Last night, 13 of the 14 candidates to succeed Niki Tsongas participated in a well attended forum hosted by the Hudson, Maynard, and Marlborough Democratic Committees. Lots of good questions with a noticeable range of preparation for and comfort with the various topics. Since the moderator tried to be random in whom he questioned he sometimes missed giving equal time, though that was usually corrected later. Most candidates had an army of signature gatherers in tow. The 14th candidate is Jeff Ballinger who declared too late to be included, but he sat in the audience and was acknowledged at the end. The list of candidates and websites is below. I’d like to use this thread for thoughts on favorites and I saw at least a couple of BMGers there so it would be great to get their impressions. I’m personally supporting Barbara L’Italien as I have gotten to know her over the past several years and she already has experience legislating on behalf of several Merrimack Valley communities. Her record is strongly progressive and includes supporting such things as single payer health care and marriage equality before such things were cool, yet has successfully represented districts which are not as progressive due to her ability to work with people across the spectrum and being an advocate for her constituents.
CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES
Leonard Golder
L’Italien had the good sense to hire a good friend of mine, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about her. Littlefield also got in touch and seems like a good candidate. Like Mattis for taking on an entrenched incumbent, but she definitely seems a little green for Congress. Das had some great out of the box ideas about infrastructure and work. Koh is my least favorite. All he seems good for is raising money off the Marty connection.
Koh seems to have carved his niche as the most rhetorically anti-Trump of the bunch. Who’s your friend that L’Italien hired?
My friend is Emma Friend.
OK, I have run into her several times already on the trail.