Recently I have been helping the mass young dems (http://ydma.org/ JOIN US!) recruit some new members to help some of our efforts across the state. Cause of this, I am asked to reach out to registered democrats to try including them in some of our activities. Even though it isn’t my area, I recently was trying to include some people in Senator Clark’s district. One of the names I came across was Brittany Carisella, who is a friend of a friend. I was going to reach out to her until I found that she was recently selected to be delagate to the Mass GOP committee (http://homenewshere.com/stoneham_independent/news/article_46917112-6c5a-11e1-a372-001871e3ce6c.html). Strange enough though, I saw though that she was a Democrat.
When I brought this up with local city committee chair, she said that not only was it pathetic but it was actually in fact illegal (or would be according to Mass Dem by laws). I’m not sure what the Repubs have for rules, but it is pretty sad that they should have to take from our side to fill their own state committee! I was surprised that she won but apparrently she won’t be joining our group any time soon. Since law may have been broken for this to happen, our city committee chair told me this website would be the best place to ask questions on this. Did the Repubs break the law?
…but yes, the Democratic Party rules would forbid her to join the state committee if the facts were reversed.
According to the Secretary of State’s website…
“Each candidate must be an enrolled member of the party throughout the 90 days before the filing deadline for nomination papers with the Secretary of the Commonwealth, or a newly registered voter enrolled in that party.”
The site also says, “State committees of political parties are organized under Massachusetts General Law chapter 52, section 1.”
As someone who has run and been elected on the ballot, I can tell you that the process is the same as other elected offices. There is an “Enrollment Certificate” like there is for other offices. For Ms. Carisella’s name to appear on the ballot she would have had to sign that she accepted the nomination and her Town Clerk would have certified that she met the legal requirement for the position of State Committee in her designated party.
It would be my expectation that she is indeed a registered Republican and was by the deadline.
I believe that the correct title is State Committee member. The use of the word delegate could give people the impression that you are discussing delegates to the State Convention. I don’t know of any legal restrictions on who can be a delegate to a party convention.
Here’s a link to the Secretary of State’s pamphlet on the topic of running for State Committee.
She’s a legislative aide to the minority leader and as Kate mentions she had to be certified as eligible to run for the Republican State Committee by her town or city clerk and board of Registrars… It’s a lot more likely that your list was outdated or she signed up for something pretending to be a Dem than the chance that she ran for Republican State Committee as a Dem.
When I worked at the SH a few years ago, I remember that most of the R reps had democrats working for them (particularly the leader, good people too). I know that was definitely the case in the Senate too. Their bosses on the other hand…. đŸ˜‰
I’m just surprised they tried to get one on the State Committee. Did they not know the rules? Even if the poster’s list was old, the law says you have to be of the party going back almost two years. Is there any way to check her registration? I’d look her up on votebuilder but I don’t think i have access anymore.