week ahead of its scheduled debate, and set its amendment deadline for Monday, giving senators three days to consider them.

That difference is “really striking,” said Jonathan Cohn, chair of the issues committee for Progressive Massachusetts, an advocacy group that criticized the Legislature for a lack of transparency.

“I would love to see the House embrace reform. But I would be lying if I said I had any confidence that they would,” Cohn said.

Boston Globe: A New Senate President

“Advocating for a ‘bold’ Legislature, Karen Spilka readies term as Senate president,” Victoria McGrane and Matt Stout, Boston Globe (12/25/18)

“Inertia dominates the body,” said Jonathan Cohn, chair of the issues committee for Progressive Massachusetts, an advocacy group. The group was disappointed that a major climate bill passed by the Senate was “watered down” so much in a compromise with the House that the final measure “does quite little in comparison.” (Senators have defended it as a “strong bill.”)

“We don’t have that much time to get our act together as a planet, let alone as a state. Massachusetts needs to be doing a lot more,” Cohn said.

SHNS: Few Legislators with Top Grades

“Progressive group finds few Mass. legislators worthy of top grades” — Katie Lannan, State House News Service (12/10/2018)

Advocacy group Progressive Massachusetts on Monday released its latest legislative scorecard, giving “A” grades to just three state representatives and four senators, and using the grades to call for more transparency on Beacon Hill.

“People deserve to know whether or not their elected officials are standing for their values,” Jonathan Cohn, who chairs the group’s Issues Committee, said in a statement. “Our state legislators actively avoid taking recorded votes – or any votes at all – on major issues, and when they must, they make it unnecessarily complicated for engaged citizens to find that information.”

The scorecard arrives a month after this year’s biennial elections and as Beacon Hill progressives eye their leadership strategy in the Legislature.

Progressive Massachusetts gave its top scores to seven Democrats: Reps. Mike Connolly of Cambridge, Denise Provost of Somerville and Jonathan Hecht of Watertown, and to Sens. Jamie Eldridge of Acton, Sonia Chang-Diaz of Jamaica Plain, Patricia Jehlen of Somerville and Cynthia Creem of Newton.

Read the rest of the article here.

CommonWealth: Liberal Groups Boost Sanchez Challenger

“Liberal groups boost Sanchez challenger” — Michael Jonas, CommonWealth (8/31/2018)

“The impression we’re left with is he’s waiting for instructions from DeLeo on what he can and cannot do,” said Andrew Breton, a member of the steering committee of the local organization JP Progressives, which has thrown its support behind Elugardo. The group is part of the statewide organization Progressive Massachusetts, which also endorsed Elugardo and gave Sanchez a C+ on its legislative scorecard for the first half of the two-year session lawmakers just wrapped up.

“The House always ends up being the place where good legislation goes to die,” said Jonathan Cohn, co-chair of the elections committee for Progressive Massachusetts.

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“What the speaker of the House wanted is what happened,” said Cohn, the Progressive Mass. leader. “For that to change there have to be systemic reforms in how the House operates, and that requires primary challenges. The House is filled with well-meaning people who at the end of the day will do whatever they’re told. That needs to change, and I think Nika’s candidacy is part of that dynamic.”