Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Bonifaz Endorsed by Prog. Dems of America and Kucinich

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Bruce Taub submitted this post.  He is an attorney in practice for many (too many?) years in Boston, a PDA MA State Co-coordinator, and a board member of PDA.  The opinions expressed here are his alonne and not necessarily those of PDA.

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  2. Progressive Democrats of America has organized well all around the country, and you’re right, Kucinich’s endorsement will help get John’s name out there among PDA’s grassroots networks.  Although back in 2003/2004 I backed someone else for president (as is quite well known here on BMG đŸ™‚ I really appreciate what Kucinich did in getting PDA off the ground and I think it’s been a large and valuable contribution to American politics.

    • I doubt you could call Chris Gabrielli a “progressive Democrat”. Guys with that much money tend to lose touch with Democratic values. They become “deciders”. Not all, but many. Besides, how arrogant of him to flippantly pick 15.3 million (same as his delegate vote percentage) as his campaign spending limit — by the way, his opting out of public campaign financing meant that no one got public money.

  4. Try to keep your titles shorter so it doesn’t take up four lines on the sidebar, thereby shortening the “recent users posts”. You’ll notice most of those are one or two lines in the title.  Thanks!

  5. More than the other races, where the particular Democratic nominee will probably win in November, and the primary candidates aren’t that far apart where it counts, Bruce’s analysis of the importance of this race is on target, because there are major differences between the candidates, and the one who ought to win needs a lot of help from people who really care about these things.

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    This is one contest where cognoscienti cynicism will work against the proper objectives of progressive activists and the people at large.  John Bonifaz is too nice a guy and too green in the political dogfight to enumerate Galvin’s serious failings beyond his neglecting his job.  He’s also too personally quiet to demand the attention that he deserves.  He really needs all our help.  And so do we, the voters.

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    If you’re not familiar with his remarkable career, please visit his website , attend a meet-and-greet and/or (preferably and) a fundraiser.  He’s really a cut above.

  6. With a Kucinich endorsement I will make the comfortable bet that Galvin will win, also I challenge Cos the big Bonifaz guy here to a $10 bet on the election right now.

    • Of the 8 PDA groups that all endorsed John Bonifaz this week, only one is in “Cambridge and Somerville”.  There’s a north shore group, a congressional district 2 group, and two western Mass groups among them.

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      Some other members of Congress that have endorsed John Bonifaz formally: John Conyers (the next chair of the House Judiciary Committee! đŸ™‚ and Jesse Jackson, Jr..

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      Don’t forget Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo, from the other side of the river đŸ™‚

      • OK, so he’s got some people with him who used to live in Cambridge/Somerville. Or maybe Northampton/Amherst.

  8. Time to for the Beacon Hill political machine to clean up it’s act! Bonifaz brings integrity to an office lacking exactly that. If some state legislators feel so intimidated by Galvin, aka, the Prince of Darkness, that they have to vote for him at the convention out of fear of retribution, even though their hearts tell them not too, it’s time for us to vote Galvin out of office.

    • some state legislators feel so intimidated by Galvin, aka, the Prince of Darkness, that they have to vote for him at the convention out of fear of retribution….

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      p>Welcome to Blue Mass Group, bfrank!  Can you back that up with any evidence?  All of the Democratic legislators in my area genuinely support Galvin for secretary because he does a good job, even if they wouldn’t support him for governor.

      • There’s a perception that Galvin “does a good job” but I think it’s based on a) the fact that people like him personally (I hear he’s a nice guy), and b) not much attention paid to the Secretary’s office.  People don’t focus on what a good Secretary could or should do, and they’re used to Galvin, so they think his performance is about what they ought to expect.  He’s not setting a very high standard.

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        For some of the most important things that have come up in recent years that are squarely within the political realm of the Secretary’s job, Galvin has stayed on the sidelines, doing nothing and saying nothing and just letting things play out.  In some cases, he’s seemed actually unaware.  And in at least one case, he worked behind the scenes for the wrong result.

        • When Finneran’s legislature refused to fund the voter-passed clean elections law, Galvin said nothing and did nothing.  He was our chief elections officer, elected to administer the Democratic process, but took a pass on the most significant struggle over that process in our state during his time in office.  It was John Bonifaz who stepped up to defend clean elections.
        • Boston is currently under a consent decree by the Justice Department for Voting Rights Act violations, and several of our larger cities (such as Springfield and Lowell) have been recently investigated by the DoJ for voting rights act violations.  Throughout this disturbing pattern, Galvin has claimed that he’s unaware of problems while the feds step in to clean up our messages.  Cities & towns aren’t getting the help or guidance they need to make voting accessible to their residents.  Bonifaz takes action on behalf of voters while Galvin lets things slide.
        • A Secretary is supposed to promote open records and public access to government information.  Yet when Microsoft fought back against the state’s plan to adopt the open document format, Galvin sided with Microsoft!
        • Last year, Massachusetts legislators looked set to pass a bill allowing election day voter registration in Massachusetts.  Rather than staying on the sidelines as he usually does when election issues come up, this time Galvin worked with conservatives and Republicans behind the scenes to kill the bill, plus two alternatives.  He said he opposed enabling legislation allowing some cities to experiment with it, on the grounds that it would set different rules for voters in different parts of the state… but there was another bill that would’ve instituted it statewide, and he didn’t back that.  When asked about that he said we’d need to study it first, but he not only killed the partial experiment, he also opposed another bill to do a study of same day registration and how it would work without implementing it yet.  In other words, he opposes same day registration but is not willing to come out and say so, and he opposes it so much that it motivated him to come out of hiding and actually do something.

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        I could go on and on about what Galvin hasn’t done for us recently, especially when it comes to elections, by far the most important responsibility of his job.  He’s done a few things well, but overall, the standard he’s setting for a “good job” is a pretty low standard.

      • Maybe they didn’t work for him when he demanded that his employees make large contributions to his campaign.

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        Oh, wait: “does a good job”.  Like lobbying among Republicans to kill a bill that would have eased access to the process, particularly for minorities.  Like looking the other way when voting rights (Galvin’s territory) were denied in Lawrence, Springfield and Boston.

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        Speaking of denial, Galvin denied that there were any investigations on his watch; a few days later the news broke that the U.S. Justice Department was (still is) investigating Boston and Springfield for voting rights violations.  Bonifaz actually sued, and won, in the Lawrence case while Galvin did nothing.

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        Where is Galvin, by the way?  Why doesn’t he want the voters to see him? 

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