In four weeks, there's going to be a special election for an open seat in the State House of Representatives.
No, I'm not hallucinating, remembering the good ole days....In fact maybe these ARE the good ole days. But there have been two resignations from the House by people who joined the Patrick Administration and one of those elections will be held March 20th. No Republicans even FILED for the seat (which is a whole other discussion....) so March 20th is the deciding vote.
This district was represented by Jim Leary, who is now chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Tim Murray. It encompasses part of Worcester and West Boylston. Jim O'Day is a DSS Social Worker who has never run for elected office before. But he's being supported by the Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts. He was a delegate for Deval Patrick and Tim Murray at the last convention.
So why is this important?
Because Governor Patrick hasn't been in office more than about six weeks and already the wags are sharpening their knives. "Gotcha Politics" is rearing it's ugly head. I'd like to support someone who is willing to give the Governor's ideas an honest hearing and an intelligent debate. I think Jim O'Day is someone who can do that.
I've offered to make voter ID calls for Jim, and go to Worcester (work schedule permitting) on March 20th. I'm also trying to encourage people out in my neck of the woods to consider sending him a small donation ($25 or whatever people can afford.) I'll be collecting checks for "Committee to Elect Jim O'Day" in a mailbox that's now just called Margie Ware P O Box 976 North Adams MA 01247 and sending them to Jim as soon as possible. With only four weeks to go, resources are important. So I hope you'll join me in supporting someone who has been working in the vineyards of human services for a number of years and now wants to take that perspective to the Great and General Court.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Thursday, February 08, 2007
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Hey, things could be worse. We could live in New York State.
You see, they had this comptroller....Now, since I work in the Family Caregiver field, I should have felt sorry for Alan Hevesi. His wife was ill so he had state employees take her places.
Other family caregivers hire someone, take time off work or even take leaves of absence from their jobs. Alan had to do the third choice, but it wasn't HIS choice.
But what was really weird was that, because the Republicans didn't put up anyone decent to oppose him, when the feces hit the airconditioner, they didn't have a credible candidate to oppose him. Warning to MA Republicans. Not that we have any officeholders that would warrant abandonment....
So now, Alan H having been re-elected and then smartly resigned, they needed a new comptroller. Their new gov, like our new gov, came into office vowing to run state government another way. So he asked the legislature to promise that they'd pick a candidate from an independent screening panel.
Guess what? The panel DIDNT NAME ONE MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATURE AS A POTENTIAL COMPTROLLER. So what did the Legislature do? Name one of their own. He once balanced his own checkbook which I'm sure qualifies him to be Comptroller of NYState.
In the case of both MA and NY, there have been many years of R governors, and the Legislature has gotten used to giving the Gov the finger when they want to. Now there are new sheriffs in both towns, but there hasn't been any noticeable change in the attitude toward the collective corner offices.
But what do I know? Off to sunny CA where of course, there's a R governor and a Democratic Legislature. But I'm only staying for four days, so I doubt I'll be reforming their system over the weekend. But I will be sitting in the green room at the Jimmy Kimmel show and having high tea at the Biltmore.
Eat your hearts out.
You see, they had this comptroller....Now, since I work in the Family Caregiver field, I should have felt sorry for Alan Hevesi. His wife was ill so he had state employees take her places.
Other family caregivers hire someone, take time off work or even take leaves of absence from their jobs. Alan had to do the third choice, but it wasn't HIS choice.
But what was really weird was that, because the Republicans didn't put up anyone decent to oppose him, when the feces hit the airconditioner, they didn't have a credible candidate to oppose him. Warning to MA Republicans. Not that we have any officeholders that would warrant abandonment....
So now, Alan H having been re-elected and then smartly resigned, they needed a new comptroller. Their new gov, like our new gov, came into office vowing to run state government another way. So he asked the legislature to promise that they'd pick a candidate from an independent screening panel.
Guess what? The panel DIDNT NAME ONE MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATURE AS A POTENTIAL COMPTROLLER. So what did the Legislature do? Name one of their own. He once balanced his own checkbook which I'm sure qualifies him to be Comptroller of NYState.
In the case of both MA and NY, there have been many years of R governors, and the Legislature has gotten used to giving the Gov the finger when they want to. Now there are new sheriffs in both towns, but there hasn't been any noticeable change in the attitude toward the collective corner offices.
But what do I know? Off to sunny CA where of course, there's a R governor and a Democratic Legislature. But I'm only staying for four days, so I doubt I'll be reforming their system over the weekend. But I will be sitting in the green room at the Jimmy Kimmel show and having high tea at the Biltmore.
Eat your hearts out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)