State House News is reporting that Cindy Friedman, chief of staff to the late Senator Ken Donnelly, will announce on Monday that she’s going to enter the race to succeed him, setting up a June 27 primary contest with Representative Sean Garballey, who announced last week. The general election is July 25.
Please share widely!
Cindy is currently a Cambridge resident (Second Middlesex district) and will need to move back into the district in order to run for the seat.
There is no residency requirement for the Senate, although you do need to be a resident on the day you are sworn in.
But people don’t like it. Ask Ossoff.
There are approximately 167,000 residents of the Fourth Middlesex senate district. This is a district filled with thoughtful, accomplished progressives.
I will support the winner of the Democratic primary. However, I cannot be convinced there are no people who currently live in the district who would be a talented, committed, progressive senator; and I certainly don’t think we are so bereft of qualified Democrats that we need to import candidates from an adjacent district.
My favorite Porcupine compares this situation to the Georgia congressional seat. Seems there wasn’t a strong Democratic candidate in that district, so Jon Ossoff got 98% of the Democratic primary vote. It’s a Republican district. But how hard is it to find a qualified Democrat who lives in the Fourth Middlesex district?
No, thanks. I prefer to pick my Senator from the 167,000 folks who lived in the district prior to the good Senator’s unfortunate death.
… the Chief of Staff to the late Senator from the District was, whatever her residency, working on behalf of Senators’ constituents right up until the moment of the Hon Senators demise, and likely beyond.
I understand your staking your claim, on principle, against carpetbagging — and, on principle, I agree — but I don’t think it is a scruple that can be applied altogether fairly, in this instance.
Come on, Pablo, you can do better than that.
I don’t remember when she moved, but she lived in Arlington not so long ago and people here know her. Plus she’s just in Cambridge, for goodness sakes, to which Arlington is practically joined at the hip historically.
If she moves back to town to run it will be a total non issue.
I like Sean too—a lot—so tell us why he is the better candidate. Or whomever you have in mind.
When Sean Garballey ran for the house nine years ago, I supported his primary opponent. I had some doubts about Sean’s ability to be a strong progressive voice for a very liberal district.
He has been a pleasant surprise. He has been a solid progressive, forging relationships with other leaders I respect. The House is a tough place to forge a progressive record, and Sean pushes the envelope. He has voted against leadership on several critical votes, and I love the fact he is a dependable voice and vote against the speaker on charter schools.
Unlike a senate staffer, he has put his name on the ballot. He has been accountable for his votes. He has a record of his own he can stand behind.
It is easy to wrap yourself in a progressive cloak, but you don’t know what an elected official truly values until he or she gets into office. I know where Sean stands. I know how hard he works. I have him on speed-dial, and he has been nothing but responsive when I call. All that, and he doesn’t need to move into the district in order to run for the senate seat.
Nobody’s on the ballot yet. Nomination papers due 5/16.
Means he has put his name on the ballot to run for school committee and state representative, faced public criticism, and has been publicly accountable for his work.
n/t
The single most regressive vote the House took this century. The single biggest reason we haven’t made any progress on new revenue sources, fixing the T, or public education equity. I am not disqualifying him for that vote-Dave Rogers and other good progressives felt similarly boxed in and have their reasons. But it is a disappointing vote, and one he has to answer to. As much as his opponent has to answer for her residency.
I agree that it bears explaining, and it also wouldn’t be the biggest deal in the world for the progressive caucus to challenge the speaker, but “single most regressive vote” seems a bit much.
1. Compute the cost-benefit analysis for voting against the speaker when you don’t have enough votes to depose him.
2. How do you compare a legislator with a progressive voting record against someone who has never needed to take a public vote in their life? “I don’t like the way he voted on one issue, so I am voting for the blank slate?”
And it’s not a progressive vote. If the left doesn’t have any enforceable litmus tests we will get nowhere in this state. And I think this is a good test case for how to ask those questions and hold people accountable for their votes. If he feels the costs and benefits outweigh that he can explain it.
I have no dog in this fight and know neither candidate. I do think people should disclose who they are for before they go into attack mode and I think we can have a primary based around issues instead of innuendo. Speaker term limits is one such issue where one candidate made a decision I disagree with. I’m sure the other candidate has an imperfect record as well.
Since you bring it up: Ossoff says he grew up in the district, and lives a mile-and-a-half outside the district, so that it’s easier for his girlfriend, who is in med school. Not exactly a carpetbagger. He’s no Scott Brown (or even Katherine Clark).
That is the point. All of Ossoff’s arguments sound a lot like the ones beinget offered here on behalf of the staffer. It is an automatic deficit to overcome.
I know nothing about either candidate, but I’m glad no one is walking in.
If she was gentrified into Cambridge
If I read the backstory here correcly, Ms. Friedman was a long-tine resident of Arlington, who moved a few blocks across the town line to Cambridge because of a personal situation, and irrespective of Sen. Connelly’s tragic passing, was already intending to return to Arlington. Given her long history of service to the 4th Middlesex District on Sen. Connelly’s staff, this is hardly a carpetbagger seeking to take advantage of a special election.
To be honest, having two strong progressives running in this race is an embarrassment of riches, and given the unlikelihood of a strong Republican emerging for the June General, gives the presumed next 4th Middlesex senator a good opportunity to introduce her- or himself to the voters in the rest of the district.
I do not believe that there is generally that much of a problem in seeing a candidate from just outside a senate district attempt to run, especially given the seeming randomness with which state senate district boundaries can shift in each district, and this does happen with some regularity. Case in point: when the First Suffolk Middlesex district had a special election after former Senate President Travaligni’s resignation in 2007, former Revere Mayor Dan Rizzo, who lived in my district (the now-defunct Middlesex, Suffolk & Essex at the time) faced little if any criticism for “looking in” from outside the district (he actually lived literally across the street from 1st S&M, but that’s not all that much closer than in the situation here). And the denouement after Rizzo lost that election to Anthony Petruccelli (of East Boston – a whole lot farther from the main mass of the City of Revere than it’s own Ward 6!) was that Rizzo’s ward was in fact moved into the current 1st S&M in the 2001 redistricting.
All that said, the rule allowing state senate candidates to not have to live in their districts until their election day (and that’s the General, not the Primary), compared to State Rep candidates having to be registered in their districts a year ahead, is more than a bit odd. (The latter seems to date back to the time when Reps were elected on a county-wide basis, so residence in their “district”, i.e.county for a year was, one might suppose, comparable to the (longer) length of time required for senate candidates to have been residents of the Commonwealth.) Either way, it’s one more example of a bit of Re-inventing of Massachusetts Government (with apologies to Al Gore) being long overdue!
I agree with you that, in this case, she’s clearly been involved with the district. But we can’t decide this on a case-by-case basis. If the rule required absolute residency in time for the filing deadline, I’d have no problem with that. Elected officials should live in the areas they represent, period amen.
Good luck to her. But let’s not take this too far. The rule matters.
MA Constitution requires 5-year residency in the state and resident of the district at the time of election. As for the Ossoff example, federal Constitution requires residency in the state from which elected, but NOT the district.
Cindy has already moved back to Arlington.
She lived in Arlington previously for 32 years – during which time many of us got to know her and work with her – before a serious family situation caused her to move for safety reasons. In the 4 years she was gone she never stopped serving the district. But she *has* moved back to Arlington.
Disclaimer: I am a volunteer with Cindy’s campaign.
She “has” moved back to Arlington. Aside from the use of the quotation marks around the word has, exactly when did she move back to Arlington? Yesterday? Saturday?
Seems like the “to do” list for the weekend was:
1. Rent apartment in Arlington.
2. Change voter registration from Cambridge to Arlington.
3. Announce senate candidacy.
Am I wrong?
Why are you giving this lady so much grief before she even begins her campaign? Just because you like someone else who is also running? Seriously, if she moved a half-mile or a mile to help take care of her aging parents or leave a shitty marriage or something, really, what’s it to you?
More importantly, what does it say about her ability to do this job well? Because as far as I can tell, the obvious answer is “nothing.”
He’ll be singing her praises if she wins the primary. He already concedes that’s what he did with Sean and we know that’s what many commentators did here regarding the Moulton-Tierney race. A former Salem city councilor told me over coffee how hilarious it was to see all the Salem DTC asskissers come up to shake Seths hand and beg forgiveness after Tierney conceded. They didn’t even wait an hour. It isn’t personal-it’s politics.
Of course you back a horse in the primary and should come together in the general. Especially since from what I can tell both candidates are progressive. I really hope we don’t have eight weeks of my candidate is purer than yours on this board.
And why Pablo’s hot take on residency is so laughably absurd. He won’t be making that argument in the general against *gasp* a Republican if she wins the nomination. Lombardo is passing FWIW, so it really might come down to these two. I for one hope somebody from Woburn or even Lexington gets in! Heaven forbid the contest is decided by a pissing contest over loyalty to Arlington.
It appears she has gone above and beyond the state requirement. My mother moved back and forth across the Alewife brook four times in her life-it ain’t the Rio Grande.
“We’re gonna build a wall! And we’re gonna make Cambridge pay for it!”
There’s an influx of Canada geese migrating in from Winchester. That’s where we will build the wall, and we will make Lexington pay for it.
Is a winning slogan for any campaign in this state. Bravo!
Pablo, if you look closely, jasui surrounded the word ‘has’ with asterisks, not quotation marks. It’s a pretty standard internet usage to substitute for bold face and/or italics for emphasis when one does not have access to ‘Ctrl-B/I’ – or can’t get the blasted internal editor here to work properly!
That means she is doing her due diligence to comply with the requirements. I don’t think we should fault her for that.
GOP Rep. Marc Lombardo has now announced he will not seek this seat.
Pablo is now deprived of a qualified choice if his candidate doesn’t win the primary.