Before I was elected to the State House in 2002, I worked as a Legal Aid attorney for Merrimack Valley Legal Services (MVLS), helping working people in Lowell and Lawrence fight evictions, get unemployment benefits, and applying for Social Security Disability. I was proud to receive an Equal Justice Works Fellowship to practice Community Economic Development (CED) law in Lowell and Lawrence, helping low-income people to buy their first homes, start their own businesses, and create their own non-profits to challenge problems in their neighborhoods. I also did work for some of the already-existing non-profit organizations, including Coalition for a Better Acre (CBA), Cambodian Mutual Aid Association, Cambodian American League of Lowell, and Lawrence Community Works.
I had practiced CED law as a student at Boston College Law School, at the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center in Jamaica Plain, representing non-profits and community development corporations (CDCs) in Boston – including Viet-AID, Jamaica Plan Neighborhood Development Corporation, and Tent City CDC in the South End. It was an amazing experience to see how the Harvard Law School clinic could help transform neighborhoods in Boston, creating jobs, affordable housing, and safer communities for many people.
I saw the true power of grassroots campaigning while I managed then-State Representative Pam Resor’s re-election campaign in 1998, and then managed her State Senate campaign in 2000. I had previously worked as a legislative aide to former State Senator Bob Durand, whom I had been introduced to while at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School by my basketball coach and political mentor, Arthur Lambert.
When I ran for State Representative in 2002, I decided to run under the Clean Elections law, which I had helped pass as a volunteer in 1998. In many ways the law was designed for a candidate like me, as I made very little money as a Legal Aid lawyer (starting salary: $27k a year). I was up against candidates twice as old as I was, with significantly more financial resources. But being publicly-financed as a candidate, I spent my time talking to voters about their concerns and what issues were most important to them, and didn’t have to concentrate on the needs of special interest groups or wealthy donors. Without the Clean Elections law, I know I wouldn’t have been able to run the kind of grassroots campaign that I did, and I doubt if I would have won the election.
Now with a new opportunity before me, my adrenaline has kicked in. I’m excited to have the opportunity to weigh in on so many national issues that have frustrated me since I first became politically active. Over the past six years, I have watched as President Bush neglected the public interest to start a war that was based on a pattern of lies, and has lost the United States credibility throughout the rest of the world. Our federal government has violated civil liberties here at home, and purposely worked to serve special interests while the middle class, working class, and the poor have lost even more economic security.
Like most of you, I’m tired of just watching the news in frustration, or reading yet another book about how President Bush has sacrificed the lives of too many men and women from my generation in Iraq. Washington conservatism is threatening our country’s future through elitist policies that have only increased healthcare and energy costs, weakened public education, and ignored global warming at the world’s peril.
Fortunately, my work campaigning for Deval Patrick helped restore my faith that a people-powered campaign can work, and that Democrats who stand up for their progressive values and beliefs will find strong support amongst Massachusetts voters. I was one of the first state legislators to endorse Deval Patrick for Governor, and I worked hard as one of his Senate District Coordinators. Alongside DSC member Kate Donaghue, I helped organize door to door campaigning and phone banks in each of the fourteen towns in the Senate District, and it was the most rewarding campaign that I have ever been a part of.
Since I created an Exploratory Committee two weeks ago, I’ve been reaching out to Democratic activists and leaders throughout the 5th Congressional District, and speaking to Democratic gatherings and meetings about my work at the State House, and my positions on federal issues.
It has been rewarding to share my vision for Congressional leadership across the district, but my favorite event so far was a Lawrence Community Works event that celebrated ten women receiving their graduation certificate for an anti-poverty program called the Individual Development Account (IDA) program. I helped to fund this program last year, and it allows poor families to save money that is matched by the state and federal government, and can then be used to buy a home, start a business, or pay college tuition. It was amazing to listen to the graduates talk about how the IDA program had helped transform their lives and restored their faith in other human beings. I even got to speak to the group in Spanish, telling the graduates, “El gobierno puede cambiar la vida de las personas, y ustedes aqui son ejemplos de eso.” I’m working right now on doubling the funding for this innovative, successful state program in the state’s FY08 budget.
Beyond my personal outreach, I am excited and honored to have such a tremendous campaign staff on board with me. Each member of my staff has extensive experience working in grassroots campaigns, and electing progressive politicians – sometimes against the odds. I am busy putting together volunteers for the campaign and fundraising, if the seat should open up.
In the meantime, I would appreciate any and all feedback from bloggers, on the issues you most want to hear about and your experiences about how to run a successful campaign as a progressive without establishment consultants, or anything else that would be helpful. I can be reached at james@RepEldridge.com, and I encourage you to check out my State Representative website, www.RepEldridge.com. I will do my best to respond to your comments on the blogs.
And any suggestions on where a 6’5″ former high school basketball player can buy a great suit will be much appreciated as well – I need to upgrade a bit! I know we, and I mean WE, can win this campaign together, and I sincerely ask for you support, your council, and your help in this endeavor.
Thank you,
Jamie Eldridge
Buy a suit? Nah. Hire a tailor. It’s a sound investment.
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So is hiring a photographer, so that you have professional digital and film shots. Good shots. Interesting shots. Maybe even more than “I’ve got a head and most/all of my teeth” shots. Make them easily available on your web site, and through your press folks. Make sure they’re in all sorts of common resolution/sizes, so that you always look good.
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Looking good won’t win. Looking lousy can help lose. I know, it doesn’t sound very progressive, and if you’re tight on budget like I am, it will make you cringe to shed that kind of dough. But, methinks it will be worth it.
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You’ll win on message. Don’t lose on sloppiness.
I heard about the Individual Development Account program this winter, and it sounds like a great idea. Help people with low incomes save more money, promote sound investment and allow them to create wealth, a great meld of conservative and liberal goals to create a very progressive policy.
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Since you’re working on getting this program expanded this year, why don’t you tell us more about it? Regardless of whether you become a Congressman or not, I think Blue Mass Group readers would appreciate reading about this program and I suspect many of us would advocate for expanding it.
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Would you write another post here, giving an easy to digest outline of how the program works, some examples of how it has been used, and what help you could use as you try to expand it?
I’m happy to explain the Individual Development Account (IDA) program more, and why it has been such a pragmatic model for helping the working poor create equity and join the middle class.
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The IDA model is in many ways similar to the concept of microlending – providing capital to poor families that allow them to improve their standard of living by using the additional money for the specific purposes of starting a business, going to college, or buying a home.
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The IDA program has existed in the U.S. for decades, and many community development corporations (CDCs)and housing authorities have had IDA programs in Massachusetts for many years. To learn more about all of the IDA programs in the state, visit Massachusetts IDA Solutions (MIDAS) at http://www.massassets.org.
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The basic IDA model program connects a poor family with a local non-profit or CDC that first enrolls the family members in a financial training class, to help educate individuals on how to save money. Then, the community organization opens up a bank account with the family, who starts saving money in the account. The community organization, through private donations, federal and now state money, that family’s savings are matched (usually 3 or 4 to 1), significantly increasing the family’s savings.
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That savings account can then be used by the family to buy a house, start a business, or go to college.
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At Lawrence Community Works last week, most of the IDA program graduates were using their savings to buy their first homes, but some of the women were starting a business in their new homes, or attending community college. The graduates who spoke were very emotional about how their lives had changed for the better through the program, and the connections they’d made with the other members of the IDA program.
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What I think is most significant about this program beyond the hope that it brings to its participants is the opportuntiy that is created through IDAs. For most Americans, owning a home is the ticket to not only financial stability, but also the chance to go to college. Many Americans borrow the money to go to college against the value of their homes, and the IDA program makes this possible.
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In terms of advocacy, in my discussions with Governor Patrick’s Housing and Economic Development Secretary David O’Connell, he is supportive of doubling last year’s $500,000 funding for statewide IDA programs, which was my request to House Ways and Means Committe Chairman Robert Deleo when I met with him last week. I am working directly with the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC), the Mass. CAP Agencies, and MIDAS to advocate for this budget increase, and help bring more families into the middle class.
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I hope that helps, and thanks for your interest.
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– Jamie
Jamie has been our state representative from Lunenburg For the past five years. It would be our tremendous loss but the State’s and the country’s enormous gain were Jaimie elected to Congress. Even in our fairly conservative town, Jamie has won every election against some well funded, very active Republicans. He is clear on the issues and is not afraid to take strong progressive stands.
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I hope everyone from the 5th Congressional District takes a good look at Jamie’s record. He is the true progressive candidate and we need to get behind him from the start.
Jamie was a real asset to Deval Patrick’s campaign, as well as Tim Murray’s campaign. As Jamie mentioned we worked together organizing the Middlesex and Worcester District. The first Deval Patrick canvass in the state for 2006 was organized by Jamie in March and held at his home. He hosted phone banks at his house and canvassed all over the district. He was persuasive and effective in all his efforts. In mid-summer, after a long day in session, he came out to Worcester to join me in speaking at a Deval Patrick field meeting, followed by an even later meeting at Tim Murray’s headquarters, late into the evening. Just last month we spend five evenings together writing thank you notes to volunteers. And he did all this while he had his own race.
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Please join me in welcoming Jamie to blogging here on BMG.
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Kate
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I think you’ve got quite a few people’s attention right now.
The Commonwealth would be fortunate to have Jamie Eldridge elected to Congress. His energy, vision and proven record as a legislator who looks beyond himself to support progressive democratic legislation and aspiring candidates are credible factors for supporting his run for Congress.
Representative Eldridge, you’ve had some great accomplishments, both personally and in the legislature, and you are the kind of progressive populist that can help transform the Democratic Party.
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I wish you the best of luck and I’d definitely be interested in volunteering if the campaign happens.
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I was born and raised in the 5th, so this election is important to me personally.
Centralized service delivery for people with developmental disabilities?
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Deinstitutionalization has been wonderful for many people with DD, but there is a small population that is multiply handicapped, medically fragile or behaviorally involved – who really can benefit from living in a campus like setting. We do have afoot in Massachusetts a number of vendor advocates (former family advocates who are now service providers) who are pushing to close these campuses down and shoehorn these fragile people into ill-considered group homes, all in the name of mainstreaming.
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Unfortunately, there are studies that detail a 72% mortality rate for these fragile folks, particularly when they are either non-ambulatory, non-verbal, and incontinent. Sometimes, the least restrictive, most appropriate setting is a campus…rather than a group home on a busy main street.
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so…tell me what you think about this issue.
When I found out that Jamie was considering a run at the Congressional seat that Meehan may be leaving I was very pleased as it would now mean that Jamie would cover my Town also. Even though he is in the adjoining district I have gotten to know Jamie quite well as he is interested in the surrounding communities as well as what happened within his own Rep District. As already quoted a great loss to his district but a great win for MA in WA if elected to Congress.