UHub's got the scoop on the latest state rep primary challenge:
State Rep. Mike Rush could face opposition this fall because he never returned a constituent's phone call.
Pamela Julian of Brookline says she called Rush to try to enlist his support for a bill that would let high-school and college students register to vote right at their schools; she's director of Associated Students of Massachusetts, which is pushing the bill. Rush never called her back and she says she started getting upset and looking at Rush's voting record and so she was down in front of the Starbucks on Centre Street in West Roxbury on Saturday collecting signatures to get on the September Democratic primary ballot.
I don't know anything about Julian; certainly we'd like to hear about her if she'd care to post about herself and her candidacy. Pamela, you out there?
Anyway, only two of the seventeen precincts in that district are in Brookline; there may be a cultural/regional divide for her to bridge.
In any event, does her criticism hold water? Is Rush taking his gig seriously? Does he have a bunch of sponsored bills next to his name? Well … no. (By comparison, check out Carl Sciortino. Or Marty Walz, say. Or Marty Walsh, for that matter.)
Students are already allowed to register to vote at their high school. At least I was. This was a few years back, but if a student wanted to register to vote, he or she would go down to the guidance office, the secretary would help the student fill out the form, and then they’d send it over to town hall. Pretty painless.
As for Rep. Rush and Ms. Julian, sometimes calls fall through the cracks and don’t get returned. It happens in personal lives, in business, and yes, sometimes at the statehouse.
Election Day Registration or Same Day Voter Registration would allow students (or any other eligible voters) to register at the polls when they vote by showing proper identification and signing an affidavit. It’s already been successfully implemented in ten states and wouldn’t put much additional burden on poll workers since we have to do basically the same thing for inactive voters. States with Election Day Registration have, on average, twelve percent higher turnout than those that do not.
to announce you’re running for office because you felt personally slighted by the incumbent?
…that Rush had the second worst voting record.
had she not been ‘slighted’
much better in my opinion than because the rep disagrees with you on your particular issue. She is running because her rep does not show constituents the basic respects that the job requires.
much better in my opinion than because the rep disagrees with you on your particular issue. She is running because her rep does not show constituents the basic respects that the job requires.
much better in my opinion than because the rep disagrees with you on your particular issue. She is running because her rep does not show constituents the basic respects that the job requires.
but the third time was the charm!
her state rep wasn’t doing the job she expected of him. Maybe most people would have said “oh well,” and just gave up. She decided to run.
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p>I find it funny when people criticize those who think their state reps aren’t doing a good job, telling them “well, if you don’t like what they’re doing, then you run” … and, finally when we have a case where someone indeed isn’t happy with her state rep’s job performance and IS running, she’s criticized for running because of those reasons. Hypocrisy.
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p>The bottom line is if state reps faced challenges more often from people who weren’t happy with their job performance, then we’d have a much better state legislature.
But she’s going to need to make this about “our state representative is uninterested in and unresponsive to our concerns.” Right now, many people hear it as “our state representative didn’t return my phone call.”
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. “Many people” can’t name their state rep, let alone have heard of this challenger.
that’s why we have them =)
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p>Let the best woman or man win.
Honesty is a virtue. The other issues just fall into place when you have a state rep. that doesn’t follow up.
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p>Representative should pay attention to details!
You have to return constuients phone calls. maybe not right away. But you do.
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p>I don’t care about ‘sponsored bills”. I care about the meat and potato stuff. Like returning voters phone calls.
I have sent a number of e-mails to his office on a number of different issues, and have never even received a robo reply. I got much better response from my past reps (Malia & Sanchez). Come to think of it, I don’t think I have seen him participate in the Roslindale Day parade, although it seems that every other politician around here does including our State Senator Marian Walsh — perhaps he doesn’t think enough of his district is in Roslindale to make it worth the trouble.
The excellent MassScorecard:
http://massscorecard.org/MA-20…
Ugh.
Choices are good in a democracy!
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p>Participation makes our party and the commonwealth stronger.