Ellen Story, the rep who yelled and screamed against Finneran more than anyone because she felt decisions in the House were made by a select few.
She’s also a full blooded liberal who before yesterday’s vote was strongly opposed to casino gambling.
Well guess what? She is leadership now. And my god she deserves it. Screw that, she should be speaker. I mean this chick knows how to wheel and deal. Must be what she picked up from those rough and tumble streets of Amherst.
Here’s a recent quote from this future Profile in Courage Award Winner’s.
After 17 years of being on the outside, I finally have a seat at the table,” said Rep. Ellen Story, one of DeLeo’s four division leaders. “I’m part of the group of eight people that meets with him two hours every week, and this bill was going to pass. And for me to vote a symbolic and meaningless ‘no’ seemed like a foolish thing to do on my part. I think I bring something to the table in these small meetings, and there are other issues besides gambling that I care very much about.”Story said, “Since the speaker has been here, there have been no consequences for anybody who did not vote with the speaker. My sense is that this is the bill he has cared about more than any other bill. My sense is that there may well be consequences for people voting against this bill, particularly people in his inner circle.”
Hey you lefty wing nuts out there – she’s one of yours’ you know.
So I can promote.
http://www.ryanstake.net/2010/…
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p>It’s SHNS, so there’s no link, but it’s an April 14th article.
Any progressive democrat who runs against her in the primary and is really willing to run a real campaign, pissed off about her appalling hypocrisy, I am willing to go out there for a few days to help with signatures, etc., if needed, provided you can find me a couch to sleep on… lol.
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p>This type of behavior cannot be allowed to stand. This sort of thing goes above and beyond even casinos; if special interests, backroom deals and the Speaker controls things, this is not a democracy. We must hold them accountable.
150 signatures before the deadline is not impossible, but an opponent would need to work hard to get them.
at Town Meeting, 2-3 days of canvassing, or a few days of standing outside the supermarket… or less than that if you get a few supporters to help.
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p>No doubt it’s challenging, no doubt it’s a late start to the campaign, but almost anyone can do that.
I’m sure there are dozens of reps who voted for the bill for the same reason Story did. Most of them are too chicken (or perhaps too smart) to admit that’s the reason to the press. Instead they’ll hide behind the weak excuse about how the recession made them change their mind, since we really need the jobs now and didn’t need them then. (That line of reasoning should make us conclude that we should close the casinos once the economy improves. I won’t be holding my breath for anyone to do that though.)
Its not about jobs. If it was, they could have delayed the closing of the dog tracks and saved those jobs.
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p>Its not about the casinos. They are years away. The jobs from the casino will not help out the people who need them now. The casinos are for the Governor. He wants them.
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p>Its all about the slots and a payoff for the tracks. This has been DeLeo’s goal and he has played his hand very well.
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p>I hope Rep Story likes her time at the table. I hope its short-lived. She has sold out her constituents for her own position. The good people of Amherst are smart and I trust them to do the right thing in September or November.
among whom I count myself, are more concerned with the brutal budget that House Ways and Means has proposed for UMass (something like a 20% cut in state support). If Ellen can use her position in the leadership to do something about this, she will have got a decent price for her soul.
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p>I would advise you not to gamble anything you can’t afford to lose on the proposition that she will be successfully challenged this fall.
the other municipality in Ellen’s district, are happy with her. She’s approachable and accessible and has done well by us.
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p>She was back-benched by Finneran and basically cut off bringing anything home to her district when she voted her conscience before. Like it or not, casinos are a done deal. Ellen loses nothing but some ideological purity with her support. And her opposition wouldn’t have counted for much.
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p>Amherst is also represented by Stan Rosenberg. Where’s your scorn for his casino support? He’s much more powerful than Ellen.
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p>My guess is that Ellen has faith that he’ll bring something from the senate side that she and the legislature will eventually sign on to and that her constituents will be happy with.
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p>Ernesto, you congratulated DeLeo (albeit sarcastically) for his realpolitik on casinos. Why not give Ellen a little credit?
Stop fooling yourself, or condoning bad behavior. There is still a lot of things that have to be worked out before the bill passes, and neither the Senate nor the Governor is likely to support a bill with racinos, and I doubt they’d support a bill which just gave free cash to race tracks (DeLeo’s “compromise.”)
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p>Ellen betrayed her principals and constituents by voting in favor of a really bad bill, even for a slots bill. It’s a special interest bailout to Bob DeLeo’s best political friends and she should be ashamed. If a few more people, including her, stood up to the Speaker, there could have been a much different conclusion.
been her being unable to serve her constituents in the future. Been there, done that. The bill went through her chamber without a problem and would have done so without a problem had she stood against it. Sprinkle progressive pixie dust and push the activist easy button all you like, but I live in Ellen’s district. We wouldn’t be served by vainglorious gestures of myopic idealism.
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p>It’s not what comes out from the House, but what gets hammered out between the senate and house that eventually matters. Ernie pointed this out at one point: DeLeo couldn’t lose by pushing racinos (even if they’re eventually dropped in the eventual legislation).
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p>To support my original comment:
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p>Murray’s not talking, but it’s clear the senate isn’t lockstep with the house. We know Patrick’s opposed. Call Ellen out all you want. The good people of Amherst and Granby are happy with her work.
Everyone always loves their Representative and hates all the others. I know Story is a great person and normally great on the issues, but I just don’t think weak-kneed reactions to a powerful Speaker should go unpunished. If the otherwise-best-and-brightest get punished for their actions, it suddenly makes it much harder for anyone else to just do the Speaker’s bidding. I honestly don’t have anything personal against Story, other than her lack of courage. My last state rep was one of the few who stood up against Tom Finneran when he killed campaign finance reform — something he was most certainly punished for — but it was an important stand and an important statement to make. If a few more people make those kinds of stands in government, leadership won’t be able to walk all over our reps. And so long as they can, this isn’t a real representative democracy.
Making statements and taking stands is all well and good, but it takes more than an act of political suicide to make the world a better place.
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p>How many many more votes would have been needed to defeat DeLeo’s bill? Far too many, I think, for Ellen’s vote to have more than a symbolic significance.
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p>FWIW, I think we approach the casino question from different perspectives. You’re an activist; I’m barely active. It’s easier for me to be circumspect: I’m not on the battle lines; you are. You’ll accomplish more politically than I will, I think. It comes down to a matter of pressure. If you can apply it, so much the better. As a supporter of Ellen, I’ll push back.
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p>I’m not pro-casino by any stretch of the imagination, but had this vote been on marriage equality, we’d be saying the same thing.
It’s not “an act of political suicide” if more people do it. It’s only that act if there are more Ellen Story’s out there, afraid to do the right thing.
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p>No, we wouldn’t. Had this been marriage equality, we would have voted Ellen Story out, just as Carl Sciortino ousted his old state rep and others had like him, before. The casino issue is, unfortunately, an issue that isn’t as easy to understand as marriage equality was. While it has every bit as much to do with human decency, too many don’t realize that, which provides politicians the necessary cover. Of course, if more politicians stood up for what they knew was right — and Ellen knows casinos are wrong for Massachusetts, she went ahead and said it in the quote that started this whole thing — it would be that much easier to make that case across Massachusetts.
of meeting Ellen Story a few times. I think she is a very warm person and a very progressive legislator. I am a UMass alum, her husband was a professor there, and I know she’s a great advocate for the school. I do not think she should be challenged simply for her casino vote.
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p>I supported casinos when the governor first introduced the idea. I generally support free markets and allowing all kinds of businesses in the state. However, I am now more concerned about the economic and social costs (of which many have been discussed here and elsewhere) and think casinos and slots are a bad idea.
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p>I was surprised to hear of Story’s vote on this, but hopefully UMass Amherst will be getting something in return for her support.
Had she been against marriage equality, I would have voted against her if there were a reasonable opponent.
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p>I don’t know if I missed your point or you missed mine. Sure, it’s not an act of political suicide if a lot of people do it. But the fact is that they didn’t. Yet here you’ve only got Ellen Story in front of the firing squad. Where’s your outrage for the other 119 people?
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p>I hope you’re not like Ernie assuming a progressive has to be ideologically pure and uninvolved in the reality of politics. That’s a recipe for progressive marginalization and failure.