Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

A State Rep Race You Should Care About

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This district is the open seat left by Rep. Finegold who is running for state Senate. To replace him with Republican Paul Adams would be to go backwards – Adams is the former Southeast Massachusetts Regional Director for the Coalition for Family and Marriage, a group dedicated to overturning civil rights for gay couples. He has “accepted campaign contributions from the president of the Massachusetts Family Institute” as well as being touted as a “great replacement” by Mass Resistance. Shockingly, he puts none of this on his website – so I am left to wonder, do voters know what they would be getting by voting for this ultra-conservative?

Obviously, Adams is out of touch with the mainstream of Massachusetts politics. But conversely, Pat Commane is a strong Democrat with great progressive values.

I met Pat during the 06 Patrick campaign, working on joint regional events – no one worked harder. She is smart, organized, articulate, and a good Democrat in the best sense of that word. I’ve kept in touch with her over the years, and I was pleased to see her jump into the race for Finegold’s old seat – I know that she would make a great state Rep for the district, as she has dedicated her life to serving, whether it’s as a Democratic activist, or helping to find jobs for the unemployed.

The problem is that her district can be a tough one and this is a close race. I know if people had a chance to meet the real Paul Adams, and meet Pat Commane, that the choice would be clear – but as you know, Republicans in our state have to run away from their record, hide their true beliefs, and pretend they are moderate, even when they are not. Let’s not make it the year that such Republicans can trick voters into electing them.

You can donate here, or volunteer here. If you know people who live in 17th Essex, please talk to them and tell them the truth about this race. This is one seat that we can’t afford to lose. There is still a chance to go backwards on all the issues we care about – even the “settled” case of gay marriage.

Note – this is a personal endorsement of Pat for 17th Essex. I am not involved in the campaign and it’s not my district, but I worry that with all the open seats happening, that we stand to see some very regressive candidates sneak through. This is my attempt to highlight one such.

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Comments

      • My bad. I must have copied from the wrong long.

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        p>Funny thing is, on second pass, I STILL was reading the wrong line! Will correct.

        • types of Mondays LOL.

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          p>I was going to write up a post on this race since I live in the district but you’ve pretty much said it better than I could hope to.

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          p>Pat would be a wonderful state representative, she is a true progressive. Just based on my observations in the district though, I am fairly concerned. It is going to be a close race for sure, but all the energy seems to be on Adams side. It would truly be a disaster were he to win this seat, he is as you say an extremely regressive Republican, cut from the extremist Tea Party cloth. The district is pretty tough, the neighborhoods in Lawrence that are a part of this district are some of the more Republican friendly parts of Lawrence. I can’t speak to Tewksbury, though Adams did very well there in the primary. This is going to be one of the closer state rep. races on election night.  

          • It’s a tough district, no doubt, and the trends of excitement in the tea party branch of the Republican party (can we stop pretending they are a bi- or non-partisan outfit now?) means voter enthusiasm could overcome voter apathy on the other side, even with the seat being held pretty easily by Finegold, who was no total conservative. (We have conservative Dem Reps in Lowell – Finegold might not have been a truly stalwart liberal on all fronts, but he was by party standards. He held his own on issues in the MA-05 race.)

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