He released this statement earlier on his facebook page.
My name is Mac D’Alessandro and I am a Progressive Democrat running for Congress. There’s a critically important threshold we have to meet by May 4th in order to qualify for the ballot. There’s been a great initial response from people in the district to help achieve this initial goal…. We are working to build on that momentum and welcome anyone that would like to help ensure that voters in the 9th Congressional District have a choice this fall. Since I have to focus all of my energies right now on meeting the May 4th deadline, I’ll going to hold off on making a formal announcement until I qualify for the ballot and will provide additional information then.
I think it’s great that a progressive is running for this seat
It’s just too late to start gathering signatures.
It’s great. Signature drive will be tough, but there’s an army of people frustrated with Lynch who want to help out. It’s gonna be awesome.
I like to see contested elections. They strengthen our democracy.
If this guy is smart he gets in touch with organized labor and pronto. Lynch was always an asymmetrical fit for the district, but it was labor that kept him in office in spite of his right wing votes on Iraq, guns, and gay rights. Lynch really sowed the seeds of his own defeat here by pissing on the one constituency that kept him in power. If he gets in touch with them and gets their backing than we have a race. There are signatures and money pretty quickly. If he doesn’t get them in time an independent run is not entirely out of the question, Joe Moakley was able to pull it off in the same district back in 1973, and being against health care in the 21st century like Lynch is about as anti-Democratic as being against civil rights in the 70’s like Moakley’s opponent.
Mac D’Alessandro’s job is as a Political Organizer for the SEIU Union.
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p>So he’s not only a Union man, but a Union organizer.
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p>Having met and talked with him, it’s clear that personally, he’s a progressive.
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p>So I’m thinking that the combination of his Union cred, and and his progressive priorities might be the right combination to possibly win a democratic primary against Lynch, who has made both the progressives and the unions angry with him.
He knows his way around unions, and it looks like the grassroots organizers around the state are paying attention and supporting him.
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p>It’s going to be one helluva kick-ass campaign.
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p>I hope supporters on BMG who are outside the district will take a day and help with siggy drive one of these days. We have a chance here to reject the national media narrative about MA and Scott Brown (ugh).
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p>I understand an ActBlue account is imminent, too.
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p>Go get ’em Mac!!
Here is hoping we hear something from him soon here on BMG, also like I said earlier, while I am hoping for a win a loss could mean a win too. Tim Toomey was a pretty conservative state rep for Cambridge and is now one of the most consistently progressive due to the good work Avi Green did in his primary. John Kerry has been noticeably more vocally liberal since the Reilly primary (and since he gave up on ever being President). So we could end up with a better incumbent either way, it is really worth a shot, and this is a seat that is in no danger going to the Republicans.
I’ve met Mac, and he’s a great guy. I think that he’ll do this for real. And I hope he does!
Hi All:
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p>I remember Mac from the Harshbarger for Governor campaign (1998!) where we marchec in several parades together. He is a diligent worker, and I wish him all the best. Hopefully, we can elect progressives for both the 9th Congressional District and the Suffolk & Norfolk State Senate District seats.
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p>Respectfully Submitted,
Sincerely,
Wayne J. Wilson, Jr.
Progressive Democrat for State Senate
Suffolk & Norfolk State Senate District