Deval Patrick Discussion Forum

Note to a California friend:  Come live in MA. where winters are mild, no forest fires or mud slides, where Spring starts late and lasts till July and where we have 10,000 citizens back seat driving the Governor, outnumbering the legislature by a log or two.

 

Went to a house party this weekend.  It was for campaign volunteers that wanted more personal contact than just mass email. It was a small house, a few of the girls had pooled their lunch money for cookies and such.

 

Andie and I got there just before Tim Murray, our new LT Governor, arrived ( He even does house parties!)  Cars lined the little street for over a half mile. We found ~200 people milling about the house and yard! Some from as far away as 100 miles! My facts may be a little off, but my impressions are emotionally real.

 

I felt like I was back at the beginning of this country again - mobs of citizens involved with a pretty strong minority of legislators - mixing it up in conversations about how to run the Commonwealth.  No lobbyists, no public funds spent, State reps who know citizens by first name, no press coverage,

 

This kind of informal thing is going on all over the state right now!  There seemed to be marginal participation from the formal Democratic Party old guard. Even though the outgoing administration has left a vastly different financial (and poorer) situation than they said, you can feel the excitment of taking over from politics as usual.

 

Then there are the Formal Meetings. There are dozens of specific subject transition teams with about 15 appointed members each moving thru the state with biweekly public meetings to collect input from citizens. They are attended by 50 or so citizens whose special interest is that team's area of responsibility and who want to tell their district's problems and point of view.  There are three massive citizen email groups interacting with the administrations websites to make it possible to sort out all the incoming into manageable majorities.

 

This whole grassroots movement has taken the place of massive campaign spending, misleading TV ads and old boy networks.  The whole 2 year campaign was done with something less than $5 million, mostly from small individual contributions.

 

Just when you thought the country was going to Hell in a handbasket, old Massachusetts rises up from the past and goes activist again!  I just hope those silly three cornered hats don't come back with it!

 

Jay Gilchrist

Milford Town Patrick Murray Coordinator

Treasurer, Town Democratic Committee

First Time Activist