The home district of Suffolk Downs has seen another photo finish. It was a nail biter until the end in the race to succeed Bob DeLeo in the 19th Suffolk Special Democratic primary. By a mere 300 votes, self described “Kennedy/Reagan Democrat” and admitted 2016 Trump voter Jeffry Rosario Turco won the race with 36% of the vote. The Revere native and Winthrop based attorney narrowly closed the gap and overcame the frontrunner after the last precinct was counted.
Coming in close second was the progressive standard bearer and labor organizer Juan Jaramillo who managed to snag the most endorsements of elected Revere officials, the MTA (my union) and SEIU, as well as luminaries near and far from Bernie Sanders to Ayanna Pressley. Julian Castro even joined in on a phone bank via Zoom. The next runner up was Markey for Senate staffer and DSC member Alicia DelVento who was backed by Emily’s List and Planned Parenthood. Last place was Winthrop School Committee member Valentino “Tino” Capobianco who had endorsements from Suffolk County Sheriff Thompkins, Maura Healey, and Joe Kennedy withdrawn after some last minute #MeToo controversies that seemingly tanked his campaign. Interestingly despite age and ideological differences, all four candidates worked at one point or another in outgoing Rep. Robert DeLeo’s office.
Juan Jaramillo narrowly carried the Revere precincts, so the race was won by the candidate who carries Winthrop while managing to run a close second in Revere. Mr. Turco faces token independent and Republican opposition in the general and is a likely bet to win the seat. While he has decidedly more conservative stances on choice, LGBTQ rights, and immigration than the outgoing speaker, I hope he can reach out to the parts of Revere energized and activated by Juan’s campaign. I’m encouraged by his kind words for the RTA during our forum and hope he can be an ally going forward.
I also hope Massachusetts progressives do some soul searching and recognize that with the failure to pass ranked choice voting, it may be best to consolidate around a single progressive candidate ahead of a crowded primary. No disrespect to Alicia’s strong finish or the women’s groups backing her, but this is an emerging majority minority district due to the growing presence of Hispanic voters. Backing the Hispanic candidate closest to organized labor in the district might have been the smarter bet. Now there is an avowedly anti-choice Democrat winning the seat instead. While one of my favorite students cried on the phone after the loss, I hope she is inspired to finish what Juan started. This isn’t about one campaign, but about a grassroots movement to make a more representative Revere.
With “Democrats” like Jeffry Rosario, who needs Republicans?
Perhaps Gus Bickford — recently re-elected chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party — might disavow Jeffry Rosario and everything he represents, even if claiming that the party is unable to dissociate itself with Mr. Rosario. I’m not holding my breath.
I will not retain my membership in a political party that allows a man or woman to hold elective office who publicly admits to voting for Donald Trump in 2020. There is no way that any Kennedy who ever held elected office would have anything to do with Donald Trump in 2020.
Even as I write this, Congress is in recess because heavily-armed Trumpists have threatened another violent attack on the Capitol and Congress.
I am nauseated by the depths to which America and Massachusetts is spiraling. I expect the GOP to so passionately embraces the racist hate of Donald Trump and the Trumpists.
I want no part of an allegedly “Democratic” political organization that cannot emphatically reject ANY supporter of Donald Trump.
1,706 Democrats from Revere and Winthrop Massachusetts voted for an admitted Trump supporter. Tom, it looks like over a third of Democrats in certain towns of Massachusetts are hard core racists. If that is the case, where does the Democratic Party go from here?
The Democratic Party in Massachusetts should go the same place in 2021 that that the national Democratic Party went in 1968 — it should explicitly disavow racism and misogyny. It should disavow any prospective elected official, candidate, or member who advocates for white supremacy, suppression of voter rights, or insurrection against the duly-constituted government.
LBJ knew full well that his landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 would hand the south to the GOP for generations to come. He supported it anyway.
I do not want or care about the vote any of those hard-core racists — no matter what party they claim to align with. If that means giving up the apparently-meaningless decades-long Democratic supermajority in the legislature, then so be it.
The Massachusetts Democratic Party always disavows such attitudes.
I haven’t yet found a report where Gus Bickford explicitly rejects the candidacy of Mr. Turco. Did I simply miss it, or has it not yet happened?
He has not expressly denounced Turco and I don’t expect him to. He can invoke the provision of our rules to not assist someone who has supported a Republican, but ultimately electing Democratic nominees IS the core of his job description. The most you can probably expect is silent non-support. That is the way parties do and are supposed to work.
I agree with everything here except the last line.
I think this is a symptom of dysfunction.
If I were Juan Jaramillo I would keep very close tabs on Turco’s voting record over the next few months and consider whether it were appropriate to primary him next time. If he successfully primaries Turco then it will have been the voters who tell the Democratic Party whom to support, which is how it is supposed to work.
I think that strategy is very unlikely to succeed. A much better strategy would be for him to cultivate the people in his district, to look for what people in the district want and to advocate for those issues. Waiting for a state rep to do something so unpopular that they will be vulnerable in a primary . . . .
Interesting talking to some colleagues about the race today, a lot of folks were torn between Jeff whom they grew up with and Juan whom they taught. So a lot of these local races are far more relational than ideological. Juan’s got a bright future and I hope he runs for School Committee or City Council where the city could use more youthful energy and diverse perspectives. End of the day Winthrop outvoted Revere since the latter is split in two districts while the former is the bulk of the voting population.
The Democratic Party doesn’t have to go anywhere. We don’t get to veto nominees or excommunicate registered voters, though I do wonder if this is where closed primaries would be helpful. With no contest on the GOP side, I suspect the vast majority of unenrolled voters pulled Democratic ballots.
Understood, especially after our prior exchanges.
I’m a life-long Democrat. I don’t care how many excuses are offered, I will not remain registered with a political party that cannot find a way to show me that it wants no part of candidates like Mr. Turco.
In the GOP, various state party organizations issued high-profile censures of elected officials who had the audacity to, for example, vote to impeach Mr. Trump for the second time.
I am disgusted that the Massachusetts Democratic Party either cannot or will not do something comparable here.
And I absolutely do not want to follow the lead of those state GOPs. They can have the purity police! The voters choose our nominees. If you want to improve the party stay inside.
I share your disgust with the action chosen by the Wyoming GOP — that’s not my point. The point is that the action shows that the Wyoming GOP has the ability to take such action.
Your assertion has been that it is objectively not possible for the Massachusetts Democratic Party to take any action about candidates like this because of externally-imposed constraints. Your commentary in this thread supports my assertion that the Massachusetts Democratic Party is instead expressing a choice — a choice that you agree with and that I do not.
I’ve not suggested anything that limits any choices by voters. The action by the Wyoming GOP did no such thing.
I think Juan ran a good campaign, I also think having a lot of prominent activists and politicians doorknock in Winthrop may have turned off some voters. Most folks like to be left alone especially during a pandemic, and literature emphasizing his service to the community rather than ideological stances might’ve been more effective. Joe Gravellese ran into a similar problem where they loved him in the Chelsea part of the district he ran in but he got smoked in Revere and Saugus.
For statehouse races the other reality is most suburban voters like pork, hate taxes, and want someone who paradoxically brings home the bacon while keeping taxes low. DeLeo prioritized both of these issues and Turco may have more effectively sold that combo to Winthrop voters who like all the goodies DeLeo brought home but also wanted him to hold the line on more taxes.
Part of the reason Mariano has been more progressive so far is he comes out of the labor movement like Juan, even if he’s more moderate on revenue, process, and transparency reform. He’s also prioritizing climate since his district will benefit from the jobs those initiatives will produce. So even though the speakers are ideologically similar their districts are quite different leading to different priorities.
I mean your other option is a local version of making a purple area more blue by moving. Your progressive vote is largely wasted in Somerville, which can be relied on to vote for the most left wing candidate in any primary. We’re a long way off from buying a house, but my wife was appalled our last precinct in Saugus still voted for Trump and happy the precinct we moved to in Wakefield voted for Biden. I told her our vote was still more valuable in Saugus which flipped back to Biden overall in 2020. Middleton is one of the few towns within price range and I love the quick lines at its Market Basket and access to a top school system. She said it’s off the list since they voted for Trump, but if more of us moved there it’s less likely they vote Republican in 2024. If I were young and single and still interested in politics I’d move to Arizona or Georgia, that’s where the action is for expanding the Democratic Party. We’re a victim of our own success here, where even the Republicans have to run as Democrats in order to win.
In the really picky department Saugus vs. Wakefield might make a difference for state legislature, but with our winner-take-all electoral college your vote for Biden is worth exactly the same in either place.
In my case I stayed in the same district and have the rare distinction of being represented by a Republican on Beacon Hill. He drew strong challengers in the past, but was unopposed this year. I’m glad to be in Sen. Lewis’ state senate district now and he’ll get my vote in 22’ for his educational leadership. Wong is probably safe, although I wouldn’t be surprised if he retired soon since his family seems to be getting out of their legendary Rt 1 business.
When I lived in Franklin, I was in the “Reddest” district in the town. At first I thought I’d be more comfortable in the bluer districts but then realized that I’d be living in an echo chamber and there would be no one to “convert”. So I took it upon myself to be the “liberal” on my street, and a good neighbor.
Sorry, I meant “Jeffry Rosario Turco”. I misread the thread-starter.
Once again you assume the institutional party has power it does not have. He can be denied a convention seat or party assistance based on public support for a non-Democrat, neither of which may be important to him anyway, but that’s it. We also don’t have less power than other state parties or the national parties. No party institution in the country as far as I know has the right to veto a nominee chosen in the primary, and that would be very anti-democratic. I’m sure plenty of hardcore MA Republicans feel like they are “stuck” with Charlie Baker too. Unless Turco says something way out of line in the context of this race I doubt you’ll hear any denunciations from Gus Bickford, who I’m sure wasn’t going to say anything pre-primary either because our bylaws forbid it and there’s still a lot of hard feelings about the extent to which he addressed the CD1 primary last year.
Mr. Turco has openly proclaimed that he voted for Donald Trump in 2016 in the presidential election. I’ve already published a link showing his recent support for various right-wing causes.
Surely you are familiar with, for example, the response of the Wyoming Republican Party to the impeachment vote of Liz Cheney (https://www.npr.org/2021/02/06/964933035/wyoming-gop-censures-liz-cheney-for-voting-to-impeach-trump):
I am aware of no reason why the Massachusetts Democratic Party is any less able to likewise regarding Mr. Turco and candidates like him (such as the current representative of Dracut).
I’ve heard these excuses before. I’m done with this — I’ll be doing whatever it takes to become an “unenrolled” voter. Not that the Massachusetts Democratic Party cares even a little bit.
The WY GOP was IMO being obnoxious and petulant with that vote. I do not want to imitate that example.
Also, the state party has no actual control here. They can put their foot stomping on the record I suppose, but if I were Cheney I’d very sarcastically say thank you for your concern and carry on. She could be primaried of course, as could anyone in MA.
I agree with your characterization. The point is that the WY GOP was not constrained by state or federal law from taking that step.
Also, the state party has no actual control here. They can put their foot stomping on the record I suppose, but if I were Cheney I’d very sarcastically say thank you for your concern and carry on. She could be primaried of course, as could anyone in MA.
“Actual control” isn’t the point.
The point is for the party to be very clear about where specific candidates do or do not fit in.
Has Mr. Rosario stated who he voted for in the 2020 presidential election?
Sorry, I meant Mr. Turco.
According to a piece in boston.com (https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2021/03/03/jeff-turco-abortion-rights-massachusetts-special-election-19th-suffolk), Mr. Turco claims to have voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.
From that piece (emphasis mine):
and
For those who may be unaware, “WinRed” is a fund-raising entity for the national GOP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinRed).
Mr. Turco should NOT be allowed to call himself a “Democrat” in the upcoming election or in the MA House.
Like it or not he is the Democratic nominee now. The state rejected ranked choice voting, which is the best procedural solution to this problem, by nearly ten percentage points. I’m willing to work with Pablo on the next best solution, which would be a top two or top three primary, but I also am not optimistic it would pass and have some concerns about the other problems it would create. Either way, I don’t think there’s a campaign for it at present and it would be at least four years away as a solution if it passed for the 22’ or 24’ ballot.
So we are left with three insurmountable facts. The first is that progressives routinely split the vote in primaries like this one. The second is that progressives are nationally focused and lack the infrastructure to compete locally and anoint candidates for the state house. The third is that very few voters care about local politics since the local media barely covers it. This race was decided by a few thousand voters in a district that represents 35,000. So it’s frustrating and a real reason I’m no longer interested in being a candidate myself or working for a campaign any time soon. The silver lining is I hope to someday be donating and holding signs for my students who did work for Juan, and I’m confident by the time they graduate from college Revere will be ready for them.
To be honest a lot of the politics is very relational, so I think the top two finishers assembled unusual coalitions to try and win. Juan got Bernie and Ayanna by he also got two city councilors who’ve backed Baker and Brown in the past. Turco got the police unions but he also got a few of the same trade unions that backed Joe Gravellese’s progressive campaign for the other open seat last year, The race also got upended by the last minute allegations against Tino who had a lot of early support and the failure of a fifth candidate who had the backing of Revere Mayor Arrigo to get on the ballot. So it really might just come down to Winthrop turnout exceeding Revere’s which benefited Turco.
You are right to emphasize turnout but I would go further. This was not a case of two progressives splitting the progressive vote. The two Winthrop candidates split the Winthrop vote, and the Revere candidate fell short of taking full advantage of that split.
Having one of the progressives drop out would not have helped, nor would RCV.I would argue that the setup progressives had was ideal. They had two chances to defeat Turco, either head to head in Winthrop or by getting a big turnout in Revere.
Politics is local. I am much less concerned with the “racism” of Winthrop voters who voted for a home town candidate than I am with the Biden administration endorsing apartheid in the middle east.
I’d be open to disallowing a nominee on the very objective standards we use for denying a convention seat – recent public support for another party’s nominee. However, that would require a law change and would almost certainly strike non-partisan, non-insider, non-activist, rank-and-file voters as undemocratic. Probably much more doable for a host of reasons to limit signatures and primary voting to registered Democrats.
I know conventions have their detractors, but I wonder if there would be a place for a district-level caucus where you have to get a certain percentage to get on the ballot like statewide candidates do at conventions. These tend to be attended by activists acting as gatekeepers which is part of why you don’t generally see successful DINO campaigns for statewide office.
Another poster child for RCV. I don’t understand why it was rejected. However I’m not comfortable with anything that sounds pressuring people who want to run not to do so. For all the progressive bellyaching about DeLeo maybe this just shows that the district is good for conservadems and not as left as others.
Also, I have something to get off my chest about Capobianco. I did not have a dog in this fight, but he is the one candidate I know personally through the DSC. He seems to have discovered he has a lot of fair weather friends. Based on my understanding of press reports, many big name endorsers yanked their support within hours of harassment allegations becoming public, without giving him half a chance to defend himself. From what I can tell they called him not to ask what he had to say for himself, but just to notify him that he no longer had their support. He adamantly denies the worst of the allegations, but cops to maybe acting like a high school and college kid when he was, you know, a high school and college kid. I don’t know him well enough to insist he would never do that which he is being accused of, but I do believe in giving the accused a chance to clear his name.
I think it’s complexity scared off some voters and there was a misguided perception it benefitted the Democrats which turned off Republican and independent voters who should have favored it as a way of making races more competitive. It is unlikely you’ll see a similarly strong or well funded coalition give it another to anytime soon, although I’d obviously vote for it again or a top two primary. Anything to alter this status quo.
One part of your comment I do take issue with is that only 36% of the voters in the 19th selected the conservative Democrat and nearly 58% voted for a progressive. This district isn’t is Cambridge or Somerville, but it isn’t Dracut either. I have a feeling either one of them could have beaten Turco in a two candidate primary. Juan already came within 300 votes of Turco in a four candidate race. As Scott Brown taught us, special election winners do not always reflect a majority of voters.
I want to be as terse as I can: I will not remain registered with a party that cannot find its way to in any way express its dismay at candidates like Mr. Turco or Ms. Garry calling themselves Democrats.
The media is filled with reports of how state GOP organizations nationwide are punishing their elected officials who behaved in ways that Donald Trump doesn’t like. So far as I know, those institutional entities operate under the same constraints as the Massachusetts Democratic Party.
It is as plain as day that the silence and paralysis of the Massachusetts Democratic Party is by its own choice.
I’ve heard all the excuses and I’m not interested in hearing them again.
I’m done.
You’re welcome to join me in the ranks of the unenrolled. I no longer have the intention to run for office, it’s doubtful I’ll attend a convention, and I like the fact that I can vote in either primary. In an ideal world none of us would be registered in a party and we wouldn’t have primaries.
Being a big tent is a blessing and a curse I guess. Registering as a Democrat means you support our values and platform, not that you favor every single nominee. Frankly, the voters of the district get to decide their nominee and their legislator and you aren’t one of them.
There is a middle ground between “favor every single nominee” and absolute unwillingness to even express an opinion on any nominee regardless of the offensiveness of their public statements and/or actions.
Yet another example of why we need ranked choice voting?
Not every endorsement has to mean something, but an organized statewide group should be able to get their endorsed candidate elected in a special election. Or else candidate eventually will cease caring about your endorsement.
It is pretty to think that “soul searching” will allow “progressives to around a single progressive candidate ahead of a crowded primary.”
Alas without a fair and generally accepted institutional mechanism for that consolidation, the soul can be searched in vain until the cows come home.
The failure to enact a majority-rules transferable ballot means that plurality-rules primaries will favor the well funded conservative over the vote-splitting progressives. There will tend to be more of the latter in progressive districts with different populations (black, asian, latino, women) asserting themselves.
I am not saying it is impossible, but for every progressive coalition that is built there weill be candidates decrying, and defying, the new “progressive establishment.”
It is a problem.
Let’s remember that in Massachusetts there were only 476,480 enrolled Republicans. When the 2020 ballots were counted, Donald Trump received 1,167,202 votes and GOP Senate candidate Kevin O’Connor received 1,177,765 votes.
There are a boatload of Republican-leaning unenrolled voters who are free to vote in a Democratic primary. There was no Republican contest last Tuesday, and the Republican candidate had a free pass to the special election.
A top-two blanket primary would have split the Republican-leaning unenrolled voters with Turco; chances are either Turco or the fully disclosed Republican would have advanced to the special election (not both) along with one of the genuine Democrats.
Yes indeed.
So not only are party labels meaningless, but the outcome of several generations of a Democratic supermajority in the state is an electoral system where actual Democrats are unable to defeat actual Republicans in a Democratic primary.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that doing anything at all to reinforce the Massachusetts Democratic Party is, in fact, counterproductive for any voter who cares about state elections.
I’d be OK with top two nomination contests, but I absolutely want voters to have a real choice between competing parties in the general.