Minutes of Dec 20, 2005 Meeting

Written by: Fred Berman on Jan 2, 2006 11:20 AM EST

Linked to groups: Progressive Democrats of Somerville

Progressive Democrats of Somerville
Minutes of the General Meeting: Tuesday December 20, 2005

After a round of introductions, we moved on to the agenda.

City Committee Brunch and Candidates' Debate: We reviewed the City Committee brunch and candidates' debate between Denise Provost and Elizabeth Moroney held on Sunday, 12/18 at the Good Times Emporium. (For a few new people in attendance, we explained how Ward Committees and the City Committee fit into the big political picture.)

At the debate, the two candidates spoke to their strengths, and answered some difficult questions posed (in writing) by their opposition. We agreed that Denise Provost (whom PDS has endorsed) made the best case for election. The tenor of the debate was polite. Chairperson Helen Corrigan urged members to put aside past divisions to work to elect a Democrat as Governor once this election is over. Many toys were collected for donation.

Denise Provost Campaign: PDS members were urged to join in making calls for Denise in the coming week. After a brief pause in activity during Christmas weekend, the campaign will resume contacting voters. Volunteers will be needed throughout that week all the way through Election Day. Call 617-625-3500 for details about volunteering. There are plenty of coffee and food options close by in Davis Square to reward yourself for your efforts.

Governor's Race: Representatives from the two Democratic candidates (Tom Reilly and Deval Patrick) made brief statements about why their candidate should become the next Governor, and then answered questions from PDS members about their candidate's track record and/or position on such issues as tax policy, health care reform, same sex marriage, smart growth, greenhouse gas reduction, the death penalty, judicial sentencing reform, and strategy for addressing poverty.

PDS member Ofer Inbar used his web-connected laptop to supplement answers from the campaign representatives with information from their respective websites.

Although the campaign reps did a valiant job, there were a number of questions they could not answer fully; they will return next month with those answers.

Although from this participant's seat, there seemed to be more support for Deval Patrick than for Tom Reilly in the room, there was near unanimous agreement that we did not have enough information to be able to make an endorsement at that time.

One PDS member seemed to capture the group's sense of the gap in information:

While many are drawn to Deval Patrick's positions on the issues, there is less information about what he has accomplished in his past work. He has not held elective office, we are unsure about his accomplishments enforcing civil rights in the Clinton Administration, and we don't know much about the success of his efforts to reform corporate America as an employee of Coca Cola or as a board member of Ameriquest.

We know more about Tom Reilly's track record, but are less comfortable with his positions on taxes (willing to roll back the income tax rate to 5% if revenues continue at their current pace), supportive of the death penalty, hostile to the House proposal to expand health care coverage through employer and individual mandates, against Cape Wind, and apparently less supportive of same sex marriage).

In some ways, the race between Reilly and Patrick replays the fight between forces favoring an outsider champion of the progressive principles espoused in the Democratic State Party's Platform and the forces favoring an insider candidate who has proven himself to be "electable", and whose more moderate positions offer the possibility of capturing the “center� from the opposing Republican candidate.

No matter who wins the Democratic nomination, they will have a very tough race against Kerry Healey.

Ward Caucuses: Ward Caucuses to nominate delegates to the Convention will be held on Saturday, February 4th. PDS will work hard to ensure that progressives are well represented as delegates from Somerville. Organizing captains for the various wards were selected. Most organizing work will happen after the State Rep election on January 10th. The discussion about whether PDS must endorse a candidate in order to be effective at the caucuses was inconclusive, though we agreed that we will try to be prepared to make an endorsement at our Jan. 24 meeting.

Membership Committee Report: Fred Berman reported on a meeting held by the Membership Committee to plan next steps for engaging the membership in activities that will build awareness of and interest in PDS.

Over the past 6-7 months, nearly all of PDS's focus has been on winning elections, and it is time to invest some of our energies in other aspects of our mission. We agreed to begin individually contacting our members, so as to engage them in organizing two community forums (a list of possible topics had been brainstormed at previous meetings) and developing brief essays about City government that we can publish and compile into a brochure.

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Location: Somerville, MA 02144