Left In Lowell

The state Democratic party reelects its ward, town, city, and state committee members every presidential year, placing those names on the ballot.

For those of us who have a) been on a ward/town/city committee, and want to run for reelection, b) are interested in becoming a ward/town/city committee member, or c) just moved into a new ward/town/city (like myself) and would like to stand for election in the new ward/town/city, the deadline for filing to get on that ballot for 2008 is November 9th. (Not a lot of time to organize and figure out who’s already in your ward, etc.)

From the MassDems website:

Traditionally, there are three ways to run for ward or town committee:

• Incumbent members of the current committee often form their own slate. Interested persons may request a place on this slate by contacting the chairperson whose name is available at the local election office in the city or town hall.
• A candidate may run on another slate.
• A candidate may run as an individual.

Ward and town committee nomination papers are “group” or “slate” papers. Though one may run as an individual, there is an advantage to running as part of a “group” or a “slate.” Massachusetts ’s law requires that groups appear first on the ballot and candidates running as individuals appear last.

Three or more candidates on a nomination paper will be treated as a group. A paper with fewer than three names is not considered a group, and those names will appear alphabetically after the groups on the ballot.

You have to have been a party member no later than Aug 21, 2007 to qualify to pull papers. Unfortunately, the state Dem website has temporarily pulled the information of the City/Ward/Town chairs, so it’s harder to find out if there are openings on your local ward or town committee, or to try to run on a slate of existing members. *sigh*

Anyone who has any questions about this, please email me (lynne [at] leftinlowell.com - just replace [at] with an @, no spaces) and I’ll try to find out the answer. I know there were a lot of Lowell people who joined their Ward over the past two years, and expressed interest in remaining, so I do hope we can keep some of that momentum.

Edit: I’ll quote my own comment below because it’s useful info:

Ha! They pulled the link to the Ward/Town Chairs but NOT the page…well, it might be under review for accuracy or whatever, but it’s better than nothing, so here’s the link. I recommend calling your Ward/Town committee chair and seeing if there’s room on their slate. Often there is, and it makes it easy to get involved. In Lowell, everything’s by Ward (we have eleven) and you would run in that Ward to get on the Ward Committee. Find out your ward here.

I’m saddled with an emergency deadline, so for the moment, here’s an open thread (there are people moderating comments from time to time so don’t worry).

I think a good discussion topic might be the Sun’s recent endorsements of SC and CC candidates. I found them a strange mix, and something of a contradiction. For instance, they state in their endorsement of CC folks, “It is past time that all councilors put aside petty political bickering and old grudges. Lowell can move forward only if all of its leaders are looking to the future instead of wishing for the past.” But I’m not sure if the people they endorsed understand that - given certain incumbents’ predilections to pose dangerous motions like asking to make the city’s Stoklosa report public presumably to “clear” a past city manager’s name. And what about Michael Lenzi? Have we suddenly forgotten his connections?

But hey, I’m all for moving forward together, if it’s even possible.

I also find it extremely interesting that the Lowell Sun is now using its “Breaking News” section as a sort of early edition web version of its paper. If I were to make a suggestion, I would actually leave the “Breaking News” section for actual breaking news, and perhaps create a second area for an “Early Edition,” but that’s just me and my five years as a web designer talking. I think that would add real value for readers, if important stuff from the dawn paper version were spotlighted before the noon-or-so limited online publication. But the Sun’s endorsements are not “breaking news.”

Speaking of which, look for LiL endorsements soon as well. And I have a couple more podcast interviews to post, once I get past this pesky deadline.