Left In Lowell

Via BMG, the Globe’s Joan Vennochi gets the scoop (as David points out, on the editorial page?) that Phil Johnston is planning on stepping down and recommending former Patrick campaign manager John Walsh as his successor.

Let me tell you what Walsh will bring to this job (if he gets it - no assumptions). He is intricately aware of the changing nature of politics. John Walsh “gets it,” as I like to say. Other politicians and advisors “get it” to varying degrees, but John lives, breathes and eats it.

What is “it”? It’s the strange amalgam of new and old. New - the internets and electronic communication. Old - getting back to the grassroots.

The very concept of running to the grassroots is as old as the hills, but has been missing from our democracy for some time. In the age of omnipresent media, conventional wisdom is that you need only to spend, spend, spend your way to the office you seek. It happens in presidential races with TV media buys, and it happens in local races, where candidates for city council enrich the coffers of the Lowell Sun in order to get in front of voters. There are remedies to that, which our politicians have not yet been courageous enough to take on, because there is no public clamor for them. Even though there should be.

But Patrick and Walsh broke the conventions when they joined forces to gain the governorship. From unknown to early frontrunner, from shoring up campaign accounts with Patrick’s own money to record small donations which kept him viable (even if he was still outspent ridiculously). They didn’t ask for our votes, they earned our votes.

And this is what I believe John will bring to the chairmanship. For a long time, this state Democratic party has been losing membership, proportionately, to that party known as “Unenrolled.” Why? Because our party lost the faith of the voters…with pols like Finneran and Travaligni, lackluster candidates for governor…with hack moves like changing the pension rules after the fact for Michael Ruane. By gatekeepers in local party apparatuses who say they are interested in building the party, but commit little action to it.

I believe in the Democratic platform, and I believe in Democrats. The people of Massachusetts, by far, share those values. But we must constantly earn our members’ trust. If we want to bring our party back to the proud activist, interested, involved and integrated structure it once was, well…John Walsh…gets it.