I’m voting absentee this week. My Democratic primary ballot doesn’t have a lot of choices, but on Governor’s Council I get to pick one of three.
- MARILYN M. PETITTO DEVANEY 98 Westminster Ave., Watertown
Present Governor’s Councillor; Candidate for Re-nomination - PETER GEORGIOU 126 Lexington Rd., Lincoln
- WILLIAM BISHOP HUMPHREY 712 Chestnut St., Newton
Based on past experience and history, I’m certainly not voting for Devaney. Anyone have thoughts on the other two?
Georgiou’s website is down. His declaration of candidacy is reasonable.
Humphrey’s website is well thought out and passionate. I’m wondering why this particular position is a good fit for him, and the “why I’m running” page didn’t solve it.
I tend to agree with those who think the Governor’s Council should be abolished, but I haven’t found a candidate for that yet.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice.
Please share widely!
There are no candidates from other parties so this is one of those cases where the primary pretty much is the election.
Hear that? Why isn’t UIP on this?
Here or here
…though maybe before she saw your comment below, why you didn’t put candidates up in these races.
PDM has endorsed William Humphrey for Governor’s Council
Does anyone know if the various contributions listed on OPCF from a “Peter Georgiou” who is an attorney are from one and the same person? If so, this person is seriously Republican (although probably moderate Republican).
The one at 126 Lexington Road, Lincoln is obviously the current candidate and seems to be linked to the other addresses through contributions to Susana Martinez. Also seeing Baker, Tisei, Republican committee, Addivinola …
If you are looking for an alternative to the incumbent, Mr. Georgiou does not seem to be an upgrade from my experiences with him.
If the idea is to dump Devaney, then go with the candidate opposing who is waging the strongest campaign.
From here that looks like Georgiou, though that is only based on the fact that he did a mailer last week and the other guy did not.
Big grain of salt, because I doubt either will unseat the incumbent, so perhaps other criteria should obtain.
Why doesn’t “why I’m running” answer the question? Maybe its because its hard to justify the entire idea of the Council in this day and age.
By the way: Does anyone else think that the United Independent Party missed a trick by not running candidates for some of these seats? A strong challenger might have a chance against Devaney in November.
We had a fringe perennial candidate approach us for that particular GC seat and another on the Cape for one down there. Also Evan Falchuk rightly called for eliminating the Governors Council as a candidate in 2014, so it would be a little hypocritical to run candidates for it anyway.
We decided to focus on the legislature. We are also going to be running against strong Democratic headwinds downballot for our legislative candidates and that dynamics even worse for really low info/low stakes races like GC and county offices. We have endorsed John Deeds for Suffolk Registrar of Deeds since Steve Murphy deserves a challenger and he is actually qualified to do the work.
…if someone had wanted to collect signatures and get on the UIP ballot for GC that would have been their prerogative. You don’t need the party’s permission to run (a point I wonder if you forget when you complain about who occupies the Dem ballot line in certain races). Also, I believe in playing in the system you have so I at least would not have faulted UIP for having GC candidates based on Falchuk’s position on the GC. However, the fact that you cite Falchuk’s position is evidence for my continued concern that the UIP remains his personal project rather than a quasi-public entity.
EOM
Christopher nailed it here.
She’s become a good friend and I have devoted the bulk of my August helping her secure the UIP nomination.
I have always been a both/and kind of person, and it’s disappointing to see so many people here feeling threatened or skeptical of the three real, honest, and hard working candidates we are running while the Walter Timilty’s of the world get to waltz to nomination without debating their opponents or standing up for any part of the DSC platform. Keri has been putting in 20 hour days to knock on every door she can, I’ve joined her for some of them, and I don’t think Walter Timilty is doing the same.
I’d be happy to talk to a credible candidate for any office, most choose to run in one of the two parties or not to run at all. What Keri is doing requires a lot of courage and dedication and I am tremendously proud of her and our campaign.
Better legislators?
Nice in theory.
However, the United Falchuk Party (or perhaps the United Fresolo Party) doesn’t seem to be an effective tool to achieve the desired outcome.
Meanwhile, Evan Falchuk said his party would not get behind former State Rep. John P. Fresolo, who is trying to get the party’s nomination for his old house seat in Worcester. The net result is that the party, bought and paid for by Evan Falchuk (paid signature gatherers and advertising) might be taken over by a former state representative who left in the middle of an ethics investigation.
John Fresolo was first elected as a member of your party, not mine. He has openly said he would caucus with the Democrats and is using our ballot line as an easier way of getting back on. The same caucus and leadership that sealed its ethics investigation from the public. He is also being investigated for multiple accounts of campaign fraud. Evan Falchuk, myself, and our town committee chairs have openly disavowed him.
I feel like either way we can’t win here. I say we only endorse the candidates that agree with our platform and Christopher points out we can’t stop creepy pedophiles like Fresolo from getting on our ballot, and when they try apparently we are guilty by association anyway despite the fact that his conduct has been condemned by us and was arguably enabled by the Beacon Hill supermajority culture we are all against?
We have three great candidates running against bad Democrats. You’re welcome to support them or not, there are a few good Democrats running against bad Democrats and you’re welcome to support them too. We are all on the same team here, trying to work with Sen. Eldridge against the corruption and conservatism of the Beacon Hill establishment. You work your lane, I’ll work mine.
Keri Thompson was an elected Bernie Sanders delegate backed by Scott Harshbarger and her neighbor Gabriel Gomez, she was a co founder of South Shore progressives and is running on a platform to bring people together and run in a real primary for the 3rd Plymouth district not the DSC executive committee’s politiburo primary. She is earning her support door by door and not buying a dimes worth of it.
…but are there write-ins involved here? As far as I can tell UIP has a grand total of one candidate on the ballot in the entire state. I thought you indicated that UIP was cross-endorsing Dems in certain cases, but I don’t see either Fresolo or Thompson on the Secretaries Dem list either. Is there a reason they did not make the ballot? Hint – it’s not because the DSC runs a politburo primary. We have absolutely nothing to do with ballot access for anyone but constitutional office candidates.
In the 3rd Plymouth all the candidates running are write in’s since the incumbent resigned after the ballot deadline. It is likely he will beat the other Democrats running since his name is on the ballot and theirs aren’t, in which case an Executive Committee of the DSC will appoint a nominee.
Hopefully they select the write in primary candidate who won the most votes but it’s unclear if they actually have to. I suspect either way that Bradley’s equally DINO aide Steve Burm will win the nomination. A Trump delegate named Kelly Arute and a Republican selectman are both running on the GOP side but it is unclear if either will get on.
We are focusing on getting as many UIP members and unenrolled voters as we can to write Keri in, and then she can appeal to the full electorate for the fall
Jessica Lambert is the other write in candidate and she is already on the primary ballot as a Democrat and is openly running for both nominations. We’ve been in talks with several Democrats who are running covert write in campaigns for the UIP nomination in their races, and we’ve openly instructed unenrolled voters to vote for the candidates we cross endorsed. John Fresolo was never invited to participate in this endorsement process and never reached out to us.
…is campaigning for both nominations legal? There is a new law which gives power to appoint to the state party chair. Previously it would have been a district caucus. Tom McGee has indicated that he will consult with DSC and DTC members from the district if he has to make this decision, but people I’ve heard from seem to feel good about someone who actually wants to get the nomination winning the primary so it may be a moot point.
Campaigning for two different party nominations simultaneously is legit in MA.
…this idea of covert campaigns rubs me the wrong way. I get the political confusion around an incumbent resigning after signatures were due, but if someone like Thompson really wanted to run as the UIP candidate she could have collected signatures before knowing the incumbent’s plans. Heck, if the incumbent is as DINO as you claim, she could have openly challenged him in the Dem primary. Names on the ballot usually do better and she’d have the opportunity to take Bradley or Burm head on.
OCPF shows that UIP has spent no money and raised no money since April 1, before which it had gone into debt. That means it has no staff.
http://www.ocpf.us/Filers?q=united%20independent&cat=C#filer-reports
The Falchuk Committee, OTOH, has received about $70,000 this year, all from Falchuk himself. The Falchuk campaign has one staff person and one consultant who purport to work on behalf of the UIP.
http://www.ocpf.us/Filers?q=falchuk&cat=C#filer-data
Why the disparity and seeming incongruity between the two? The obvious explanation is that it would be illegal for Falchuk to donate so much money to the UIP. The limit for his donations to the UIP is $5000, whether it is donated or loaned. He blew through that limit at the tail end of last year when the UIP reimbursed to him $8000, proof positive that there was a violation of the law (you cannot be “reimbursed” if you have not made a loan).
It is unfortunate that a lot of good people will get caught up in the Falchuk political game. Keri Thompson might have been a solid candidate if she had better advice from people who understand state government (calling for legislative term limits that have already been rejected by the SJC, and roll call votes on every one of the 8000 bills in both committees and on the floor is just plain silly). And it is especially unfortunate that the Falchuk game is giving someone like Fresolo another chance.
At least the UIP is not controlled by its anti-tax, anti-public services right wing.
That seems like a big improvement over the local Dems who have controlled everything for decades.
I will concede that this is an exceedingly low bar.
Hello BMG! I’ve been reading regularly but trying to keep my mouth shut for a change. My two cents here: I’ve paid some amount of attention to this race and attended a candidate’s forum. I’ve come away impressed with Bill Humphrey’s breadth of knowledge and work ethic, and convinced he’s the only real progressive choice in this race.
The incumbent has been a poster child for GC dysfunction and Mr. Georgiou, as was noted above, was until recently a strong supporter of Republicans (Leland redux?) and appears to have similar issues of, ahem, temperment. Humphrey, though young, has been active in electoral politics and political causes for quite some time, going back to high school, and seems like the grownup in the room.
From what I’m hearing and seeing, I’d strongly disagree that Georgiou is the stronger challenger. Both challengers have sent mailers in the past week or two (I’ve received both) but only Humphrey is out knocking on doors, apparently every day. His social media reports 8,000 doors knocked, campaign activities across the district, an impressive list of endorsements from progressive organizations, plus a regular focus on issues judicial nominees will see in the courts. I hope he can pull it off.
It is worth a look
http://www.billhumphrey.net