Left In Lowell

One race I haven’t talked much about is the Sec of State Democratic primary. It is definitely contested, with John Bonifaz taking on three-term incumbent Bill Galvin. Bonifaz made a strong showing at the convention to get his place on the ballot with 29% (great for an unknown challenger).

I’ve been ambivalent about this race; on one hand, it’s good to see an incumbent, who is something of an insider, challenged. On the other, though I often agree with Bonifaz, some of his statements are given over to rhetorical sharpness that didn’t sit well with me. And supporters of both sides have a tendency to seriously overreact.

I do know that Galvin has done quite a lot of good in his position as SecState, such as giving better access to public records(for instance, at the Registrars of Deeds). And though I do think that the real work of protecting the Commonwealth from non-paper-verified voting machines is done in the legislature (hence I have said I’d have loved to see Bonifaz run for Representative), I do think Bonifaz is a smart, dedicated activist who has a history both online and off of protecting people’s rights. He’s also become more polished in this race with time.

But what am I to think about Galvin backing out of the one of the few times he actually agreed to face Bonifaz on the same stage? It has appeared for a while now that Galvin is riding his name recognition into a fourth term. Just like I criticized Rep. Lynch for not debating Phil Dunkelbarger yesterday, I find his excuse - being “stuck in New Bedford” - flimsy at best. Since he knew he was to appear in Medford, is he that unable to dictate his own schedule? I find that hard to believe. Tentative reporting says he was at a New Bedford Victory ‘06 event…laudable, but the state Dems could have done without you, so you could have done your duty and show up to ask for our vote. And what, he didn’t know ahead of time about this conflict so he could make it clear whether or not he would make it?

BMG reports that Galvin’s due to appear tonight with Bonifaz and Green Party SecState candidate, Jill Stein, in Worcester. Let’s hope Galvin takes it seriously enough to show up this time. I wasn’t going to endorse anyone in this race, but I may just change my mind.

A new comment on a pretty old post (June 11’s Column on the Column) showed up in the blog’s administrative interface today…so I ended up going back to read some of the comments that preceeded it. I can’t help ribbing frequent commenter Mike a little on his ready agreement on former CM Cox’s reputation here, where he starts by quoting someone else:

“Lowell’s been pretty good at weathering fiscal messes unlike other similar cities like Springfield.”

Agreed, I’ve been saying this here for months. Council will be lucky if they get someone anywhere near Cox’s capabilities.

Seems a little ironic given the revelations we’ve had these last few weeks about the status of Lowell’s finances…

We love ya, Mike, I single you out because I care! But I can’t help but gloat (really friendly-like) a little in your direction! (In a sort of dark humor way, given I’d rather Mike had been right, for the good of the city…)

Blue Mass Group and comedian Jimmy Tingle present a night with the Lt. Governor candidates (Murray and Silbert, Goldberg cannot attend) as they are interviewed by Tingle. The show is on September 7th and starts at 6pm. This would be a great place to learn a little more about these candidates in a different setting than the usual. Also joining Tingle are Dem candidates for Middlesex County Clerk of Courts, Ruth Desmond and Michal Sullivan.

$20 bucks gets you a buffet and lots of laughs, plus I do know some bloggers (myself included) will be there as well. So if you don’t know who to vote for downticket, come and join us!

Since we don’t have any interesting local primary challengers here (more’s the pity) but there is an extremely interesting primary in Mass’s 9th Congressional district, I am posting about something which doesn’t directly affect us locally.

The incumbent in the 9th, Rep. Steven Lynch, archconservative war supporter Democrat, has refused to debate primary challenger Phil Dunkelbarger, using the “but I’m in session that date” excuse (like Congressmen don’t shove off their duties for sillier things). BMG also covered this, and in comments, Cos comments that “Lynch hasn’t wanted to debate for months. Heck, I’ve known Dunkelbarger was running since January. Certainly they could’ve found a mutually agreeable date if Lynch had been willing.” Agreed. I think I can say with confidence that “Dunk” as he’s affectionately called, has likely been asking the Lynch campaign for months for a debate.

Not only that, but his duty to the people of Massachusetts also includes asking for their vote, and losing it if he isn’t representing them anymore. It’s nice he wants to show up to his job (anyone have Lynch’s attendance rate for the rest of the Congressional calendar?) but showing up to a debate with his credible primary opponent is not only important, it hardly takes much time off at all. Lynch is a shameful excuse for a Democrat, and now he’s a sorry example of a (little “d”) democrat as well.

Show Dunk some love…send him a donation to help him point out Lynch’s arrogance to the voters of the 9th. Dunk’s for getting out of Iraq, pro-choice, and universal health care.

If you are not register to vote in Massachusetts and are tired of business as usual, you need to register by tomorrow so that you can vote in the September 19th primary and help us change our state government.

Residents of Lowell who are 18 years old and U.S. citizens will need to go to City Hall at the Election Office to register. It is probably too late to do it by mail.

Tomorrow is also the deadline to change party affiliation, just in case you accidentally registered as a Republican.

There is still time to volunteer to support your candidate (preferably Deval Patrick) but if you are interested in observing the election process and may need extra cash, the Lowell Election Commission is looking for poll workers for both the Primary and General Elections. They will pay you $90 - $125 for a day’s work. They are also looking for translators.

I know you guys prefer me to talk about more local politics, but when my husband mentioned it yesterday, I couldn’t believe it, then I came across it again today, so I am posting about it. The Bush administration is officially insane.

What have we become?? Was it worth it, America? Feel safer?

It was a very cold and rainy day today for the Pepperell BBQ fundraiser for Deval Patrick (for which I was on the hosting committee), but that didn’t dampen the turnout as much as I would have thought. It was an exceptionally organized affair, and three large tents kept the guests from getting too soaked! Deval mingled with everyone for quite a while and before he left, made a speech and did a Q&A session, before heading off to an event in Fitchburg.

The initial goal for the fundraiser was $10,000 (from at least 100 $100 tickets). Those that have maxed out their $500 were invited to come as a special guest. Getting most of that money up front is usually difficult, but by last week, we had reached $11,000 and so the goal was stretched to$14K.

Today I heard the number 169 - the number of RSVPs for today. I don’t know what the final fundraising amounts are, but they almost certainly reached $14,000. Thanks to Alice and Mauricio for opening their backyard and home for a very fun gathering with a great purpose! Well done to all the hosting committee, I can’t believe how smooth and unstressed the preparation was.

On another, navel-gazing hilarity moment, KRS (both my co-bloggers were at the BBQ) told us about how David and Charley of Blue Mass Group made the front page of the Herald (picture and everything, at least in the print version) as part of their grouping of focus articles on the hip, new, young influences on Beacon Hill. Of course, we teased David (who was also at the BBQ) mercilessly about it.

Also spotted at the BBQ: Melrose Rep. Mike Festa, running for reelection (formerly running for Middlesex DA before dropping out of the race) who is always fun to talk to, and Acton-area Rep and longtime Deval supporter Jamie Eldridge.

I know, I know, it’s the most unpopular phrase that can ever be uttered in politics. “Hi, I’m for raising taxes this year.”

But since I am not running for anything, I can say it with impunity.

Now, conventional wisdom, and Sun editor Jim Campanini, will tell you that taxes are the devil!, evil!, the only thing that should be done with them is lowering them, but I always liked a little sanity and logic with my coffee in the morning. Well, back when I drank coffee.

It’s very evident that our current city budget is as lean and mean as it can be. Lynch, who can be said to be the straightest shooter here, confirms that. And property values are headed on their way down (reducing the take-in for the city if they set the tax rate the same). We’ve gotten the shaft from the state, who in turn has gotten the shaft from the feds. It has always been the misfortune of local government to suffer the shortfalls and the hard tax decisions when the higher-ups see fit to give tax breaks to the rich. (This is a cornerstone of Deval Patrick’s refusal to commit to a state income tax rollback - someone has to pay for firefighters and wastewater treatment, and the regressive local property tax is the last man standing.)

There might be some consolidation in departments and redundancies that could be eliminated, but I suspect that even with consolidations, we’ll need almost the same number of personnel to get the city’s work done. Our schools are suffering, we can’t cut yet more teachers. And our police are already stretched to their limits - if anything, we need more officers on the street, not less.

So twist, shout and ponder the budget and where it could be leaner. But for heaven’s sake, let’s not cut off our noses to spite our face. Raise the damn taxes already. When we have a strong progressive governor (Deval), a turnover in the awful Congress (now with Oversight!™), and a better economy under (the right) Democratic control, we’ll be able to lower them again.

Yes, the blame game is well under way for the city’s sudden financial shortfall of ~$6.3M. Many people think it’s unproductive to hash over the recent past; but like long-overdue oversight for the Bush administration, we need to unravel what happened under Cox these last couple of years in order to both fix the problem at hand, and also to change our processes to see to it that this doesn’t happen again.

Lynch has already proposed several measures that will alleviate the lack of oversight from elected leaders that we had under Cox: an earlier budget proposal to give the councilors enough time to understand it, a budget which will not be based on the use of free cash, and more transparency. He has already showed he’s not afraid to give it to the councilors straight, even in his job interview, where he (unbeknownst to him) gave information to the councilors they did not have about the bond rating downgrade.

So what happened? Cox supporters are latching onto the fact that Cox did warn the Council not to use free cash to supplement the budget. Good on him - except he failed to give the Council all the information to say why. As yesterday’s Sun editorial (no link, I couldn’t find it, sorry!) said, it is tough to make the right choice if you’re not working with all the information. The councilors did not even have the correct free cash figure, never mind the audit letter from the DoR. If Cox really gave a crap about convincing the councilors that they needed to watch out with next year’s budget, why didn’t he tell them about the looming issues? Information which, I might add, he had before he gave his resignation. Added up, the free cash reassessment, the bond rating downgrade, and the audit request would definitely have given the Council pause.

As I’ve said in comments before, I do think the City Council shares some blame. But frankly, I think it’s for not reigning in Cox a long time ago. Former councilor Dick Howe certainly was written off back then as a crank, but really, his colleagues knew better. His mind was just as sharp and his integrity as intact. If others on the Council had had the backbone to stand with him, maybe we would have had Lynch in place before the first audit letter from the DoR.

Of course, that was an election year, and I’m willing to admit that standing up to Cox then would have been, at best, risky. Look at the silly but loud fuss Cox supporters made this past spring, launching an expensive political campaign to save the job of an appointed public servant. Those that footed the bill were plainly beneficiaries of the Cox administration, and they got the support of city union workers who (rightly or wrongly) thought Cox got them their raise. Imagine if five or six councilors had stood up last year against Cox? It would have risked their own campaigns for reelection. To some extent, I can’t blame them for waiting for an off-year to force a changing of the guard.

Cox has gotten all this credit for saving the city budget from needing to shed jobs in these lean years when the state reduced its share, without much of a tax raise. It appears he did so at a cost to the city in the form of lower bond ratings and an audit (ignored by Cox) by the DoR. Cox and his supporters, I’m sure, would prefer to lay the blame of that on the Council’s doorstep; however, Cox’s constant lack of transparency was far more damaging to the city than anything the Council did - or didn’t - do.

…

As a side note…seriously, I’ll say it again - the Lowell Sun website is atrocious. First, it took forever to download. Then the user interface for finding editorial columns is just plain stupid. Web user interface isn’t rocket science, people. Fix it. I know big ol’ corporate Mama gives all you eensy publications a template to work with that’s crap, but it’s time to put some pressure on your parent company. The user experience on their websites is a joke.

I can’t even believe the title and the first line of this Times piece: “Some in G.O.P. Say Iran Threat Is Played Down” - “Some senior Bush administration officials and top Republican lawmakers are voicing anger that American spy agencies have not issued more ominous warnings about the threats that they say Iran presents to the United States.”

Because, of course, the internal CIA agents who were skeptical about Iraq’s WMD, connections to al Quada, and who were cautious about the success of Bush’s war were all so very wrong.

The truth is, it’s really that the Republicans are angry that the Iran intel isn’t as doctored as the Iraq intel. Iran’s a threat to be sure, but one which is far enough on the horizon that “immediate” military action is not only suicidal, but not necessary. Even the most alarming intelligence reports put Iran at 5-10 years from nukes, if even that.

Gosh, remember what it used to be like when facts were abused politically by both sides to make their point? Now, Republicans are deciding what the facts should be based on political premises.

In foreign policy, in science, education, you name it, for five years Bush has perpetrated another war - a war on facts.

[Via AMERICAblog.]