Left In Lowell

After reading ER’s comments on the post on election results, I decided to also review the numbers for Lowell.

According to the U.S. Census, there are 103,229 individuals living in Lowell. (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey has the population at a much lower number; but that is a story for another post).

If we apply the demographic profile of the 2000 Census, 73.1% of Lowell’s population is over the age of 18; and 15.4% of population are not U.S. citizens. So we have approximately 63,840 Lowellians over the age of 18 and citizens of the United States. .

According to the Boston Globe’s web site, there were approximately 31,472 votes cast in Lowell last Tuesday and there are 51,234 registered voters in Lowell.

What did the 20,000 or so registered voters do last Tuesday that they could not go to the polls? What could have been more important? Less than half of the eligible adults in this City voted in this crucial election. No wonder we cannot get anybody to run for public office.

Why do so many Lowellians do not believe in civic duty and obligation? Is because they feel that their voice does not matter or that they really do not have a choice? Or is it that our institutions (schools, media, fraternal organizations, non-profits, churches) are not doing their job to organize, inspire, educate, motivate and mobilize?

I can’t even keep track of all the candidates for Registrar of Probate. Good heavens.

But you can read about some of them at Blue Mass Group - the more transparent this process the better. It’s going to be an insider game no matter how you slice it. I just hope the process yields the best candidate for the actual job at hand. Here are links to their posts.

Tara E. DeCristofaro. Maria Sheehy. Katherine Triantafillou. Teresa Walsh. (Is there anyone who posted something somewhere that I missed?)

Update: Ug, forgot the reminder for the time/place. Lowell’s caucus is tonight at 7pm at the East End Club, 15 W. 4th St.

All right, I have some more definitive information on the caucus.

First, full ward/town committee members (not associate members) are the only ones who are eligible to be elected to become a delegate (and the only ones who can vote on delegates). This is different information than I had before. This is a ruling by the party based on the party documents, as I understand it, so that should be the final information.

However, if you are interested in serving on a ward/town committee, and there are open seats (and most if not all wards in Lowell have open seats), there is a process whereby you can become a ward/town committee member in a meeting before the meeting, so to speak. So if you are interested in becoming an active member of your committee you are encouraged to attend. You can then, once a full member of the committee, serve as a delegate if you so desire. (I would love for someone to contact me if this information is wrong - especially as it affects me personally!).

Delegates are apportioned out by ward, and must be gender-balanced. Here are the numbers of delegates for each Lowell ward:

Lowell Ward 1: 4
Lowell Ward 2: 2
Lowell Ward 3: 2
Lowell Ward 4: 2
Lowell Ward 5: 2
Lowell Ward 6: 3
Lowell Ward 7: 2
Lowell Ward 8: 3
Lowell Ward 9: 3
Lowell Ward 10: 2
Lowell Ward 11: 3

So far as I know now, there are no alternates being elected for this caucus. Lowell’s caucus will be held at the East End Club at 15 W. 4th St., Monday Sept 22 at 7pm. The Middlesex-wide caucus will be held on Wednesday, September 24th, 6:30PM at the Waltham High School, 617 Lexington St. There is no news yet as to Buonomo’s withdrawal from the race - he has until Monday, 5pm to do so.

Everyone seems to have it. I’ve already gotten a mailing from one of the known declared “candidates” for the office, who must be sending it to every listed DTC committee member (someone’s keeping tabs well, it even had my new address).

To my mind, I would like to see a technocratic type in the position. It’s not far removed from the sort of management we should expect from a city or town manager - except the Registrar oversees the county’s probate court. I have already heard reports of the politicking and schmoozing that people are doing to obtain this seat (via a process much easier than a county-wide campaign, a process that could be easily considered “insider”) and I’m not sure that all the candidates are really qualified for this job. The Registrar of Probate office is, from what I understand, archaic and not very service oriented right now. It needs someone who is seriously willing to update it to 21st-century efficiency.

Also, Secretary Galvin, how’s about you STFU?

Galvin said he would like to see the Democratic Party choose a nominee sooner than Wednesday so he can begin printing the ballots for the November election and deliver them to clerks early.

“I have taken great pains to urge the Democratic Party to do this promptly,” Galvin said. “With all due respect to the august office of the probate, I don’t want this to interfere with people’s ability to vote.”

This whole process, including calling town and city caucuses to elect the delegates to go to the big caucus, had little over a week to scramble and get this done, in the most populous county in the state. With all due respect, sir, how do you expect up to 600 delegates to be chosen and then a caucus held in less than a week? Really, honestly, how smart do you have to be to get elected, anyway? Oh, right.

Update: forgot to mention the important part of the article. The big caucus is set to be next Wednesday, Sept. 24, in Waltham. The Sun doesn’t say what time (nor do the Dem or SecState websites). So if you want to stand to be a delegate make sure you keep that in mind! Our caucus to select delegates will be held (all wards) at the East End Club, 15 W. 4th St., Monday Sept 22 at 7pm.

Sco asks the question.

Now that Middlesex County Register of Probate John Buonomo has stepped down from office in the face of theft charges, it is worth spending a little time discussing what might happen if Buonomo wins the primary, but then withdraws his name from the General Election ballot.

Sco has experience with this, as something similar happened (a late withdrawal) in his district. Sco is Watertown Chair of the DTC (Dem Town Committee). Basically, the local Democratic party has the opportunity to meet to choose a candidate for an upcoming general election if they have no candidate due to late withdrawal. He tells us the following (with the caveat that he is not a lawyer and could stand to be corrected):

As the newspapers are reporting, it is too late for Buonomo to withdraw his name from the primary ballot. Since his is the only name that will appear and this race is so low-profile, it is not inconceivable that he will get more votes than any write-in challenger. WBUR this morning was reporting that should he win the primary, Buonomo would withdraw his name from the general election. Democrats throughout the county would then be able to fill the ballot line via a caucus, as provided for in Mass General Laws chapter 53, sections 49 and 14.

He goes on to tell us how he thinks this would work under party rules. (Worth the read, I won’t quote the whole thing.) Lowell would be alloted some 24 delegates (divvied up to its 11 wards). And this is all on a severely short timetable:

Keep in mind that all this must happen between the time Buonomo withdraws from the ballot — no sooner than the morning of September 17th, the day after the election — and September 25th at 5PM, the Secretary of State’s deadline to fill vacancies.

If this does go to a caucus under these rules, Lowell shouldn’t be left out (and neither should its neighbors). Due to the largely defunct Lowell Democratic City Committee (yes, defunct, as much as I personally like some of its members, there is, in effect, only an LDCC on paper, not in reality), we may well fail to be represented at any county-wide caucus…if things go as I bet they will.

Of course, as sco says, it is a low-profile position. “I’m wondering exactly how many people I’d be able to convince to show up on one or two days notice to pick delegates for a caucus that would decide such a low-profile position. My guess is very few… My hunch is that this will be true in communities throughout the county.”

Indeed. Given my above complaint about the nature of our local Committee it’s even less likely that Lowell will even send one delegate in such a case. A rather unfortunate situation if you ask me.

David lays it out - though the supporters of both US Senate primary candidates, O’Reilly and Kerry, have not been without ridiculous commentary in the debate about debates on Blue Mass Group, enough is freaking enough.

Kerry must debate his legitimate primary opponent or else be labeled a political “chicken.”

Now, I know strategically, it often behooves an incumbent not to acknowledge or give their opponent a platform to gain any points with voters. I get that. However, that doesn’t make it right, or very little-d democratic. Senator Kerry will score more points for having a fair debate than he would lose if O’Reilly cleans his clock (an unlikely scenario as Kerry is not an unseasoned or poor debater). However, Kerry is, rightly or wrongly, very much perceived as out of touch and not very responsive to constituents. By refusing to debate, he only enforces that image.

I am officially an undecided voter in this primary. I like O’Reilly personally, but with the missteps in his campaign I’m not sure he’s necessarily ready for prime time. I also like Kerry, I think he is intelligent, and on most issues, most of the time, on the right track. However, I also think he has spent too long without coming back to the voters and asking us for our vote, and telling us why he deserves it.

If Kerry does not debate O’Reilly, I will be forced to choose, and the incumbent will not like what I have to say about that.

There are two, count ‘em, two bills which are likely to come up in the state Senate on Thursday that have a big impact on Democracy in Massachusetts and the nation - the Same Day Voter Registration bill, and the National Popular Vote bill.

This is your opportunity to call Senator Panagiotakos (or your own state Senator if you’re not from around here) and voice your support for enfranchising new voters, and for setting course for fixing the broken electoral college system. (Edit: You can reach the Senator at (617) 722-1630.)

The Same Day Registration bill is misconstrued by people who panic about voter fraud - if you register on the day you vote, you will be required to bring the same information and ID that you would going to city hall a month ahead of an election. The deadline a month before for registering is ridiculous. It disenfranchises a lot of people (including myself, when I found out that a candidate for office who months in advance had taken my registration form to turn into city hall never did so).

The Popular Vote bill will not immediately change our Electoral College. Instead, it’s an interstate pact, which will kick in once enough states pass it (states which hold more than 50% of the Electoral College votes). If passed in MA, we’d join New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, and Hawaii. Read up on the NPV pact here.

Yesterday, when I picked up my mimi[at]leftinlowell, there was a one with the subject line that began “Congresswoman Niki Tsongas to Endorse….” I immediately jumped to conclusions that Congresswoman Tsongas finally had made her presidential choice public. Wrong!

It was a press release from Jamie Eldrige’s campaign for the Massachusetts state Senate. Congresswoman Tsongas not only is supporting Eldrige (a former opponent of hers in the 5th Congressional race this fall) but she has agreed to campaign with him on May 17th. Good for Jamie.

Now back to Congresswoman Tsongas remaining on the superdelegate “uncommitted/to be pledged” list. Granted she is not the only Mass Rep who has not made their choice public (Olver and Markey) but I would prefer that my representative did not stand on the side lines but took a firm and public stand on the Democratic Presidential race.

Although she will have an uncontested re-election race this fall, will she pay a political price down to road if she chooses the candidate that did not carry the 5th District? Are too many of her campaign supporters and staff working for her second choice?

She could be genuinely undecided but I doubt it. During the special MA-05 Election, most elected officials took a stand, I think she should do the same.

From CREDO of Working Assets:

Sign our petition for election reform in Massachusetts

Help young and lower-income citizens vote. Stand up and be counted in the petition to Senator Murray.

This year’s most progressive voting reform has almost made it through the Massachusetts legislature. Thanks in large part to pressure from Citizen Activists like you, the Election Day Registration bill may soon become law. But one more hurdle stands in its way.

If you believe in helping young and lower-income citizens vote, stand up and be counted with the Election Day Registration petition.

Election Day Registration would allow an estimated 225,000 more people to vote in Massachusetts elections—a 5% increase. It does this by letting eligible citizens register and vote on Election Day, instead of losing their right to vote if they miss the registration cutoff. Young and lower-income citizens benefit most, since they are often new to the political process or more likely to move around and miss registration deadlines. We always talk about encouraging civic participation among these groups; this is a chance to do something positive about it!

(more…)

Next week, MassVOTE is coming to Lowell to host a discussion on Senate bill S.2514, a bill to allow same-day registration in Massachusetts. Same-day registration is working in many other states, and makes it far easier for people to vote, enfranchising people. From MassVOTE:

This year, hundreds of neighbors in and around Lowell will come out to vote for the first time. Some just turned 18. Some are proud new citizens. Others recently moved here. And some have been eligible to vote for years, but will come out to vote this year because they will look at Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, or another candidate, and get inspired.

Unfortunately, every year, some would-be voters show up Election Day only to discover that they missed the registration deadline, or they are still registered at an old address, or their registration form got lost. Election Day Registration would ensure that all these citizens get a chance to vote — protecting the right to vote for all of us.

S.2514, the bill for Election Day Registration, is now out of committee and awaiting a vote in the State Senate. How would it work in Massachusetts? Who benefits? We would like to invite you to come find out.

Wednesday
1pm-2:30pm
ONE Lowell
9 Central Street, Suite 203
Lowell, MA 01852

More info after the flip: (more…)