The purpose of this post is to thank John Walsh, Stacey Monahan, Matt Kitsos, and the State Democratic Committee [SDC] for their hard work in organizing and ensuring a fair, impartial and democratic caucus for the selection of the Democratic nominee for Middlesex County Register of Probate. I noticed that Liz Morningstar and Mark Gallagher were among the volunteers who staffed at the 20 stations where delegates elected to the caucus by their home committees had to show photo ID each and every time they received a ballot [there were three ballots]. I wish I could name every one of the patient volunteers who staffed that election – there were at least 40 of them! The caucus really was well organized and impartial, and I am honored to have been a voting delegate.
Also, my thanks to David, Charley, and Bob for the support provided by BlueMassGroup [BMG] in providing a forum for the SDC to communicate with delegates, and for candidates to also communicate with delegates.
As a member of the Board of the Middlesex County Bar Association [MCBA] I began receiving calls from candidates, and potential candidates around August 20th. I suggested to each of these callers/e-mailers that they post on BMG to both introduce themselves, and provide an opportunity for potential delegates to ask them questions. I suggested that at least a third, and probably more, of the pool of potential delegates were already readers of BMG.
From comments to those delegate posts, as well as conversations at the caucus, I would say that more than 30% of the delegates to the caucus did, in fact, read the candidates posts on BMG. This was an election where the “war chest” did not matter, but rather the willingness and ability to communicate with delegates did matter. I know I made my choice among the top tier candidates based on what I read on BMG and the candidates speeches, not local politics.
So my thanks, again, for both the successful efforts of the SDC to administer the caucus in an impartial and fully credible manner, and BMG for placing the Register race in “races to watch” and thereby making all candidates posts accessible.
And thank you Amber for your hard work on this site. As for your post, very nicely done.
I was one of those signing in delegates and handling ballots (4 of them actually, not 3). Things seemed to go quite smoothly from our side of the table as well.
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p>Also, if you are going to get that Middlesex County Democratic listserv that you have mentioned started, could you announce that on BMG with subscribing instructions?
I didn’t “harvest” any e-mails at the Caucus but I can put it “up”, invite folk, and post a link. I will design it. Sounds lAfter all, from your post, you are interested.
Besides a thanks to John Walsh, the folks like Christopher handling the registration and voting did a great job.
To Walsh for standing up for the party by making clear their backing for the primary winner in Second Suffolk. Doesn’t quite make up for his antics in the US Senate primary race, but it’s a good start.