And then there’s the actual substance of the Green New Deal resolution, which calls for a transformative shift toward clean energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Jonathan Cohn, the issues chair for Progressive Massachusetts, says climate change has become “especially salient” for younger voters and that Markey has been doing “solid work” in the space for years.
“It’s much to his credit that he’s one of the few people in the Senate who actually understands environmental policy,” Cohn said. ….
“His Iraq War vote was bad,” Cohn said. “But he’s not a hawk in the same way as some of his colleagues are.” …
Markey’s supporters are not convinced. And if their candidate loses, they wonder what happens to the movement to address climate change before it’s too late. Even if the Green New Deal — which framed racial and economic justice as focuses along with fighting climate change — continues to have advocates in the Senate like Sanders and Warren, the defeat of its co-author could have ripple effects for the movement, according to Cohn.
In addition to losing Markey’s expertise, he said a Kennedy win would effectively be disincentive for other Democrats to prioritize climate change
“It sends a really bad message about what it means to be somebody who stakes their ground on environmental policy,” Cohn said, noting that there will be a lot of competing priorities — and proverbial fires — to address in 2021 if Democrats retake the White House and Senate.
But beyond just being registered, we want you to be informed. Read questionnaires from candidates running for State Legislature across the state here.
There are a lot of questionnaires, and we will break up our endorsements into multiple batches as in years past.
Our Elections Committee reviewed questionnaires, spoke with allies, and made recommendations for a first batch, and then our members voted.
And we’re proud to endorse the following candidates, who will be progressive champions in the MA House.
17th Essex: Marianela Rivera
About the District: Precincts 2, 3 and 4, of Andover, precincts 1, 2 and 3, of ward C, ward D, and precinct 1 of ward E, of Lawrence, and precinct 2 in Methuen
Marianela Rivera is a special education professional, Coordinator of the Greater Lawrence Education Justice Alliance, and the Vice Chair of the Lawrence School Committee, where she has fought for greater equity and community empowerment. She is running to fight for equity and justice in education, health care, and our response to climate change.
Learn more at https://www.riveraforstaterep.com/.
17th Middlesex: Lisa Arnold
About the District: Precinct 4, of Chelmsford, ward 1, precinct 3 of ward 2, precincts 2 and 3 of ward 4, and wards 10 and 11, of Lowell
Lisa Arnold is a quality systems manager, founding member of Solidarity Lowell, and member of the Lowell Bike Coalition. She is running to fight for increased access to care for mental health, bold and immediate climate action, improved public transportation, and solutions to the affordable housing crisis.
Learn more at https://lisaforstaterep.com/.
27th Middlesex: Erika Uyterhoeven
About the District: Precincts 2 and 3 of ward 2, and wards 3, 5 and 6, of Somerville
Erika Uyterhoeven is an antitrust economist, organizer, and the founder of Act on Mass, where she has worked to activate grassroots organizers and voters to hold the Massachusetts State House accountable on progressive issues. She is running to fight for progressive revenue, a Massachusetts Green New Deal, and increasing investments in public schools and public housing.
About the District: Ward 9, precinct 3 of ward 10, and precinct 2 of ward 11, of Cambridge, and precincts 1–9, of Watertown
Steve Owens is a community activist, member of the Watertown Transportation Task Force, and transportation consultant, helping public sector clients use data-driven analysis to develop freight transportation plans. He is running to fight for bold action to reduce the impact of climate change, greater investment in public transit, and expanded access to sustainable and affordable housing.
About the District: Ward 2 (Charlestown), of Boston, and Wards 1 and 2, precincts 1 and 3 of ward 3, and precincts 1 and 4 of ward 4, of Chelsea
Damali Vidot is a community activist, youth mentor, and Chelsea City Councilor. She has fought for affordable housing, environmental justice, community empowerment, transit equity, and a more equitable economy in her role on the City Council and is running to continue that fight in the Massachusetts State House.
Learn more at https://www.votedamali.org/.
14th Suffolk: Gretchen Van Ness
About the District: Precincts 9–20, 22 and 23 of ward 18, precincts 3, 8 and 9 of ward 20, of Boston
Gretchen Van Ness is a civil rights lawyer who has litigated and advocated against all forms of discrimination and recently served as General Counsel and Legislative Director for progressive State Senator Becca Rausch. She is running to fight for an accelerated transition to an equitable green economy, fully funding our public schools, and health care as a human right.
Learn more at https://www.gretchenvanness.org/.
17th Suffolk: Jordan Meehan
About the District: Precincts 3, 5–12 and 15 of ward 21, and precincts 2, 3, 6, 9 and 10 in ward 22, of Boston (Allston/Brighton)
Jordan Meehan is a lawyer, environmental activist, and the Policy Coordinator for the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth, where he advocates for policies to help homeless youth, reform our juvenile justice system, and build safe and supportive school environments. He is running to fight for housing justice, transit equity, and a Green New Deal for Massachusetts.
Learn more at https://www.jordanforma.com/.
12th Worcester: Ceylan Rowe
About the District: Berlin, Boylston, Clinton, Lancaster, precincts 2 and 4 of Northborough, and precinct 2 of Sterling
Ceylan Rowe is a small business owner, community activist, and Commissioner on the MetroWest Commission on the Status of Women, where she has fought for legislation to support women and girls. She is running to fight for bold solutions on climate, local economic development, gender equity, and educational opportunity for all.
“It doesn’t feel to me that people in the traditional power center of the city have noticed the city is changing, not only demographically but ideologically,” said Rachel Poliner, of the Roslindale and West Roxbury chapter of Progressive Massachusetts. (Wu was the only incumbent to get the group’s support.)
In recent candidate forums, Poliner said, members were less focused on neighborhood matters and more driven by big-picture issues: housing, transportation, the environment.
“There are issues that we really need action on,” Poliner said. “And there are processes that we believe we can engage in, in ways the city isn’t.”
New progressive strongholds have sprouted within the city, as well. The city’s highest turnout in 2018, by the percentage of registered voters who cast ballots, was in Wu’s neck of Boston: along the Southwest Corridor that stretches from Jamaica Plain through Roslindale and into West Roxbury, what Larry DiCara, a former councilor and longtime city politics observer, called Boston’s new “lefty strip.”
The pandemic has revealed time and time again the systemic inequalities across Massachusetts (and the country) as well as the need for elected officials who are willing to be bold, progressive leaders and not wait for others to take action.
We need elected officials who will fight for Medicare for All because, as this pandemic shows, our health is connected, and no one should have to go broke to access the care that they need.
We need elected officials who will fight for the rights of immigrants and all marginalized communities.
We need elected officials who understand that the 2020s will be the decade in which we decide whether or not we can have a livable planet — and that we need a response to climate change that meets that urgency.
And we need elected officials who are willing to think creatively and to help chart what a progressive vision looks like for the country (and how we get out of the mess of the past four years).
Our members voted and overwhelmingly said that Alex Morse and Robbie Goldstein are the type of elected official we need, with each securing more than 95% of the vote.
(Stay tuned for more Congressional and down-ballot legislative endorsements in weeks to come.)
Alex Morse for CD-01
At age 21, Alex Morse became the youngest and first openly gay mayor of Holyoke. In his role as mayor, he has helped make Holyoke a more just and prosperous city. He closed the state’s last coal power plant and replaced it with the state’s largest solar field, doubled the school system’s graduation rate, and implemented a needle exchange program to fight the opioid epidemic. Under Alex’s leadership, Holyoke became one of the first sanctuary cities in the country in 2014, and welcomed hundreds of Puerto Rican families displaced by Hurricane Maria in 2018.
Alex has the experience and vision to continue this fight in Congress on issues such as universal health care, reforming our broken immigrant and criminal justice systems, and greening our infrastructure. Learn more at www.alexmorseforcongress.com/.
Robbie Goldstein for CD-08
Dr. Robbie Goldstein is a physician and graduate of Tufts University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, MD, and a PhD in cancer genetics. After he completed his PhD, he joined Massachusetts General Hospital for medical training and eventually joined the faculty. He now works as a primary care doctor and an infectious disease specialist, and created the hospital’s first Transgender Health Program. Robbie has spent his career in medicine focused on caring for those left out of the system.
He seeks to address our nation’s public health issues by enacting healthcare for all, substance use support services, common-sense gun violence prevention measures, and a Green New Deal. Learn more at www.robbieforchange.com.
The Boston Globe’s Milton Valencia reported on the efforts to take over ward committees in Boston with diverse and progressive counter-slates:
“People are ready to embrace that Boston has shifted, and let’s make it shift in more ways,” said Rachel Poliner, of the Roslindale and West Roxbury chapter of Progressive Massachusetts. She said the independent growth of the Fresh Slate campaigns in separate neighborhoods shows a citywide desire for change.
When Massachusetts voters head to the polls on Tuesday, March 3, most will have their minds fixated on their presidential candidate of choice. But as fierce as the 12-way race for the party nomination is, many Boston voters will face even more heated battles at the bottom of the ballot, where dozens of candidates are vying for seats on their local ward committees.
“People need to know that the confusion on the rest of the ballot is worth paying attention to,” said Rachel Poliner, an organizer with Progressive West Roxbury and Roslindale, who is part of an effort to diversify the Ward 18 Democratic Committee.
The Hyde Park-based Ward 18 is one of four in Boston where insurgent progressive slates of candidates are seeking to unseat incumbent members in the once-every-four-years committee elections. The other committees are Ward 1 in East Boston, Ward 3 in downtown Boston and Ward 9 in the South End and Roxbury.
Poliner said that in the last presidential primary, 74% of Ward 18 voters left at least some of the ward votes blank, indicating a lack of interest in the contest. She stressed the importance of ward committees, emphasizing their direct connection to neighborhoods across Massachusetts.
“The ward committee can do a lot,” Poliner said. “They’re supposed to be the grassroots of the party.”
“I think [Kennedy] realizes that with more people organizing here—and Massachusetts turning more progressive in the next few years—he would probably not have a shot if he waited,” Missouri said. According to Jonathan Cohn, a chair with the grassroots organizing group Progressive Massachusetts (which is waiting to survey its members before endorsing a candidate), “In his launch video a few months ago, [Kennedy] talked about that rhetoric of urgency, seemed to be evoking an Ayanna Pressley ‘change can’t wait’ mantra, although that hasn’t really been his legislative style.” ….
According to Cohn, “the political goodwill of Kennedy’s last name in many ways neutralizes the incumbent advantage.” It’s likely, too, that it helped drum up a slate of endorsements: Last week, 18 House Democrats announced their support for Kennedy. But endorsements, Cohn said, “only have power if they’re actually put to work.
A lot of people in Massachusetts, even if they like primary challenges in general, are irritated with the idea of a very drawn out, expensive primary battle,” said Jonathan Cohn, chair of the elections committee of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide left-wing group, which has yet to endorse in the Senate race.
The left’s most specific knock on Kennedy is likely his refusal to join the House’s single-payer health care bill until March 2019. Markey, who is a co-sponsor of Sanders’ Senate bill, has backed single-payer legislation since 2009, when he was in the House.
“I don’t know [Kennedy] as pushing the ball forward on issues and I know on something like single payer there was a lot of organizing that it took to get him to that position,” Cohn said. “The question for Massachusetts voters is: Who is it easier to push?”
“I get the sense that there’s some bubbling up of energy,” said Rachel Poliner of the Roslindale and West Roxbury chapter of Progressive Massachusetts, which endorsed Wu. She pointed out efforts to organize new slates of progressive-minded candidates for ward committees in Hyde Park and East Boston, to unseat the traditional Democratic establishment.
“If we’re talking about the challenges the city faces and what needs to be done,” she said, “then we need people who think big.”
The Boston Globe‘s Victoria McGrane and James Pindell analyzed the dynamics of a contested Senate primary between Markey and Kennedy within the Massachusetts Democratic Party. PM issues and elections committee chair Jonathan Cohn weighed in:
“A challenger needs to make the case that there’s some issue that hasn’t been addressed and some urgency that’s lacking,” said Jonathan Cohn, chairman of the issues committee of Progressive Massachusetts, a grass-roots advocacy group. If there’s such a case to be made against Markey, he said, “I haven’t heard it.”
