From the MassDems website:
Traditionally, there are three ways to run for ward or town committee:
? Incumbent members of the current committee often form their own slate. Interested persons may request a place on this slate by contacting the chairperson whose name is available at the local election office in the city or town hall.
? A candidate may run on another slate.
? A candidate may run as an individual.
Ward and town committee nomination papers are “group” or “slate” papers. Though one may run as an individual, there is an advantage to running as part of a “group” or a “slate.” Massachusetts ‘s law requires that groups appear first on the ballot and candidates running as individuals appear last.
Three or more candidates on a nomination paper will be treated as a group. A paper with fewer than three names is not considered a group, and those names will appear alphabetically after the groups on the ballot.
You have to have been a party member no later than Aug 21, 2007 to qualify to pull papers. Unfortunately, the state Dem website has temporarily pulled the information of the City/Ward/Town chairs, so it’s harder to find out if there are openings on your local ward or town committee, or to try to run on a slate of existing members. *sigh*
Anyone who has any questions about this, please email me (lynne [at] leftinlowell.com – just replace [at] with an @, no spaces) and I’ll try to find out the answer. I know there were a lot of Lowell people who joined their Ward over the past two years, and expressed interest in remaining, so I do hope we can keep some of that momentum.
Edit: I’ll quote my own comment below because it’s useful info:
Ha! They pulled the link to the Ward/Town Chairs but NOT the page…well, it might be under review for accuracy or whatever, but it’s better than nothing, so here’s the link. I recommend calling your Ward/Town committee chair and seeing if there’s room on their slate. Often there is, and it makes it easy to get involved. In Lowell, everything’s by Ward (we have eleven) and you would run in that Ward to get on the Ward Committee. Find out your ward here.
Why did the state party make it harder for people to find out who their local committee chair is at the exact time when that information would be most useful to people seeking to be on the committee?
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I thought John Walsh was supposed to put an end to that kind of insiderism.
The State Democratic Party Website REALLY needs help. I am not assuming that whatever was done from malice or insiderdom but I do think that the website could be easier to navigate and updated rather more frequently. Somehow, I gather that good webmasters are not in great supply.
After the next couple of projects I have to finish, I’m always available for hire John… grin
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I suspect it might be in the works or in the plans, at least, but I’ve not heard anything more since before the special election primary…I wanted to get involved on some level in this but lots of things have intervened.
John Walsh has formed a Communications Subcommittee as an ad hoc subcommittee of the DSC. Arthur Powell of Beverly and I co-chair this committee. There is an initiative to update the current site which will be rolled out in the next few months. As we get closer to the rollout, I will have more information for you.
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In the interim, the Communications Committee has taken on the task of updating the events on the calendar page. As it happens, that effort of ensuring that this page is updated more regularly is scheduled to begin this week.
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This post gives me the opportunity to request that people who are members of Democratic groups and campaigns post your events directly on the website. It’s very easy to do. There is an approval process to make sure that events are appropriate for the purpose of the MassDems site. If you post directly, the event will have the information the way you have edited it. If it is not practical to post events direclty, please e-mail them to me and Pace Willisson at DDemDispatch-owner@yahoogroups.com. As our time permits we will cut and paste information on to the MassDems site, as will as inlcuding them in the weekly newsletter, the Democratic Dispatch.
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Lastly, if anyone wants to join the Westborough DTC, I am the chair and can be reached at KateDonaghue@aol.com or 508-404-8531.
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No offense Kate, but this could cause a perception problem as well. Why not delay the review for a couple of weeks and reactivate the link so it is easier for people to use the Mass Dem website info before Nov. 9th? Isn’t the Democratic Party about increasing participation?
Hello everyone! We’re working on some very exciting changes to the massdems.org website as Kate mentioned. Some of them will be very visible (and we think you’ll love them) but in the early stages now we are working on the behind the scenes updating and server migration that comes with renovating the website. During the migration from our old server to our new server, updates that were put onto the chairs list during the last couple of months were accidentally lost. We are in the process now of restoring that information as quickly as possible, and plan to have it back up on Monday. In the meantime, you can still access the older list at http://www.massdems….. but be advised that the information might not be fully up to date. We apologize for this inconvenience. It is one of our top priorities to maximize involvement in our local city, town and ward committees across the state. Please don’t let this small issue dissuade you. I look forward to everyones input as the process continues, and if there are any questions, concerns, or suggestions, all should feel free to contact me at agoldstein@massdems.org.
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Thanks!
Alex Goldstein
Communications Director
Massachusetts Democratic Party