To my friends in the BMG community,
I wanted to share with you an email I sent to the members of the Democratic State Committee earlier.
Last Tuesday was a good day, but we have much to do. For those of you who are members of your local Democratic Committee, thank you. If you haven’t plugged in there yet, I hope you will.
John Walsh
– – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Fellow Democratic State Committee member,
Please allow me to apologize for the impersonal nature of this “blast” email.
I write to inform you of a decision I announced to our Executive Committee a couple days ago: I have decided to seek another term as Chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee and I would be honored to have your support at the state committee meeting in Springfield on Wednesday.
These last five years have been a time of great accomplishment for our party and a time where we have experienced significant challenges. We remain electorally strong. With Governor Patrick and Lt Governor Murray atop our all-Democratic slate of constitutional officers and with Senate President Therese Murray and Speaker Bob DeLeo at the helm of the legislature, Massachusetts is back in the leadership business – on healthcare, education, veterans services, energy conservation and clean energy policies, Massachusetts leads the nation. In Washington, John Kerry and the all-Democratic congressional delgation reinforced with the election of Joe Kennedy, III, is recognized as one of the strongest in the nation. The 2010 election of Scott Brown to the US Senate and the election of a group of Tea Party Republicans to the Massachusetts House of Representatives later that same year were serious setbacks for us. I am proud to have worked with you to reverse those results by electing Elizabeth Warren – a strong woman, finally (!) – to the US Senate last Tuesday and to begin the process of reversing the Tea Party gains in the legislature that same day.
Even so, there is more work to do and after discussion with my wife Donna, I feel I am prepared and energized to continue the work we have begun together. It will be no surprise to anyone that I believe our greatest strength is our grassroots organizers and I hope to continue to work to engage the best of them in our local Democratic town and ward committees. These 600 organizations, when they are storng, provide our best hope for success. The local faces and voices make our presence real in every neighborhood and the local wisdom they bring make our election efforts better. For those committees that are running well, we will continue to provide support, ideas and tools to take them to the next level. For those committees that need some help, we will continue to be there to assist.
In Massachusetts, we are stronger because of the depth and breadth of Democratic leadership at all levels. We benefit from our diversity and I will continue to work to see that our leadership reflects the best of all groups across the Commonwealth. We gain from the experienced wisdom of long-time party leaders and we are vigorous because we include leaders of all ages. I promise to coninue to build a strong relationship with young leaders who are at once the future of our party and at the same time stepping up today in important ways. Our success, with the growing presence of Young Democrats of Massachusetts chapters and the enthusiasm of the College Democrats of Massachusetts on a growing number of campuses, gives me hope. With the emerging corps of high school organizers, we will keep our eyes on the future.
I recognize that an important part of this job is to be accessible to the leaders of our party – elected and grassroots. I promise to continue to do my best to hear you and be responsive, to travel to all parts of the state to listen to the concerns and suggestions of Democrats throughout the Commonwelath and to build our party at all levels.
If community organizing were the only job of chairman, I’d be a happy guy. I also recognize the responsibility to raise the financial resources necessary to keep us moving forward and to articulate our message to the broader community on a consistent basis. I hope you feel I have been successful at those important tasks. I welcome your suggestions at any time.
As we move into 2013, many opportunities are on the horizon. We swear in a new US Senator, a new Congressman from the 4th District and newly elected officials at all levels. At the same time we’ll return many effective Democrats to office for another term – President Obama at the top of that list. We’ll engage in a process to look at our party platform at the state convention next June where we’ll be including a parallel Youth Convention for high school organizers. Municipal elections are right around the corner and – depending on which whispers and rumors you believe – many more exciting days are just ahead.
If you see fit to grant me another term, I will do my best to fulfill the responsibilities of this important job. I’d be honored to have your support and vote.
Thank you,
John E Walsh, Chair
Massachusetts Democratic Party
Candidate for re-election
I would be happy to see the current state team remain in place. Good Luck John.
…and I will vote to re-elect John Walsh as our fearless leader!
Brilliant.
Also, where would one look to see if vacancies exist on the State Committee at this time?
http://www.massdems.org/your-party/state-committee/
Like I tried to tell you before when you bothered everyone with your stupid question about replacing the lt. governor, we ain’t your freakin’ librarians.
Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Boring
John Walsh has done such a great job for Democrats – helping us elect more and better ones. Better, because you NEED better candidates to do all this grassrootsy goodness.
Go John!
Mike – The State Committee was just reorganized earlier this year. Members representing state Senate districts are elected at the Presidential Primary and shortly after that, additional members are chosen by local caucuses and a group of Add-On members is elected by the State Committee.
If you’re looking to get more involved, the best way is to join your local town or ward committee.
KF
Go Fighting Irish
Really? Cool dude.
Native or transplant if I may ask?
(Assuming the Ward Committee was involved)
If re-elected, what will you do about the double parking on East Broadway in South Boston.
God luv ya
…returning my library book is all.
JW
I will be proud to vote for Chairman John Walsh. I encourage my DSC colleagues to join me.
Firing John Walsh would be like firing Bill Belichick. You can’t dispute either’s results and you fire either men at your own peril.
…though I suppose no hardware to go with it
… 31st ranked defense to a Superbowl counts in my book.
In addition to getting involved with your local town or ward committee, any Democrat is welcome to attend DSC meetings. They are listed on the MassDems website.
So what’s Mr. Walsh got left to do? Welp, at least a governor’s race in 2014, perhaps an early SOTUS race.
Personally, I wish he’d lean on the Dems in the legislature to make it easier for folks to vote. It would make our job as his GOTV machine so much easier. My “wishlist”, weighed in some combination of what I think we could get sooner rather than later and importance:
1. No-excuses absentee voting.
2. Reduced registration deadline. 7 days instead of the current ~15 before the election.
3. Open polls at 6:30am on POTUS election day. This may involve figuring out how to pay poll employees more, etc.
4. Early voting (like (1), but broadened so the Town Clerk’s offices statewide have universal extra hours in the week and weekend or two before the election day).
5. Same day registration (like (2), but 0 days.
…that same-day registration, early-voting and no-excuse absentee voting are all a part of the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s platform.
You can read more here: http://www.massdems.org/your-party/governance/platform/
and we have a supermajority of Dems in the legislature…then why don’t we have these things?? 🙁
I wish more would take advantage of it on big elections.
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/ele12/early-polling-12.htm
btw same day registration is a bad idea
I don’t have a vote, but I can’t imagine electing anyone else to lead the Democratic Party in MA. I can tell you without a doubt we would not have had the success we had in the recent US Senate election without the amazaing grassroots operation put in place by John Walsh, Governor Patrick and the rest of the grassroots leadership.
Someone in the above comments compared Walsh to Belichick – I agree, and John just won the Super Bowl with the election results in MA last week. And even with that success, no one works harder or cares more about not just winning but doing it the right way than John Walsh.
We still have a lot of work to do, and I for one want John Walsh leading the charge for as long as he is willing to devote his time and energy to this important cause. Good luck, John!
really worried John won’t have the practically unanimous votes in the DSC after what we just pulled off?? 😉
Or, at least, are you groomin’?
Are you teaching a few folks how to do your job? Are you grooming successors? At some point your wife will demand you give her the attention she deserves, and when she does, the rest of us will suffer less if you’ve made sure that your replacement has the inside knowledge and training necessary.
You groomin’?
Kate Donoghue for a few terms afterwards. 😉
Then again, we need her in the trenches…
I totally agree and hope that if there is an opportunity, that Kate will run for one of the offices and be groomed for the Chairman’s position in the future.
Go Kate Go….
He won races that were tough to win, up and down ballot. Even more important, he puts his feet where his mouth is, going door-to-door every election season. John Walsh is good for our party and our state where he is. It would be stupid not to re-elect him.
John Walsh was re-elected Chairperson of the Massachusetts Democratic Party without opposition tonight. It’s hard to argue with success!