Blue Mass Group

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Glodis gets BUMPED to 2nd place by State Dems in Convention!

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(cross-posted at Swing State Project and Daily Kos)

This past Saturday at the DCU Center in Worcester, more than 3,500 Massachusetts Democrats gathered for their annual party convention and to vote for their candidate of choice for (among other offices) Massachusetts State Auditor.

Going into the convention, Worcester County Sheriff Guy Glodis was seen as having a huge advantage. Not only was he on his home court, Glodis also had more than eight times as much money in his campaign bank account than both of his opponents combined.

Despite his long and very troubling record in public service ( http://bluemassgroup.com/d… ), Glodis was expected by pundits and political prognosticators to dominate the convention vote, possibly shutting one or both of his rivals out from ballot access by denying them the 15% of the vote they needed to advance to a primary.

And than something funny happened. On Saturday, Glodis lost.

http://www.boston.com/news/loc…

In an upset that almost no one, including the candidate herself was expecting, Suzanne Bump defeated Glodis by 18 votes in the very first round of voting.

So who, you might ask, is Suzanne Bump? Good question.

Suzanne Bump is a former State Labor Secretary in Governor Deval Patrick’s administration. Before that, she was an influential State Legislator who left to do a stint in the private sector before  joining the Patrick administration. Suzanne is also a committed progressive activist in Massachusetts politics- she came out of political retirement in 2006 to co-chair Deval Patrick’s campaign for Governor, back when he was the longest of long shots trying to challenge the sitting State AG in the primary.

While in the legislature, Bump chaired the Commerce and Labor Committee, and authored a sweeping 1991 law reforming the state worker’s comp system. While the pre-1991 system was seen as one of the most troubled in the country, the new system that Suzanne helped create has become a model for other states looking to reform their own systems.

As Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development in Governor Deval Patrick’s administration, Suzanne led a secretariat of six agencies and more than 1,500 people. Among other things, Suzanne led the fight for more than new 11,000 summer jobs for youths, secured funding for a new, modern computerized system for administering the State’s unemployment insurance program, and managed to reduce the timeframe for settling labor disputes from 2-3 years to 2-3 months.

In the end, Glodis’ machine and his money couldn’t save him from defeat at the hands of a candidate who possessed the two things he lacks: strong progressive values, and a record of accomplishment and reform.

Still, even with this setback, Glodis received more than enough delegate votes to be on the ballot in September. The primary will certainly be a battle, as Glodis’ bank account will keep him competitive in a race that he otherwise shouldn’t be. The non-crazy vote will be spit two ways as well, between Bump and another candidate, Mike Lake, a young former Clinton administration official who got 25% at the nominating convention this weekend is running as an outsider and has “up-and-comer” written all over him.

There is even some talk in the press that Glodis may have ordered some of his delegates to vote for Lake, just to make sure that he cleared the 15% hurdle needed to be on the primary ballot, according to Boston Phoenix Reporter David Bernstein ( http://twitter.com/dbernstein ).

One thing is for sure- this will be a fun primary to watch.

FYI: I thought I should add, I am a Bump supporter, and voted for her as a delegate to the convention.

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Comments

  1. You describe one of the candidates as

    Mike Lake, a young former Clinton administration official

    yet my understanding, from reading other threads on BMG, is that he worked in the Bush White House.

    <

    p>Also, you speculate that

    Glodis may have ordered some of his delegates to vote for Lake

    although this notion seems to have been dispelled here on BMG. At least, that’s my take.

    <

    p>fwiw

  2. who left to do a stint in the private sector

    <

    p>Better known as being a lobbyist for the insurance industry:

    <

    p>

    Professional Experience:
    Assistant Vice President, Law and Government Relations, American Insurance Association
    Regional Vice President, General Counsel, Citigroup

    <

    p>http://www.votesmart.org/bio.p…

    <

    p>and

    <

    p>

    Before that, she was an influential State Legislator

    <

    p>Who is proud of leading this legisative success:

    <

    p>

    Five years later, however, the Massachusetts economy entered a downturn. Business groups, exaggerating the burden of insurance premiums and threatening to leave the state, demanded rollbacks in worker benefits.

    In 1991, in a shameful display of blaming the victim, the legislature:

    • Reduced the total-disability benefit rate to 60% of wages
    • Shortened the duration of total-disability benefits to three years
    • Reduced the partial-disability benefit rate by 10%
    • Shortened the duration of partial-disability benefits to five years
    • Eliminated payments for the first five days of disability (except for extended injuries)
    • Eliminated benefits for scarring other than on the face, neck and hands
    • Reduced cost-of-living benefits
    • Eliminated certain injuries from coverage

    <

    p>http://www.workrightspress.com…

    <

    p>How do we know Bump is proud of her 1991 workers comp reform (from her website):

    <

    p>

    When she was House chairman of the Commerce and Labor Committee, she addressed a crisis that was crippling economic growth – skyrocketing worker’s compensation insurance costs. As principal author of a sweeping 1991 law, she took on the entrenched interests that were benefitting from the status quo.

    <

    p>http://suzannebump.com/?l=about

    <

    p>Sorry but a pro-Patrick convention with a progressive base attending the convention and Bump barely gets a victory over Glodis? And 900 delegates vote for the real progressive in the race – Mike Lake, leaves a result that Bump and Michael Goldman can spin til the cows come home but is still a bad showing for Bump.

    <

    p>As a Glodis supporter I know his operation wasn’t giving votes to Lake. The reality is he wasn’t that well organized. Lake earned those votes and deserves the full recognition for that success.

    • what a surprise.

      <

      p>You seem to admire Mike Lake quite a bit. Why don’t you tell us why you feel Glodis is the better choice?

    • Tell me, Striker57, one thing that Mike Lake has done for the labor movement.  Tell me anything that Mike Lake has in common with blue collar workers.  Just be honest and tell us why we should support your candidate, Guy Glodis, but stop trying to undermine Glodis’s only legitimate opponent, Suzanne Bump, by pumping up Lake.  For crying out loud, Striker57, you are a union guy, a union leader I believe, and you know Suzanne Bump, and you know where her heart is, and you know that Mike Lake can’t tell the differece between a picket line and a chorus line.

    • <

      p>Really this fake “I Like Mike” crap needs to end. If you’re so damn concerned about the real progressive why support the least progressive candidate in the race?

      <

      p>Glodis wasn’t that organized? He’s been calling delegates for months. I get more junk mail from him than I do from LL Bean. He was canvassing delegates all week.

      <

      p>He did everything but forward me racist emails and insult my lesbian friends.

      <

      p>

  3. I remember Suzanne Bump was walking around at the convention this weekend with her entourage and I was wearing a Lake sticker and they pointed and laughed at me in front of her saying Lake wouldn’t make the ballot. I wasn’t even there for Lake (I was working for Martha) but seriously that was somewhat unprofessional and Bump should have said something to them.

    <

    p>Even though I do think Lake is much more qualified and would make a fantastic auditor if it starts to look like Lake is going to be a spoiler letting Glodis win then I will change my vote to bump. Glodis is just awful.

    • Nobody I met in Bump’s camp was laughing at the prospect of Lake making the ballot, and I saw pretty much everybody. Amazing Bump was able to pull through if her “entourage” was busy laughing at the hundreds of delegates wearing Lake stickers. Are you sure you aren’t conflating memories of the convention with a bad experience that happened to you in seventh grade? It kind of seems like that might be the case.

      • Tone check, stat!

        <

        p>

        Are you sure you aren’t conflating memories of the convention with a bad experience that happened to you in seventh grade?

        <

        p>With few exceptions around here, it really isn’t cool to suggest someone is either mentally unstable or lying when they write something you don’t like.  

        <

        p>Settle down there, cowboy….

        • is when somebody comes on and makes vague slighting attacks on a candidate’s alleged lack of character about a total non-issue in a thinly veiled attempt at soft character assassination

          <

          p>Candidates do not have “entourages” at the convention, they have staff advancing them and they have supporters they’re hanging around with casually at any given moment.

          <

          p>Candidates have neither the obligation, nor the privilege, to go around admonishing supporters for their minor faux pas, if tacky behavior even takes place. Suzanne is a candidate for Auditor, not a Roman Censor. Supporters are adults and deserve to be left to make their own behavior choices with the latitude we normally afford friends and acquaintances.

          <

          p>Or is it now every-one’s job to go around scolding other adults for their lack of discretion in every instance?

          <

          p>If it was staff, then that is a different case, perhaps, if Suzanne was even aware of their remarks on the loud and chaotic floor of the convention.

          <

          p>Again, this all assumes that he commenter really was singled out for derision among the many hundreds of Lake supporters in attendance, which does strike me as odd, if it occurred.  

          • Seriously, why would I just make something like that up. Not to mention that this actually occured in less chaotic area and I’m actually still a little shell shocked because I would never expect that sort of behavior out of the campaign staff surrounding the candidate. Why don’t you GROW UP, rather than attacking me.

            • and it is reasonable to wonder why. Also, I might be overreacting.

              <

              p>I still do think that the staff might have been misunderstood in this instance, since I know to a certainty that the entire staff thought Lake was going to make the ballot or was only going to miss by a small margin. Perhaps they thought they were joking around with you, not at you. I don’t know this obviously, but it is a possibility that strikes me as more likely than that the staff singled out a single Lake supporter for extended unfair derision just for the fun of it.

              <

              p>I do think the original comment make it seem like you were slighted by a bunch of “mean girls”, which strikes me as odd in that there were hundreds of Lake supporters around and the Bump staff was generally busy promoting their candidate, not playing reindeer games. Also, it is not the staff’s usual character to act that way. At least that has been my experience.

              <

              p>Still, you are entitled to your impression of the thing and to share it to try to tear down the candidate with it if you wish. So, have at it, I suppose.

              • I prefer Lake, but I think Bump would be fine and I have no intention of tearing down your candidate. I was just reporting something that happened that I saw. My preferrence would be to vote for whoever would have the best chance at getting a plurality over glodis. However, if you keep pushing this issue and inferring that I’m making the whole thing up then I will be more inclined to vote for Lake.  

                • I regret that I have compounded your negative experience at the Convention with respect to SB supporters.

                  <

                  p>Bloggy communication is imperfect. In my blogging experience, I have often misconstrued other blog personae and I have often been misconstrued. And I have watched other people do the same amongst themselves. Apparently, I misread your original comment and I regret my mistake. I took your nominally pro-SB remarks to be a put-on. My cynicism is based on seeing many commenters falsify their intentions to disguise their true agenda and slyly promote their point of view.

                  <

                  p>Perhaps I am becoming paranoid at this point.

                  <

                  p>I hope that you will encounter SB campaign people, including the candidate in the future, and I hope that your future interaction is positive, so positive that you wind up as a supporter despite your negative experiences so far.

                  <

                  p>Peace.

                • You’ve done a great job posting here, and your contributions have shed more light than heat. We all tend to get caught up in the passions of the moment, and you are no exception, though on the whole I think you have tried to be dispassionate (as much as you can be) and share the facts with us.

                  <

                  p>I have known Suzanne for 10+ years, and your comments resonate with me.

                  <

                  p>Keep on pluggin’!

  4. I can tell you I was at the convention and all the candidates and their teams seemed to be on their best behavior. People were very cordial to those in other camps, and I think that speaks well for us compared to the Baker folks at the Republican convention who strong armed delegates to make sure Mihos stayed off the ballot.
    If you are correct and someone did something say something stupid to you, shame on them.
    The fact is that the the Bump camp had to realize that as soon as the Glotis camp figured out she was going to get her 15%, they were going to make sure that Lake got his votes also.
    There was zero chance of him not making it, so someone had to be both  STUPID as well as RUDE to have said that to you.

    • When Bump walked by me she actually came off as a very nice, kind, sweat, lovely lady. I actually liked Bump’s personality a lot. Its the two idiots that were walking behind her that need to get reprimanded.

      <

      p>The sad thing about this primary is that when chosing who to vote for, I can’t really even consider Bump’s or Lake’s resumes I have to think about whoever can get the plurality over Glodis. I mean this guy is just awful with his multiple financial scandals not to mention he is a flaming racist and homophobe. This is not the guy I want to be responsible for making sure waste, fraud, and abuse are kept out of state programs. I recently graduated from college with a major in Accounting and know how vital the position of auditor is in massachusetts. Glodis is not the type of person who I want in that position. Bump or Lake would be just fine on the other hand.

  5. I am not surprised that all three made the ballot.  I committed to Glodis a long time ago and do not subscribe to the “vote for Lake” conspiracy theories.

    <

    p>I think what vaulted Bump to first place was the DeNucci endorsement.  The man is universally loved throughout the party and served admirably for 24 years as Auditor.

    <

    p>I commend all three candidates for agreeing not to go to a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th ballot.  A lot of delegates left after the first ballot and it would have been a long time until anyone got 50% plus 1.

    <

    p>All in all, it’s going to be a very lively campaign season in this race.  I still think Guy Glodis is the best candidate.

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