Massachusetts primary election on Tuesday

[cos]

If you live in Massachusetts you may not have heard much about the election this Tuesday, September 14th. We have only two contested statewide races: Treasurer and Auditor, offices that don't usually get much attention. So I'm posting - and I hope you forward this link to others - to ask that you please vote to make sure this racist asshole doesn't get elected.

Guy Glodis is one of three candidates for the Democratic nomination for Auditor. In addition to bigotry and lack of awareness, he's got a record of sleaze and corruption (and at least one hilarious goof-up). However, he's tied for first in the polls, and might win.

I prefer Suzanne Bump. Apparently both the Globe and the Phoenix agree. Mike Lake, the third candidate, seems good too, but Bump's record is a better indicator that she'll do a good job in this office, IMO. With Bump ahead of Lake in polls (and slightly ahead of Glodis), and getting the major newspaper endorsements too, it seems pretty certain that either she'll beat Guy Glodis, or he will win. So if you think Bump and Lake are both fine candidates, and making sure Glodis doesn't get elected is more important than which of them wins, vote for Suzanne Bump.

[ BTW, I've been on unemployment twice, in 2003 and 2009. Suzanne Bump took over the MA Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development in early 2007, and unemployment is one of the departments under that office. Despite 2009 being a much harder and more stressful time for the unemployment office than 2003, I saw dramatic improvement in their service between the two periods, and I think that's partly (mostly?) her doing. ]

Two candidates are running for the Democratic nomination for Treasurer. I like Steve Grossman - which again puts me in agreement with the Globe and the Phoenix. I met Grossman a few times when he was on Howard Dean's campaign for president in 2003/4. His opponent, Steve Murphy, pissed me off with this ad (here's my comment on that ad).

[ Edit: Steve Grossman is hero to LGBT community, by former head of MassEquality ]

Meanwhile, I'll be spending primary day volunteering for Mac D'Alessandro for Congress. He's the most exciting candidate to me this year. If it weren't for him, I'd be volunteering for State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz of Boston, who has a primary challenger. She's one of the best people we have in the state house. If you live in either of those districts, please help Mac or Sonia.

I encourage you to link to this post, and share it with friends in Massachusetts through whatever means you'd like.

P.S. Donate to Mac & Sonia on my fundraising page.

Comments

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Know anything about either of the candidates for Governor's Councillor in the 6th district? I'm seeing very little on English-Marullo and only slightly more on Kennedy, but am leaning slightly towards the latter because of his law experience.

[wotw]

If anti-Muslim sentiments are racist, then Islam is a race. If Islam is
a race, then your genes (as opposed to your beliefs) can make you a Muslim.
If your genes can make you a Muslim, then the president of the United States
is arguably a Muslim. Are you sure this is where you want to go?

[cos]

I think that's silly pedantry. The word "racism" is colloquially used more broadly than this purist interpretation, so the rest of your logic doesn't follow.

Edit: I should also add that the broader usage of "racism" makes a lot of sense because those who practice it generally don't treat these things as different categories, anyway. That is, people biased against or expressing hostility towards another group often conflate race, religion, tribe, nationality, etc., and associate them with each other. So being pedantic about the different kinds of categories, in this context, is not useful.

[cos]

No, I don't. I was wondering the same thing last week, and posted that very question to Blue Mass Group, but I didn't get many comments. Apparently a lot of the state's political junkies - at least those willing to comment - don't know much about these candidates.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Heh. I saw that question posted when I did a Google search. OK, I guess everyone's kind of in the same boat!

[ckd]

I'm sure that knowing anti-Muslim sentiments aren't about race is a great comfort to the Sikh community and the family of Balbir Singh Sodhi, who was killed shortly after 9/11 for looking dark-skinned and wearing a turban. (Apparently racists tend not to pay much attention to little details like the difference between Islam and Sikhism.)

[ceo]

Odious Glodis was a student at UMass Amherst at the same time I was, and he rapidly made a name for himself in student politics as a misogynist, racist asshole. Nothing I've heard about him in the 20 years since has given me the impression he's changed in the slightest.

The bright side is that I finally get to vote against him for something.

[anhinga-anhinga.livejournal.com]

How does one find out which of the local races are contested?

[cos]

Go to WhereDoIVoteMA.com and enter your street address. You'll get a page listing all of your elected officials, and at the top there will be links to view what your ballot would look like for the Democratic and Republican primaries. After the primary results are in, that'll change to a single link showing you what your general election ballot will look like.

[anhinga-anhinga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Plenty of contested local races, actually...

[cos]

Not in my district :) What've you got?

[anhinga-anhinga.livejournal.com]

Here is the ballot (http://wheredoivotema.com/bal/ballotout.php?&ppid=D&ct=46&wd=0&prnct=01%0D) for the Democratic primary.

Someone nasty from the LaRouche camp is trying to challenge Barney Frank for US House of Representatives; also someone is challenging the incumbent Governor's Councillor, someone is challenging the incumbent State Senator, three people are fighting for the District Attorney nomination.

Except for the US House race, where it is obvious that Barney Frank is the good guy, I don't know much about the other races.

What about Coakley?

[(Anonymous)]

If you want to vote Coakley out of the Attorney General's office, make sure you write in Jim McKenna - http://jimforag.com/

I personally cannot stand Coakley on a number of issues - 2nd Amendment rights, her "catch and release" stance for violent offenders, all sorts of good stuff. I'm a big fan of "vote out all the incumbents" this election cycle, but YMMV. Enjoy!

Re: What about Coakley?

[cos]

FWIW, the Globe endorsed him as a write-in in the Republican primary. However, you can't write him in for Republican nominee if you're voting in the Democratic primary, which is the one in which the races I posted about above appear. There's no way he will beat Coakley on the Democratic side because she's actually on the ballot, and he's not trying to run a write-in campaign for the Democratic nomination.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

The only thing I can find is English-Marullo's facebook page, and it seems that it's mainly got her friends on it. It seems to me that she's not actually being a serious candidate. Is it possible to just run for office for sh*ts and giggles?

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

I have, at various points in my life, talked with both Guy Glodis and Suzanne Bump - Guy when I was a college student, Suzanne earlier this week for an interview.

Guy Glodis hung out with the Campus Conservatives at UMass Amherst. After about a year, year and a half or so he very much surprised me by saying he was a Democrat. Its not like he had any policies that struck me as being Democratic. I have watched his political career from afar and been mildly appalled. He never struck me as particularly caring, or about helping the public as a primary driving motivation. He may have changed since college; his record makes me doubt it, especially given all of his many ethics problems.

His progression in offices makes no sense from a career perspective: from state representative to sheriff to this attempt at the Auditor's office. He at least had qualifications for the first, had no less in qualifications for the second and seems to equate leadership with the ability to audit for the third. His choice in offices makes complete sense if you look at it as political climbing, however. He should hire a proper proofreader for his campaign literature instead of relying on spellcheckers.

Suzanne Bump was at a rally for Governor Patrick in JP a few weeks back and I met her there. I interviewed her earlier this week. She has a strong focus on streamlining in an effective manner and finding cost savings there, meaning reducing duplication of management while leaving front-line work alone or improving it. She struck me as somebody who wants to serve in order to help people and give back.

She did have one ethics violation nearly 20 years ago. It was small (key point, it was quite small), she did not realize was a violation at the time because of the chain of events, she did not fight when it came up and she paid her fine. It was not part of a series of ethics violations, no pattern, no habit. One violation out of a total of 17 years of public service.

I am trying to convince my parents to vote Bump in the auditor primary.

In regards to the GOP primary for Attorney General, I talked with Jim McKenna for an interview this week. He wants to move the category of 'illegal immigrant' from a civil offense to a criminal offense. He is also somewhat in line with the Tea Party - note I say somewhat. I feel he would be a credible AG but I would personally prefer to keep Coakley in office. If somebody happens to be voting in the state GOP primary I would suggest writing him in as his primary opponent has not given the race any serious consideration.

[noire.livejournal.com]

I met Terence Kennedy a few months ago and asked him about several positions. He *sounded* extremely progressive from our conversation; he also appeared quite serious in his bid.

http://electkennedy2010.com/ for the election.

[cos]

Thanks! Would you comment on my blue mass post about that? And do you remember any more about your conversation?

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

Would you prefer the phrase "bigoted asshole", instead?

Works for me.

[wotw]

I think the phrase "bigoted asshole" is about perfect for this guy, and
I endorse it.

I also think a lot of people think of him as a racist, via essentially the
same intuitin that leads a lot of other people to think of the president as
a Muslim (or a half-Muslim). And that objecting strenuously to either
usage is, in our host's words, a form of silly pedantry.

[wotw]

I said:

And that objecting strenuously to either
usage is, in our host's words, a form of silly pedantry.

Either that or maybe both objections are valid and reaonable. I'm not
sure which I believe. But I'm pretty sure they're either both one or
both the other.

[noire.livejournal.com]

I tried to go over and comment but I do not have a twitter account nor do I want one. The one statement that sticks in my mind was that Kennedy said he was "progressive and proud of it." I'm really sorry that I don't remember any more detail--it really was only a few sentences and a handshake back in May.

Re: What about Coakley?

[(Anonymous)]

I mistakenly went to http://www.uselections.com/ma/ma.htm instead of wheredoivotema.com and it says that Sam Sutter is running against Coakley (http://www.samsutter.com). He's not on my ballot, though. Is it worth writing him in?

Re: What about Coakley?

[seborn.livejournal.com]

er, the anonymous person asking about Sutter was me. Dunno about the other one.

[cos]

Huh, you've confused me briefly: What's twitter got to do with it?

Thanks for remembering a bit, you've contributed a significant percentage to the tiny bit I know about him :)

Re: What about Coakley?

[cos]

From his web site, it looks like he's running for re-election as Bristol County DA.

[noire.livejournal.com]

It wanted me to sign in with my twitter account. Or so it appeared.

In any event, I am glad to be able to contribute useful information. I have found your comments and links (both now and in previous elections) invaluable.

[cos]

Huh, that seems strange. Maybe they added some feature that lets you comment without getting an account on Blue Mass Group, if you happen to have a twitter account, it lets you use that? But I would be surprised, because I've heard no mention of any such thing and I frequent the site. As far as I know, to comment on BMG, you get an account on BMG.

[cos]

This seems to be a pattern: Where I post about this race, someone comments to tell me that they knew or met or encountered Guy Glodis, and he was sleazy/icky/etc. For example, on one of my reddit posts, I got this comment:

Guy Glodis is the reason I read up on the state auditor's race. I met Glodis about a month ago and my first impression of him was 'can this guy seem any slimier?', then I researched his background and saw the shady stuff he has been involved in. When I talk to people about the state auditor's primary I barely mention who I'm supporting but rather that I'm against Glodis.

[skreeky]

Someone on the radio was just saying that the challenger to Frank is the "dining table" lady.

[anhinga-anhinga.livejournal.com]

How to interpret this? What does it mean to be 'the "dining table" lady'?

(Of course, since she is running as a LaRouche activist, this is much more important than anything about her personality would be. People don't really need to consider who she is, all they need to consider is who LaRouche is.)

[cos]

It means she's this woman.

Note: I don't personally know that that is indeed the woman running against Barney Frank, I'm just explaining the meaning of the claim.

[anhinga-anhinga.livejournal.com]

Ah, I think she is indeed this women:

http://www.rachelforcongress.com/about

Well, she got her 20% of the votes, approximately...

[cos]

Yup, I looked it up later, it is the very same woman. And she and Barney even had a full length televised debate. I wonder how weird that'd be to watch...

[anhinga-anhinga.livejournal.com]

She actually has that debate on her front page:

http://www.rachelforcongress.com/

It's not very weird -- I'd say just another debate; I guess it's mostly the polite tone of the debate which makes the difference.

[jered]

Somewhat unrelated now (I did vote for Bump in the primary): Has she come out with any sort of sane explanation for her recent tax scandal that's not "I was trying to rip off the state and taxpayers"? I'm going to have a very hard time voting for a candidate for Auditor(!) that claims it's legal to claim multiple primary residences.

[cos]

I don't know much about this. I remember seeing a statement from her posted somewhere, saying that she'd checked with the town clerks at both locations previously and they'd said her property taxes were done correctly. I also don't know the tax law - When I bought a house, the city & mortgage company figured out my taxes and I just signed some papers and trusted them.