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"State Democrats’ to-do list: Fresh agenda, more new voices" June 12, 2014
Massachusetts Democrats will come together for their convention in Worcester this weekend as the most dominant state party in the country. All statewide officeholders are Democrats. So too are all the members of Congress. There are veto-proof majorities in both houses of the Legislature. And the party’s stars, Governor Deval Patrick and Senator Elizabeth Warren, are perpetually in the conversation surrounding the 2016 presidential campaign, whether as a possible VP pick (Patrick) or as a potentially potent challenger to Hillary Clinton (Warren). But the Worcester party-goers would do well to remember that the weather is often warmest before a big, surprising storm.
Don't remind me.
Massachusetts Democrats would be foolish to view 2014 as a status quo election and spend their weekend applauding yesterday’s heroes while extending reflexive endorsements to a group of highly credentialed, but overly familiar, frontrunners for statewide posts. More of the same, with less attractive standard-bearers, isn’t a winning message. Rather, the 2014 Democrats need to do something unusual for a party on top of the world: Approach this election like an underdog.
I agree because they are all across the country. It's a referendum on Obama this year, with a touch of toss the incumbents out!
Behind their bravado, many politically astute Democrats privately believe that the likely Republican gubernatorial nominee Charlie Baker is the favorite for this fall’s election, with several key issues working in his favor. But their strategy so far seems to be to ignore that reality, as if voters won’t notice that Baker is a viable alternative if Democrats don’t treat him as one.
Maybe not.
Instead, the party needs to take on Baker as a challenger whose ideas should be fully debated, while developing a future-oriented agenda of its own. Most important, the party should strive to avoid squelching promising new or dissenting voices. This will be difficult, given the deeply foolish rule that candidates must get 15 percent of convention delegates on the first ballot even to participate in a primary.
In the end, the fate of the Massachusetts Democrats in 2014 will depend on how well they address four key challenges. They are:
Defining the Patrick legacy: Patrick remains reasonably popular, and voters may be inclined to support a candidate who shares his priorities. But there have been some major administrative failures during his second term, a political problem that’s been somewhat masked by the fact that Patrick is an effective troubleshooter, while State House Republicans don’t have enough clout to call oversight hearings.
What have I been complaining about for eight years, and this whole idea that Patrick is a good troubleshooter (that whole analogy and explanation is offensive when you think of the vast failures of his administration) makes you wonder where has the Globe been all this time? If Republicans have no power, someone needs to step in rather than support the stays quo!
Nonetheless, the lapses in the Department of Children and Families, Health Connector web site, and licensing process for medical marijuana won’t be ignored by voters.
Okay, they left out the state drug lab scandal, the heroin crisis, the Bridgewater murders, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple of things, too!
Oh, btw, I love the rotten qualifier "nonetheless" as if those things they listed are not really important, just some trouble to shoot.
Thus, it would be a terrible mistake for Democratic gubernatorial candidates to assume these issues don’t exist except when someone is making a ruckus about them. Voters will be looking for a frank acknowledgment that the state government can do a better job handling its basic functions.
That's ME!
Avoiding special interests: Republicans generally win the governorship when the Democratic nominee seems too tied to Beacon Hill. One reason seems to be that upscale suburban voters don’t entirely trust the Democrats to stand up to unreasonable demands from government employees and labor unions. In this regard, Patrick is a positive role model, having exerted real energy — at least in his first term — on reforming education, the state transportation bureaucracy, and pensions.
Uh-huh. That's why the schools and roads are still falling apart and all those grandfathered in are still collecting fat, feathered-nest pensions.
In 2010, he secured his re-election by claiming that his approach of bringing all the stakeholders together to make changes yielded better results than his Republican predecessors achieved by brow-beating unions. But since then, top Democrats including Warren and Senator Ed Markey have returned to an uncritical embrace of labor, and some gubernatorial candidates seem inclined to do the same. That would be a crucial mistake.
I think it was rigged, and did you see that? The paper of the 1% just said don't embrace labor!
Developing a new agenda:
NEXT.
One issue that’s breaking in Democrats’ direction is reform of criminal codes. Voters across the country are seeing the wisdom of alternative forms of punishment for non-violent crimes, the foolishness of unreasonably long prison sentences, and the way that inflexible sentencing guidelines can lead to miscarriages of justice. But Massachusetts Democrats have been slow to pick up on it. The 2014 Democrats need to produce a forward-looking plan for rehabilitation of addicts and alternatives to incarceration. Meanwhile, the issue of economic inequality remains on the table for the taking, and Democrats need to pursue a growth-oriented economic approach that goes beyond repeating longstanding (albeit worthy) priorities such as raising the minimum wage.
Making space for new voices:
(Blog editor incredulous because they don't want to hear it)
Democratic dominance in Massachusetts has resulted in many long-serving officeholders. That leaves a lot of veteran politicians waiting in line for higher office. This year, gubernatorial candidates include Attorney General Martha Coakley and state Treasurer Steve Grossman, who’ve both lost races for statewide offices in the past, while the most prominent candidate for attorney general, former state Senator Warren Tolman, was the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor way back in 1998 and lost his own run for governor four years later. However, three talented but relatively unknown challengers have joined the governor’s race — physician and health care executive Joe Avellone, homeland security specialist and former Globe columnist Juliette Kayyem, and former Medicare chief Don Berwick. And the attorney general’s race includes political newcomer Maura Healey, the former head of the AG’s civil rights division.
See: Expediency Governs This Post
It's governing all my posts lately because I'm cleaning up and ending this blog.
I don't want to do this anymore, but I still will. Nothing better to do, but it needs to take a new format and focus, yet still be similar and familiar.
None of the new faces has electrified the party the way Patrick did in 2006.
Do I look electrified?
But they haven’t been especially visible, either. Now, all but Healey risk being broomed off the stage by the party’s rule that they must win 15 percent of delegates on the first convention ballot in order to go on to the primary election in September.
The rule is supposed to give candidates an incentive to build support, town by town, by visiting the caucuses where convention delegates are chosen. But any diligent politician would do so anyway, hoping to make a strong showing at the convention, whether or not delegates had the power to keep candidates off the primary ballot.
Republicans have the same rule, and it’s sparked a lawsuit and complaints of insiders trying to brush off insurgents. But Democrats are especially vulnerable, because they’re perceived as the more powerful bureaucracy. Clearing the field of secondary candidates often ends up hurting the top-tier candidates, as well. This year, that will certainly be the case: Coakley, Grossman, and Tolman all need to show that they’re in this for more than just personal advancement. Proving what voters already know — that they’re dedicated public servants, with solid records — won’t get them over the hump. They need to show passion and ability to attract votes. That’s best demonstrated by taking on all comers, and beating them.
Out! If true, they all put us in this mess.
On Saturday, the grins will be wide and the applause hearty. But the feeling in the pits of Democrats’ stomachs will be uneasy. This year’s Democrats should wipe away the pretense of invulnerability and get ready to fight.
I'm tired of fooley fights.
And the winnah?!!!
"Steve Grossman gets Democrats’ nod at convention; Coakley second, Berwick third; Avellone, Kayyem won’t make ballot" by Jim O’Sullivan and Frank Phillips | Globe Staff June 15, 2014
WORCESTER — Treasurer Steve Grossman won a solid but expected victory in the Democratic race for governor at the state party’s convention on Saturday, while Attorney General Martha Coakley, who holds a vast lead in public opinion polls, captured second place by a narrow margin.
Former federal health care executive Don Berwick used his appeal to the party’s left wing to pull within one point of Coakley at the convention, setting up a three-way race in the Sept. 9 Democratic primary. Berwick’s success on Saturday ensures that Democratic primary voters dissatisfied with either of the two more established candidates have an alternative.
Two other candidates, bio-pharmaceutical executive Joe Avellone and former homeland security official and Globe op-ed columnist Juliette Kayyem, failed to win the backing of 15 percent of the delegates necessary to reach the primary ballot.
Grossman has assiduously courted the insiders and grass-roots figures who make up the convention delegates, but has not been able to close the polling gap with Coakley among rank-and-file voters. If he can capitalize on momentum from his 12-percentage-point win on Saturday, Grossman could be able to shake the race from the holding pattern that has characterized it for months.
After the results were announced, Grossman sought to frame the primary as a two-way race between him and Coakley.
“I’m going to focus on Martha Coakley,” he said. “I’ve got to catch up with her.”
Meanwhile, Coakley insisted she was pleased with her showing.
“We’ve accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. We’re moving on to the primary,” Coakley said after the voting.
Grossman received 35.2 percent of the vote, Coakley took 23.3 percent, and Berwick got 22.1 percent, narrowly missing a second-place finish. Kayyem pulled in 12.1 percent and Avellone came in last, with 7.0 percent, party officials said.
Though Grossman captured the most delegates at the convention, a Globe poll of voters last week showed him 35 points behind Coakley.
See: Capital
That section made the recycling bag, sorry.
Due to changes in the electoral calendar this year, candidates have a short window between the convention and the unusually early September primary election.
That means the candidates will probably be seeking to draw sharp contrasts, creating the potential for a divisive primary the likes of which Democrats have not seen in nearly a decade.
And Grossman’s 35 percent showing on Saturday disappointed many of his backers, who had hoped he could have topped 50 percent. After Coakley conceded the second ballot as a formality, Grossman won the convention endorsement by acclamation, with weary delegates eagerly heading for the exits.
A good sign for those of us that are ABG.
Related: Democratic convention was disorganized, counterproductive
That's their whole party in two words.
Coakley has been trying to quell any lingering concerns activists might harbor from her 2010 Senate loss to Republican Scott Brown. In a high-risk, high-reward decision, Coakley addressed the notion directly in her speech to delegates Saturday.
“The 2010 Senate election was very painful for a lot of people in this room,” Coakley told the crowd scarcely 30 seconds into a speech that hushed the hall. “I understand how much of your heart and soul was in that race. Mine, too. I know so many of you worked in that race, and I thank you for that. That loss was difficult. But I made the decision to get back in the ring.”
After the speech, Coakley told reporters she “felt she had to address” the campaign that handed the seat held by Senator Edward M. Kennedy for 47 years to a Republican.
“I just felt it was really important today to say, I know that was really tough for people,” Coakley said. “It was a heartbreak, not just for Democrats in Massachusetts, for the whole country. And I thought it was best to deal with it in this group, up front, and say, ‘I know everybody suffered. I did. We got back to work, and we’ve got to get back to work now’.”
Grossman, talking to reporters after delegates had begun voting, sought to highlight the very misgivings Coakley had sought to alleviate.
“That failure to articulate that strong, vibrant, energetic sense of leadership that may have, among other things, cost the election in 2010, I don’t know if people have seen it in 2014,” he said.
Berwick spoke with reporters before the results were finalized, calling his finish just behind Coakley a “validation” of his focus on progressive views, citing his anti-casino stance, outright support for single-payer health care, and focus on poverty.
Berwick said his campaign was not anti-establishment, but “pro-justice.”
The second-most watched convention fight was the race for attorney general between former state senator Warren Tolman and former assistant state attorney general Maura Healey. Tolman eked out a victory of less than 4 percentage points over Healey, but topped the 50-percent threshold and thus won the convention’s endorsement.
Related: Coakley's Replacement
I don't like either one. Besides, maybe it's best we put a Republican in.
For Tolman, a longtime party heavyweight making his third bid for statewide office, the slight edge over Healey offered reassurance of his support among institutional players and labor leaders. His brother, former state senator Steven Tolman, heads the state AFL-CIO.
Healey, a first-time candidate, has run a strong campaign, surprising some party veterans by essentially tying Tolman in public polls, with a majority undecided.
Both delivered arguably the two best-received speeches of the day, electrifying the room with forceful appeals to liberal values.
Former Brookline selectwoman Deborah Goldberg took first among the state’s three candidates for treasurer, followed closely by state Representative Tom Conroy, and then state Senator Barry Finegold.
Looks like I'm voting Republican there, as usual.
**********************
The convention marked the party’s most contentious in years, as Democrats seek a way to move on from nearly a decade marked by Governor Deval Patrick’s dominance.
And get him as far away as possible.
Since the party implemented the 15-percentthreshold in 1982, no convention until Saturday had eliminated two gubernatorial candidates.
Kayyem fell less than 3 percentage points shy of reaching the ballot, or about 130 delegate votes of nearly 4,400. She had sought to rally delegates by laying out an implicit argument against voting for longtime party figures like Grossman and Coakley.
“Becoming governor is not a lifetime achievement award,” she said in her speech. “We don’t win elections when we settle for the next in line.”
The ouster of Avellone left the Democratic ballot without the field’s only self-proclaimed fiscal moderate. On Saturday, US Representative Stephen F. Lynch worked the floor for Avellone, sporting a campaign button.
“Joe is a good, solid Democrat, sort of a moderate and he’s focused on the issues that I care about,” Lynch said, citing economic development and addiction prevention.
Lynch criticized the party rule that candidates earn 15 percent on the first ballot, calling it “exclusionary.”
Yeah.
Several Democratic delegates, who declined to speak for the record, said they were worried about their party’s chances for the Corner Office in November, concerned that expected Republican nominee Charlie Baker will prove a more capable candidate for governor in his second run than he did in 2010.
That's why the Globe attack dogs are howling.
During his speech in Worcester on Friday night, Secretary of State William F. Galvin said Democrats should expect “a challenging electoral environment both nationally and here in Massachusetts” this fall.... Yup,
--more--"
Look who made Grossman king.
Can Mass. Democrats offer a true reformer?
Apparently not.
"Bridgewater hospital given 45 days to address concerns; Facility given 45 days to act after concerns for patient safety bring surprise inspection" by Michael Rezendes | Globe Staff June 10, 2014
The agency that accredits hospitals, prompted by what it called “patient safety concerns,” conducted a surprise inspection of troubled Bridgewater State Hospital late last month and gave the facility 45 days to respond to the findings or risk losing accreditation.
Darren Duarte, spokesman for the Department of Correction, acknowledged the surprise inspection, which comes after a series of articles in the Globe highlighting a patient death and widespread use of restraints.
Despite its name, Bridgewater is a medium-security prison....
Then why is it called a state hospital?
--more--"
Related: Bridgewater Story Leaves Me Broken-Hearted
So did Marty:
"Coakley’s office will review 2009 death at Bridgewater; Incident may also face federal scrutiny" by Michael Rezendes | Globe staff June 12, 2014
Attorney General Martha Coakley said Wednesday that her office will review circumstances surrounding the 2009 death of a Bridgewater State Hospital patient, amid indications that the US attorney’s office is taking its own look at how Joshua K. Messier died.
She is going to AFTER the feds got involved? Does she know how that looks?
So how come she won't investigate the murder of Todashev?
Coakley, in a prepared statement, did not say whether she would seek a special prosecutor, as some have asked. But she expressed concern about Messier’s death and the treatment of mental health patients at Bridgewater.
Where you been for five years?
Advocates for the mentally ill sent letters to Coakley Wednesday charging almost five years later [that] there was a government coverup of the circumstances surrounding the May 4, 2009, death of 23-year-old Messier, who succumbed as prison guards strapped him to a bed.
You guys must be crazy! You just discredited yourselves! I mean, you are telling the truth about what happened, but you know....!
*****************
Coakley, a Democratic candidate for governor, has allied herself closely with mental health advocacy groups. She was the keynote speaker last year at an annual fund-raising walk for the National Alliance on Mental Illness and has publicly noted the 1996 suicide of a younger brother who suffered from depression.
So far, her defense of the guards in the Messier lawsuit has not become a major political issue.
I get the feeling it is about to be -- or not. Makes the whole state and Democratic fiefdom look bad.
*****************
The pressure on Coakley to name a special prosecutor comes as officials in US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz’s office launch a preliminary investigation into Messier’s death....
--more--"
I suspect the issue will be sedated during the primary season.
One issue I'm sure will not:
"Evidence of bias against black judges" by Adrian Walker | Globe columnist June 11, 2014
Over the years, a disturbing theme has surfaced, at first anecdotal, and now confirmed by social science: Black judges are rated far more negatively — some might say trashed — compared with their white counterparts. Most of the lawyers doing the evaluating are white.
The suspicions of racial bias were serious enough to prompt the appointment late last year of a high-level judicial commission to look into the evaluations. Two Harvard professors brought in to evaluate the process found substantial evidence of racial bias against black judges. That has caused deep soul-searching among the judiciary, even as they have debated the implications and tried to keep the findings under wraps.
It has also caused deep anguish among black lawyers and judges, who — for all their professional success — continue to feel stung by institutionalized racism....
How does it feel to be Palestinian?
--more--"
Related: Patrick’s SJC pick a Mass. milestone
There, you happy now?
As for me, I no longer believe in AmeriKan ju$tice so the gender and skin color thing no longer matter when it's really all about cla$$ that my propaganda pre$$ is all about protecting. The corporate liberali$m will throw you some crumbs now and then, but that is just enough to let you know you are hungry.
UPDATES:
Hines’s experience makes her a strong choice for SJC
Candidates take their campaigns to street
Democratic hopefuls should put convention behind them — fast
That is what I'm doing.
