First, the State Party improved the available information enormously over previous years. Note that seating arrangements, and dormitory rooms for $25.00 a night were available, with the information online.
In terms of creature comforts, this was the best convention I have attended, with free parking, well organized disability support, and plentiful food that even accommodated gluten free diets. Kudos to John Walsh, Stacy Monahan, Glorabell Mota, and the wonderful interns and volunteers who transported and picked up delegates who needed wheelchairs, interpreted for those who needed sign language, and so much more.
As to the results, Steve Grossman was nominated for the Treasurer by the convention; he pooled well over 3000 votes to his opponents barely more than 500 (both candidates will be on the ballot as the non-nominated candidate polled 15.24%)
There is no endorsed candidate for State Auditor. Susanne Bump received 1568 votes, Guy Glodis received 1518 votes, and Mike Lake received somewhat over 900 votes – so all three will be on the ballot.
In the interests of full disclosure, I voted for Steve Grossman and Mike Lake, having decided for whom to vote at the Convention itself. I was moved by the video presentations combined with the stump speeches of the candidates; in both cases I felt I gleaned insights into life stories and plans for how to fulfill the offices sought of which I approved.
In Steve Grossman’s story and presentation, he made clear he planned to be a team player, with the Governor “like a CEO” and the treasurer “like a CFO” – a team with no silos.
In Mike Lake’s story and presentation, I became aware that Mike’s father had died when he was in elementary school, and he had grown up fast, and taken responsibility rather than feeling sorry for himself as some might do. The concept of energy audits, and use of technology to function at a state and regionalized level is very appealing.
Governor Patrick and Lt. Gov. Murray were unanimously endorsed for a second term to finish getting the job done.
lightiris says
Grossman and Lake. As I’m in the 1st Worcester district, we were knee-deep in Glodis territory, but Lake did just fine with 8 out of 9 delegates from my delegation casting their votes for him. (No one there was surprised at that, given that we’re the most liberal town committee in the senate district.) At any rate, we’re looking forward to working for Patrick & Murray, Grossman, and Lake. Should be a fun ride.
tyler-oday says
I would have voted for Grossman and Glodis.
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p>Two Men who would do great things for our commonwealth
ryepower12 says
the improvements were great — a huge coupe for the $25 rooms (I’ll do that next year, if the state party can manage to make that sort of arrangement again)…
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p>but it would be great if the state put up the parking prices next to the information they provide for where to park nearby. There were two garages next to the DCU and, unbeknown to me, the one I didn’t go to was free. It was a minor gripe (the one I went to was only $10), but it’s just useful information I didn’t think to check out first.
ryepower12 says
my favorite story from the night: the charter amendments passed. The party has finally moved fully in the direction of GLBT equality and it deserves a lot of credit for its actions today.
kathy says
My district includes an interesting mix: Boston Ward 1 (East Boston/North End), Cambridge Wards 1,2, and 3, and Revere and Winthrop. Lots of Murphy votes for auditor-rumor had it that Menino picked up the phone right before the vote. I think the Labor vote was split between Glodis and Bump, and Cambridge voted overwhelmingly for Grossman and Lake. Lake came to our CDCC meeting back in May.
kathy says
sabutai says
My current theory is that Grossman will get more public financing because he has a primary “challenge” now the Murphy is on the ballot. Since Murphy isn’t going to win short of a complete Grossman implosion, Murphy’s presence on the ballot effectively gives Grossman more money to combat the Republican nominee.
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p>And Barbara Grossman’s a pretty good dancer, too.
stomv says
Two gripes:
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p>1. Free parking. Parking should not be free. Unfree parking encourages carpooling, something which makes particular sense for a convention where everybody knows the names and phone numbers of their fellow conventiongoers from the same city/town/ward. This is particularly true for a venue which has commuter rail available within walking distance.
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p>2. Recycling. Erm… where was it? There was plenty of paper worthy of being recycled, and the venue sold plastic bottles of lemonade, tea, etc. There is simply no excuse for not having a containers recycling bin and a paper recycling bin next to every trash bin in the arena.
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p>For Pete’s sake, recycling isn’t modern like offsetting all the electricity with wind power (which was done). Recycling is decades old, and we all know how to do it.
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p>
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p>The convention is attended by lots of local government decision makers — town meeting members, city aldermen and councilors, mayors, selectmen, and of course state level politicians. Reinforcing good public policy and social behavior — such as pricing to encourage carpooling/mass transit and recycling bins — can only help in getting more widespread support in implementing these sorts of policies across the Commonwealth. That it’s the right thing to do in it’s own right is also worth noting.
kathy says
I couldn’t believe the amount of trash the convention generated. They should have made an attempt to recycle all the plastic bottles.
sabutai says
I guess overall things went smoothly. However, it’s telling that none of the auditor candidates wanted a second round. If a voting method is so delayed that nobody wants to engage in the process, the method must be changed.
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p>There are 40 Senate districts. 40 bargain-basement PDAs (or cell phones) could have a spreadsheet pre-loaded with delegates’ names. Record the votes that way, download em onto a computer, and your count is done. No more waiting an hour. If you’re willing to do this with tellers’ own technology, you could do it for the price of a few hours of volunteer work. If you want the party to control the technology, it shouldn’t run more than $750.
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p>If that’s too expensive, here’s a crazy idea…get the tellers’ cell phone numbers. They call in attendance and vote counts, and deliver the paper afterward in case of challenges. Plus, the whole arena doesn’t have to hear about which district hasn’t reported in yet.
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p>Food wasn’t bad. I have no grudge with free parking to go with a $75 delegate fee. It’s a shame so conventiongoers have such fragile egos that they feel a need to show-off by ostentatiously shmoozing while there are speakers.
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p>
yellowdogdem says
But PDA’s wouldn’t leave a paper trail. In the Convention itself, the votes and checked and re-checked, and the actually tally sheets go to the count room where they are checked and re-checked once again. And believe it or not, there are always errors picked up in the counting room, enough to make a difference. The system may be time-consuming and cumbersome, but it works and there’s no question of foul play.
stomv says
I’ve always assumed that there is foul play. This time though a candidate got just a few dozen votes north of 15%. Four years ago, the same thing happened.
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p>Maybe I’m just cynical of party machinations, but I guess I’d ask: why shouldn’t I assume that there is no foul play now?
sabutai says
With several whips hanging over the shoulder of every teller, foul play is possible?
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p>Do you think the Glodis campaign is combing the records right now? Would they even be allowed?
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p>If we must continue a pretense of a paper trail, the teller can record votes in two places.
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p>In any case, the system does not work. It produces a result so slowly that nobody wants to use it! If the system worked, there’d have been a second ballot for Auditor. But Bump and Glodis decided not to call for one, because the system is so broken it’s not worth using.
christopher says
…that the Glodis (or any campaign) is allowed to take a look at the teller books.
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p>I’ve wondered about setting up microphones at each district like they do at the national conventions and have the tellers announce each vote out loud (preferably minus the litany of all the things the district is proud of).
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p>Also, does anybody know what took 2nd Suffolk (B) so long to turn in their book?
sabutai says
Our district was announced as running late even though we turned in our book 20 minutes ago. Don’t know what the deal with that was.
yellowdogdem says
Every campaign had a whip in every district recording the actual votes, and every campaign had one or two representatives in the counting room in direct communication with their boiler room and access to the numbers recorded by their whips. There are checks and re-checks throughout the process. All I’m pointing out is that, in our primary and general elections, people are fearful of electronic voting and computer manipulation. At our Democratic conventions, we have a solid paper trail that guarantees that there is no manipulation. Isn’t that what we want in real elections?
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p>As for Bump and Glodis deciding not to call for a second ballot because the system is broken and not worth using, what is your evidence? I can guarantee that, in each campaign, there were serious discussions about what would happen if they went for a second ballot — whose delegates were more likely to stay, who would Lake’s delegates go for. Think about the Lake delegate question — would they go for Glodis because his victory would diminish Bump, or would they go for Bump because she is closer politically to Lake? Who knows? Going for a second ballot would be a huge gamble for either Bump or Glodis, and they obviously believed that it wasn’t in their best interests to do so.
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p>And people were streaming out of the Convention. Remember, many delegates came for Patrick-Murray, many came for Grossman or Murphy, and many came because they committed to one of the Auditor candidates. A second ballot, whatever the outcome, would never be as representative as the initial ballot. Now perhaps the Democratic Party should emulate the City of Cambridge and go for proportional representation voting, but, as I recall, Cambridge results in any municipal PR election are always just about the last results in the Commonwealth. No system is perfect, but I think that the Mass Dems have it just about as good as possible.
stomv says
is probably worth it’s own BMG thread, given the number of folks here who both (a) attended and (b) have a good sense of technology.
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p>I agree that it ought be better, though no idea I’ve heard seems to be free of it’s own set of problems…
mike_cote says
Does anyone know what the deal was with the whistler who targeted Steve Grossman at the beginning of his speech? I voted more “against Murphy” than “for Grossman”, but this was so out of left field that I am a curious.
kathy says
I missed that, but someone told me it was a Code Pink disruption.
stomv says
I saw her being escorted out. Had to do with Grossman and AIPAC, though I don’t know the details of Grossman’s alleged relationship with AIPAC or why that bothered this particular Code Pink member, who appeared to have “Floor” credentials.
lightiris says
and she claims that Grossman is on the board of AIPAC but has not disclosed that on his website. Obviously, Code Pink is not a fan of AIPAC, to put it mildly.
greg says
To be fair, that Steven Grossman is the former chair of AIPAC and currently sits on their board is more than just an “allegation,” it’s an undisputed fact. AIPAC advanced a far-right viewpoint on Israel/Palestine, so it’s a legitimate criticism. Whether her manner of expressing that criticism was appropriate is another story.
cl-berg-powers says
Does anyone know where I can get the full text of the resolutions we passed?
chrismatth says
Isn’t that in the newspaper “Delegate Guide” that was mailed out? If you don’t have a copy I can scan it for you.
kate says
were in the Delegate Guide.
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p>Resolutions were submitted by petition and were the last item that we discussed.
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p>They may eventually be posted on the MassDems web site.
bluestateblues says
the voting was cut off and the convention was adjourned. I’m sure we didn’t get to vote on all the resolutions.
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p>There was a mass exodus, and personally, I think it was a shame the delegates couldn’t find the energy or the time to sit through the last thing on the agenda.
kate says
But I beleive that we voted on some of them, although it is possible that I moght have misunderstood something.
bluestateblues says
but we were about to vote on one–was it re. corporate personhood?–when there was a quorum call. I don’t know if there were supposed to be others to follow.
amberpaw says
But the exodus began after the main speakers. Not sure how to motivate folks to stay for all votes; I did. But also I took this Convention in a different way. I volunteered to help other disabled folks the first day, and was off my feet, mostly, due to a bad flare up of the rheumatoid arthritis that is one of the cards I was dealt.