Will you join me and some local Brockton folks — and Juliette Kayyem, and Brendan Ryan, and Larry Carpman, and Matt Patton, and Kevin Franck, and Natalie Boyle, and Emily Zendt, and Howard Cutter, and (I hope) my son Coleman? If Brockton isn’t convenient for you, sign up here to join over 200 active Democrats at another location. But I have to say, I think Brockton will be the most fun. 🙂
On the #DemDoors, we’re beginning the conversation with voters who will be crucial for our wins in November and we are starting to lay the foundation for an effective GOTV push — which begins in just about 100 days by the way. These are voters who are likely to vote for Democrats, but might (based on past voting patterns) miss a vote in non-presidential years. I’m sure you are reading about the crucial need to turn out these voters in races around the country and the same dynamic will be in play here at home too.
MassDems Chairman Tom McGee and his team have been focused on this and they have been preparing a plan for months. Already, we are benefiting from having Senator Ed Markey at the top of the ticket including his campaign field team led by Carl Nilsson and Chelsie Oullette and the full commitment of supporters of Democratic members of congress in each district. We’re starting early and we need your help tomorrow and on two other “Weekends of Action” in August.
For those who are fully committed to campaigns in the middle of a primary contest, I wouldn’t ask you to take away a single day from your work there. What I would ask is that you consider adding just a couple hours for this important work.
In 2006, after sixteen years of Republican governors, Massachusetts was headed in the wrong direction. Based on misguided Republican policies from Charlie Baker and his pals, we were 45th in job growth and Charlie’s disastrous Big Dig financing plan had postponed infrastructure spending around the state and left us with over 700 structurally deficient bridges. The Republican governor had kept us out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and aggressively opposed Cape Wind ignoring both the threat of climate change and the opportunity for building a clean energy/green jobs future. Remarkably, our Republican governor had banned stem cell research, blocking the scientific search for cures and risking our leadership in the important life sciences sector. And the list goes on.
Thanks to a Democratic governor and Democrats in the legislature, we’ve changed all that and while nobody is flying any “Mission Accomplished” banners, we can be proud that Massachusetts is back in the leadership business in so many ways and we want to stay there.
Once again, the Republicans are offering the same old discredited policies – from the very same candidates. We’ve got much more to do and it starts with you. Maybe in Brockton? Maybe tomorrow?
John Walsh
I am working hard on several campaigns. What are you asking people do knock for exactly?
I recently heard a prostitute say those exact words to her pimp.
Skip it. This isn’t the forum and if your so busy helping others don’t worry about John.
But really Jane Bond, asking him on BMG what plan he needs executed tells me you are most likely a pain in the ass and John would prefer if you keep away.
Your welcome John.
I’ll be having conversations with Dem-leaning voters who may not vote in November without a reminder. Maybe they consistently vote in presidential years but less consistently in the mid-years or maybe they are younger or recently-registered and haven’t had time to establish a consistent voting history. In this effort, we’ll probably be speaking to different voters than when primary candidates are out knocking on doors.
We ask them to vote for Democrats in the fall and sign a card pledging to do so which we’ll use to remind them when November rolls around. If they say yes, we’ll also ask if they would be interested in volunteering after the primary.
It’s hard, but important work and in an election that is likely to be close, the results of this effort could be crucial. Today, I knocked on just under thirty doors. It was a beautiful day, so I left a lot of notes on literature featuring Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren which folks will get when they return from their errands. I got three pledge cards signed including one from a very nice woman who had recently moved here from Texas and was looking forward to casting her Democratic vote for some candidates who win for a change. I also got one volunteer. If we can duplicate those kind of results over the 30,000 doors we’re aiming to knock this summer, it will make a difference in tight races. The effort also begins to put in place the infrastructure and expertise to support our massive GOTV in the fall.
I hope that helps and if you have a few hours we’d love to have you join us. If you’re completely tied up every minute with primaries, just know we’re working to be sure our nominees (hopefully your candidates) will prevail in the fall.
John
I admire and respect you and all you’ve done for our party.
I’m therefore taken aback by this missive at this time.
I love Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren. They aren’t on any ballots this year.
If your message is “vote for the Democrat in November, whomever the Democrat happens to be”, then I must most politely respond that I’m not buying. Massachusetts is not Texas, and if I had a chance to talk with that recent arrival from Texas, I would warn her that here in Massachusetts it is crucial to discern which self-proclaimed “Democrats” will actually govern like Democrats. We have several high-profile office holders who do not (yes, I’m referring to Bob DeLeo).
I suggest that if, after November, we end up with a Democratic Governor and Attorney General who:
– Enlarges, rather than limits, government surveillance efforts
– Expands, rather than contracts, police powers
– Refuses to address increasing income and wealth concentration
– Refuses to fund public transportation
– Refuses to raise taxes to fund public education initiatives
– Refuses to acknowledge or address the metastasizing cancer of public corruption
Then we, as a party, will have some serious soul-searching to do.
Right now is NOT the time to beat the drum of “Party Loyalty” to this lifelong Democrat (and forty-plus year Massachusetts Democrat).
He is seeking his first full term and does have a no-name GOP challenger. Up in my neck of the woods the coordinated canvasses are Markey/Tsongas, the latter also unopposed for renomination, but has a no-name GOP challenger. I absolutely agree with John – there is enough difference between our values and theirs that we can and should do this now and we can fill in names later.
Well, I well of course vote for Senator Markey.
Still, the thrust of my comment remains appropriate I think. I’m not sure that a massive GOTV effort will be needed to re-elect Senator Markey.
“You were going to vote for Sen. Markey? – great. Can I also get your commitment to vote for your Congressperson who will advance the same values in the House.”
“In order to make sure those values work at the state level we need to elect a Democratic Governor as well.”
No, Christopher, we DO NOT need elect Martha Coakley “in order to make sure those values work at the state level”. To the contrary, some of us are of the opinion — well-justified in her record and public statements — that a “Governor Coakley” would work against those values.
I cited the six points above that matter to me. Six points that sharply differentiate Martha Coakley from Ed Markey.
Your last sentence demonstrates why I wrote my initial response and again roils the water that Mr. Walsh worked so hard to smooth.
You have stated multiple times that you don’t see a Governor Baker as really any worse than a Governor Coakley, an assessment with which I strongly disagree. I very much fear that Governor Baker will play the nice moderate to get elected then read right out of the RGA’s playbook once in office. I used to think it mattered less than who has a legislative majority, but given the near uniformity of GOP Governor behavior regarding union busting, privatization, etc., I don’t want to take that chance.
Coakley has 50 days to blow a 30 point lead, she has done it before
…which is all the more reason to be doing what John and others are doing now.
It is all the more reason to choose a different candidate.
A leopard does not change its stripes. Ms. Coakley is running the same tepid, content-free, issue-free campaign strategy today that failed so miserably in 2010. She speaks out on either safe or irrelevant “issues”, and is silent on issues that both matter and that differentiate her from Mr. Baker.
I get that Ms. Coakley has decided to write off activist liberal Democrats like me in favor of pandering to un-enrolled “independents” that she hopes to peel away from Charlie Baker in the general. I’m not sure that you or the rest of the party appreciates that the way she accomplishes that is to make herself interchangeable with Mr. Baker.
The result is an election where the “D” or the “R” makes no difference whatsoever, and I want no part of that.
She can lose to berwick. We have 50 days to seal the deal, I have no idea why I would waste my time with John working for an unnamed nominee when I could be working for a candidate I actually care about and want to win.
I realized after I logged off my own comment didn’t make a whole lot of sense. The reference to blowing a 50-point lead put me in a general election frame of mind since that’s when it happened before. Currently her wide lead is in the primary, but most certainly not the general. Yes, it means there is time for those who feel strongly about a primary candidate to push for that candidate rather than make any assumptions about the nominee. Others want to get a jumpstart and promoting the ticket and that’s fine too.
We indeed start with different premises.
My original comment on this thread objected to the timing of this post. The message, from Mr. Walsh, left me with the distinct impression that I was being asked to not just vote for, but in fact join a GOTV effort, to support whomever is nominated for Governor.
I think it is important for Mr. Walsh to appreciate that there are limits to what even life-long Democrats like me will tolerate. The nomination of Martha Coakley crosses those limits. I get that the party will apparently nominate her anyway — it will do so without my support.
Mr. Walsh sees the same polling results that rest of us at BMG see, and the inescapable conclusion is that I am being asked to actively support a candidate who I believe is utterly unsuited for the position, and whom I believe will be just as bad a Governor as the Charlie Baker bogeyman some attempt to scare me with.
Mr. Walsh, to his credit, reassured me. You have done just the opposite.
I don’t doubt that Ms. Coakley has seized control of the upper echelons of the Massachusetts Democrat Party. I don’t doubt that Ms. Coakley has done all in her power to ensure that she is the nominee (including abusing the power of her current office to force the withdrawal of her chief opponent, Tim Murray).
In my view, Ms. Coakley has hijacked my party. She has long been a supporter of draconian invasions of internet privacy, all of which were ruled unconstitional. She has refused to investigate obvious and flagrant abuses by the FBI, and has refused to investigate why the contingent of Massachusetts State Police did not stop the execution of Ibrahim Todashev.
I agree that we start with different premises. I get that you don’t view any of the specific objections I raise as important. I’m not sure you yet appreciate how closely those policies reflect what Governor Baker is likely to do if elected.
If you want to join a GOTV effort on behalf of Martha Coakley, go for it. I will not. In the context of your responses, I find this entire diary an offensive attempt to bully me and people like me — your responses exemplify (together with the many utterances of methuenprogressive) the arrogance I mean.
I didn’t mean to offend and I think my message is exactly the same as John’s. I’m supporting Grossman, who as the endorsed candidate I would argue has at least as much claim on the upper echelons of the party as Coakley does. I won’t GOTV for Coakley specifically before the primary, but since I do rank in her in preference above Baker I have no problem with general party work beforehand. I want to fully associate myself with John’s own reply to your bad timing comment. Sorry if the way I put it came across as bullying.
I misunderstood some of your earlier comments.
I apologize for having a thinner skin than I perhaps should on such matters.
Electing Dem federal officials only gets us so far if state officials are going to block implementation every step of the way as we have seen in some states with Obamacare.
Can you provide evidence that a Governor Baker would attempt to “block implementation every step of the way”?
What I said was I don’t want to take the chance, but in the MA context I’m less concerned about ACA than I am union busting and privatization since our universal system predates ACA anyway. I used ACA as an example of how a state government not being on the same page as the federal government COULD have a negative impact, so I absolutely stand by my concern.
You don’t want to take a chance on something you admit you have no evidence will occur (other than your own personal opinion).
I remind you that the objections I raise to Ms. Coakley are supported by a long and well-documented volume of evidence. You studiously either ignore those or dismiss them (and me) as unimportant.
I find Ms. Coakley’s abuse of the powers of her current office and her studied refusal to see the culture of corruption around her (I cite the Probation Department, the Boston police and fire “disability” mill, the Annie Dookhan scandal, the Kineavy destruction of public records, and the several housing authority scandals as evidence) FAR more threatening to my life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness than any “union busting” or “privatization” that Mr. Baker might promote.
…but I share many of them, hence Coakley being my third choice out of three (and well behind second choice Berwick who is himself a close second to Grossman). I don’t know where you get the idea that I’ve been dismissive. I just still say on balance I prefer her to Baker if that’s the choice we end up with. Apparently we disagree on that point.
I recognize and celebrate your passion and commitment to those values. I’ve followed along (a bit) your recent conversations here on BMG and while I can’t join you in the fullness of your analysis, I completely agree that primaries are good for Democrats precisely because they allow us to push – hard – in the direction we want our party to go. Now is the time for that.
As a brief aside, I personally think anything that could aid in putting Charlie Baker and Karyn Polito in the corner office for four years would do more damage to things I care about so I personally hold myself to two companion standards for enthusiastic support of primary competition: (1) no personal attacks in primaries (policy and qualification stuff is cool), and (2) coming together behind our nominees for the short final push of the general election. When taken together, I’ve found these three provide us with maximum benefits from competition while minimizing any potential downsides. If I am disappointed with the results of the primary, I think the time for “fixing” that is the next primary – not at a time that could put a Republican in office. But to each his own on that.
To your question on my message for early/pre-primary Coordinated Campaign canvassing, it’s not focused on “whomever it may be” and since I accept your polite refusal to buy, I hope you’ll accept if I politely explain you’re not who I’m hoping to sell.
The point of these early efforts is two-fold. First, we hope to begin the conversation early with a group of voters who we believe are VERY likely to support the Democratic ticket in November, but for various reasons have a higher likelihood that they might miss the vote and second, to begin to establish the infrastructure for what will be the crucial final GOTV push in a close election in November.
While the 200 folks who signed up to knock on doors across the state this weekend, is just a start – it IS a start and an important one. Nine of the conversations I had in Brockton this weekend resulted in signed cards committing to vote. When those voters receive the cards back in the mail in October with their own signature on them, I think it will increase the likelihood that they will remember the chubby guy who stood on their doorsteps on a hot summer day and talked for a minute or two about why electing Democrats matters to them. They will be more likely to cast their vote, and I believe it could matter. I also found a woman who is so upset with Republicans, she volunteered once our local office is opened in the fall. Early organizing works.
By the way, the next MassDems #Org2Win Coordinated Campaign “Weekends of Action” will be on August 8-9 and 23-24. I’ll be headed back to Brockton and have scheduled a local meeting next Wednesday to help expand the effort. If you’d like to join me – or pitch in at a more convenient location, we’d love the help. If you’re devoting every available moment to a primary campaign, that’s great. I look forward to working with you in a few weeks.
if there’s one thing I’ve been trying to say for years, it’s this. Though we all get this, and all vote D loyally —
— party leaders need to understand that this is not permission to be inadequate. I know you get that, John, but frankly Hillary Clinton is woefully inadequate on MOST issues (not all), and we’re going to be asked to accept her, again, and vote for her.
Personally I’m bound by blood and rope to the Democratic Party, but most people aren’t, and when they do walk away (and they will, and already are, in droves), we have no one to blame but ourselves.
It’s up to people like you, with access, to explain this. Triangulation is strangulation. It kills dreams. It’s suicide. I can barely stand to watch it.
Thanks for listening.
I’ll enthusiastically vote for my reps in November … Denise Provost and Mike Capuano. I believe each is running unopposed.
I really do appreciate your courtesy about the more contentious gubernatorial and AG races. My commitment to the Massachusetts Democratic Party is as strong as ever — I feel the party is abandoning me and my values, rather than vice-versa.
I wasn’t being snarky. I really just wasn’t clear. I’m going to keep working for my primary candidates and then will work hard for whoever wins the primaries.
I’ve seen too much of your effective work to ever doubt that. I completely understand and applaud anyone who is “all in” for a primary race. I’m looking forward to working together in a few weeks.
I was unavoidably out of town this weekend. The good folks at 77 Summer Street got me set up and I was able to do coordinated campaign canvassing early last week and I am going out again today. Good reception out here in Marlborough and Westborough.
John, I have appreciated your leadership over the years and I appreciate this unifying effort now. (Personally, I hate being asked to sign any kind of “pledge card,” but I have been persuaded by others that this really is an effective technique for ID’ing voters and motivating turnout.)
That said, I wonder what you think about the situation here in the 6th District, where John Tierney has two primary opponents, both of them working very hard to undermine him.
I am confident, in general, that Tierney will win his primary and go on to defeat Richard Tisei and whatever independents are out there. But right here, right now, this coordinated “vote D in November!” campaign feels premature.
I’ve been avoiding the question by focusing (for the moment) on mobilizing support for question #4 (earned sick time). But I would like to hear your thoughts on the coordinated campaign approach as it relates to our situation here in the 6th District.
…Tierney has four primary opponents, though in your defense only two of them are getting any press.
… there were more than two, and I thought about going back and checking my facts. But as you note, only Moulton and DeFranco are getting any press, and my general point still stands.