Left In Lowell

Now that it’s official, the Senate race just got interesting!

If you’re interested, you can go to her website to sign up for updates, or to volunteer.

A nice intro and coming-home post on BMG from Elizabeth Warren, which while not broaching the subject of running for the US Senate seat, certainly gives off all the right signals, especially this:

I left Washington, but I don’t plan to stop fighting for middle class families. I spent years working against special interests and have the battle scars to show it – and I have no intention of stopping now. It is time for me to think hard about what role I can play next to help rebuild a middle class that has been hacked at, chipped at, and pulled at for more than a generation—and that that is under greater strain every day.

In the weeks ahead, I want to hear from you about the challenges we face and how we get our economy growing again. I also want to hear your ideas about how we can fix what all of us – regardless of party – know is a badly broken political system.

I myself am hoping she runs, and decides to jump in soon. This is about the time of year another candidate - a completely unknown quantity - began making the rounds ahead of his election. The year was 2005 and his name was Deval Patrick. If she can leverage her public profile (an advantage Patrick didn’t have) and get the campaign going right, she can win, and she’d clean Brown’s clock. Just the sort of candidate I, and many other progressives, might be looking for.

Longtime friend of the blog (and former front pager) Kristin Ross-Sitcawich has decided to run for School Committee. This comes as no shock to me, as I’ve been helping her with her web presence and such.

Kristin has two school-aged children, both of whom attend Lowell public schools, so of course she wants to see them get the best education possible. You probably remember that she’s run for city council in the past and is an avid city activist, particularly in working to help the homeless. I met Kristin during her first run for the Council, and continue to support her because she is smart, knowledgeable, and progressive, while at the same time having a strong conservative streak of never wanting to see taxpayer money wasted. She loves efficiency and scrutinizing data in order to make informed decisions, and at the same time is passionate about the idea that those decisions must be centered around what’s best for the kids.

Her website is www.kristinforlowellkids.com, you can follow her on Twitter @kristinforsc, and you can like her facebook page in order to stay updated on the campaign. You can also read the Sun article of her announcement here.

Move Lowell Forward PAC has just launched our new website today (in the wee sma’s I can personally tell you) which is a much cleaner, streamlined system for posting news, reports from us, and information about the upcoming election. It boasts a nicer look (optimized graphically for the latest browsers, but if you’re not keeping up your browser, you’re asking for security problems anyway, and the site still works for the oldest browsers as well). But it also boasts the ability for us to have more control over its content much more quickly, which means timely postings of the things we’re working on or with.

So, we look forward to continuing to add information to the site, and hope it is more useful to you. Speaking of new things you might want to check out there, is our latest paper (to be presented tomorrow night at the Council meeting), “Renewed Economic Growth to Stabilize City Finances.”

One area we hope to get more content in is the “recaps” of committee and council meetings. When there’s a vote we find important, or an issue we think should have some airing, we’ll talk about it there.

Senator Eileen Donoghue has been named chair of the state Senate’s Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development. Pretty cool, and it bodes well for the district, especially Lowell.

She also is serving on the following:

Donoghue will also serve as vice chair of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, and a member of the committees on Economic Development & Emerging Technologies; Telecommunications, Utilities & Energy; and Community Development & Small Business.

All have some obvious advantages, but she will have the opportunity to keep UML and MCC in mind as well as the rest of our state public higher ed; affect green energy policy and emerging tech (like nano?); and do some good on the economic front. All good areas of policy for Lowell. I look forward to seeing what Donoghue does on these issues!

Or as good as - the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has been forwarded past the filibuster threat in the Senate by a 63-33 vote, pretty much assuring its passage.

This is a long time coming - the nation, and the military, has been ready for this for a long time. Now, we can finally allow gays to openly serve as they do in many other countries. Gays and lesbians have been on the front lines in war, risking their lives for their country. And now they will not be thrown out for being who they are.

Congrats to the activists who fought so hard for this. It is a victory that took too long, but it is a victory.

Though he’s wrong on almost every other issue, kudos on this to Senator Scott Brown for voting for our gay servicemen and women. (Note: I can’t find the role call but at 63 votes to pass, mathematically he has to be one of the yes votes.) Also kudos to Sen. John Kerry, who fought for this for a long time.

Apparently he has passed away after a short illness. There was a lot of friction between Pat and I, but he was a hard worker and passionate about politics, and about Lowell, and my condolences to his family for their loss.

It seems to be a bad month for losing political and public figures. I hope that this is the last condolence thread I have to make for a long while.

It was just announced that Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, has passed away due to her cancer. There are so many reasons to love Elizabeth - she was tough, smart as hell, progressive, caring, warm, and just a presence in a room wherever she went.

I had the privilege to meet her during the 2008 campaign, in NH, before her husband dropped out, and before revelations of his extra-marital affair with a campaign staffer which produced a child. She handled her illness, and her marriage, and her life under such public scrutiny, with grace and dignity. There are many many fans of Elizabeth Edwards and I am one of them…she shone, even as the luster tarnished on John Edwards. People stopped believing in him, but they always believed in Elizabeth.

Thank you, Elizabeth, for your example about what a great human being should be. Rest in peace.

Our condolences to the family of James DiPaola. (Link).

MA Democratic Party chair John Walsh is recovering after suffering a mild heart attack over the weekend.

John, we need you to work hard, but not that hard! We at LiL wish you a speedy recovery, lots of rest and relaxation, and our best wishes.