Among the few contested offices in the 19 September Democratic primary here out west is the eighth Governor’s Council seat, where Thomas Merrigan of Greenfield is challenging incumbent Peter Vickery of Amherst. I got a card from Merrigan in today’s mail, and Vickery has had signs up for a while. The Governor’s Council is an eight-person body that votes on judicial and other appointments — the eighth district is more or less the four western counties, and was held for many years by Shannon O’Brien’s dad.
Vickery emphasizes his ties to organized liberaldom and clean election-dom. He was born in Wales, educated at Oxford, moved here, got a BU law degree in 1998, and became a citizen in 2002. He’s currently chair of the Amherst Town Committee — I met him when he moderated the caucus last spring. Merrigan was a judge until 2002, and his card says that he wants to run for GC to fix a process that took three years to replace him as a judge. There’s also a third candidate, Rinaldo Del Gallo of Pittsfield, a colorful father’s rights activist, and the unopposed Republican is Michael Franco of Holyoke.
The lack of press coverage of this race is exemplified by the fact that the first hit on a google search for “peter vickery thomas merrigan” is a BMG comment by me. The Republican had a story in July that referred to Merrigan accusing Vickery of playing politics, blocking an appointment due to a political litmus test. Vickery’s original campaign in 2004 had a simple message — “Romney is going to appoint right-wing judges, and I will fight hard to block them”. Merrigan says on his card that he supports “judges who understand our communities, more judges of color, …, greater use of mediation, and Western Mass people to fill Western Mass judgeships and clerkships”.
I’m inclined to vote for my Amherst homeboy Vickery. Any comments? Peter raised a conflict of interest issue with Vickery earlier…
Peter is the incumbent. He won the seat through an issues-based, grassroots campaign. He’s filled it with intelligence, giving vigorous scrutiny to Romney’s prospective appointees. I’ve heard him ask his constituents about the issues facing the coucil, and I’ve been very impressed. In fact, I can’t see what more one could ask of him: if everyone on the Council were a Vickery, and we had the kind of Governor I hope we’ll elect in November, the system would look a lot different.
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Merrigan’s mailings bash Republicans. I’m all for that. But I don’t get the relevance to the situation at hand. I wan’t shocked to learn that someone was running against him: many people like to run for office, and this post actually pays pretty well. But I can’t for the life of me figure out what the issue or principle is that would lead someone touting reform (Merrigan) would choose to run against a guy (Vickery) who was one of the reform-Democrats’ best success stories 2 years ago. Peter Vickery took over a seat that had previously been a provincial outpost of the hackocracy, and has been the kind of councilor we thought we were electing. Now we’re supposed to oust him? This election is a no-brainer to me.
because I haven’t made up my mind on this race yet, but the reason that Merrigan jumped into the race was because Peter Vickery announced late last year that he wasn’t running for re-election. Afterwards, Vickery reconsidered and started his campaign for re-election, but this was after Merrigan had made his choice and was already running for the Democratic nomination
I should have mentioned this as well, thanks for bringing it up. On Vickery’s campaign blog, which unfortuntately has no dates on its entries, he says that he initially decided not to run for reelection because his job and family could not afford the time he would need to repeat the “running flat out for nine months, attending every picnic and parade that I could, and shaking every hand within reach” that won him the office in 2004.
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Then, he says, the “calls and emails asking him to reconsider” changed his mind, and he planned a campaign on a new “game plan” not involving the spending and personal campaign appearances of the previous one.
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This campaign might be an interesting test of the power of incumbency (the 2004 race was for an open seat after O’Brien, IIRC, had died). Merrigan now has a wide lead in lawn signs around here, particularly in Franklin County which is his home base. If he’s spending more money and campaigning harder, we will see whether it is enough to displace an incumbent. Vickery still has the residue of the personal contacts he made in 2004, plus those supporters he’s made on the job and some organized groups that have endorsed him. I wonder what really matters in a low-profile election like this?
I heard a radio spot that Vickery was running about one of his opponents (Merigan I think) in which he assails his opponent for siding with Romney on a guy named Judge Hernandez….ad says guy was no friend of labor or something along those lines…..ad also caught my attention because my husband is hispanic.
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Called a close friend in Boston last night who practices law mostly around labor issues and represents a number of unions.
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I was shocked at what I was told. She basically told me this judge was (is) being railroaded because a few powerful Boston lawyers didn’t like him and in fact, a 8 or 10 member group made up of equal labor and management folks
unanimously called for his reappointment as a labor judge.
And during his hearing not one word was said about his decisions or anything he did. She also said he was a good judge.
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Wow! I can only conclude that in 2 short years Peter Vickery has become one of the good old Boston Boys. Imagine, all of his clean campaign rhetoric, his progressive stances, diversity in the community talk etc…western Mass deserve better. At least my legislators were never afraid to stand up to these slick pols (Finneran included).
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I am offended and my husband has already called a number of his friends to tell them what a fraud Vickery is.
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That is why I can’t stand politics at times…..a little power and bang….right to their head.
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Not sure who we are with now….have to do some research and pick a horse that can’t dump Vickery asap!
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Whether Merrigan or Vickery wins they face a real challenge from the independent candidate Mike Kogut. I heard him speak at a small function. Very good. Former Assistant AG under Harshbarger, Former Assistant District Attorney. Has a plan for reform. Maybe we need an independent for a change. Merrrigan is old school dem. Vickery said he doesn’t have the time to do the job. Vickery says he supports diversity then votes against a qualified gay and with Romney. Says he wants election reform then takes PAC money. Merrigan says he wants judges from W. Mass then complains when Romney picks one but it wasn’t from Merrigans home town. Merrigan gets in the race, Vickery gets out, then gets back in. it sounds to me those two got some personal stuff. I’m looking else where