[POLITICS] Primaries Coming Up -- Please Vote

[jducoeur]

This is a general message, but particularly targeted at folks in my local area (especially Waltham and Lexington).

State primary elections are happening shortly, at least in some localities. Please pay attention to these, because they matter more than usual this year.

In Waltham/Lexington, the current state rep is Tom Stanley. He's a middle-of-the-road politician: unremarkable but decent. But he's been a quiet but consistent supporter of gay rights throughout the brouhaha of the past year. He's being challenged for the Democratic nomination by someone who, from all accounts, wants to change the state constitution to outlaw gay marriage.

I suspect this situation isn't unusual. The gay-marriage fight isn't over yet, and next year is going to be a key showdown, as the conservatives try to edit the basic laws of the land to outlaw it. There's every reason to believe they can get away with it -- the state house is pretty evenly divided, and a swing of just a few seats either way may make a big difference.

This being Massachusetts, this fight is going to play out more in the primaries than in the election itself: in many areas, it's a foregone conclusion that a Democrat will win, but it is *not* always clear where that Democrat stands on the issue. So do some research, see where your candidates stand, and if someone's running who is on the right side of the issue, please make the effort to vote for them. The primary in Waltham is September 14th; I'm not clear on whether that applies to other towns as well, but I suspect it does.

(Yes, I consider this an issue that has a "right" side and a "wrong" side. That's fairly unusual for me, but I have yet to see an argument against gay marriage that isn't wholly spurious.)

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I'm confused. I can't find any good information on Stanley; I should have detained him longer when he dropped by on his door-to-door rounds. The only stuff I can find is a bulletin claiming he's anti-choice and implying he's *against* gay marriage. Do you have a better online source?

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

http://www.tomstanley.org/issues%20and%20priorities.html#Same-Sex%20Marriage%20and%20the%20Constitutional%20Amendment

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

I hit send too soon. Also this one:
http://www.tomstanley.org/news-3-18-2004.html

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Man, that boy needs some more Googlejuice. Thanks.

I knew he had a website -- we chatted about it -- but I was blocking on its name...

[jducoeur]

No, this is clearly incorrect; wouldn't astonish me if it's intentional misrepresentation on someone's part, but I haven't seen it. Stanley's voting record has been down-the-line pro-gay-marriage. I've been checking up on my representatives every time the subject comes up in the legislature, and sending them encouraging notes when they vote correctly.

He tends to stay a bit under-the-radar on the matter, presumably because Waltham has a fairly substantial conservative blue-collar crowd, but he has a separate mailing list for the gay-rights voters he knows about. (At least, that's my interpretation of the fact that the mailings on this issue seem to be completely separate from those on all the others.) I can't claim that this is a courageous approach, but I can understand it as pragmatic. Frankly, I care much more about voting record than rhetoric.

Kathy McMenimen, OTOH, sent a glossy flyer around a while ago, stating that marriage was between one woman and one man and that she would seek a constitutional amendment to that effect. So the election is between a quiet supporter of gay rights, and a loud opponent. Easy choice...

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Here's the horribly-authoritative link -- to an email conversation on a NOW mailing list, which claims he is "anti-choice, as well as anti-clean elections, and pro-Finneran", whatever that means.

http://www.green-rainbow.org/pipermail/cdlc-elections-middle/2004-July/000026.html

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

For details on your local ballots, use http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Having checked mine for Arlington, the Democractic incumbents have all worked for equal rights. Zing! They get my vote.

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

I was wary of typing my street address in what looks like a commercial web-site. It appears to inter-operate with the www.sec.state.ma.us which appears to be an official state web-site. There are links back and forth between that and wheredoivotema.com, and the sites share the same design. Yet wheredoivotema.com is registered to Pinkerton Security Consultants, Inc. Perhaps I'm being silly, but I find this suspicious.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Got neighbors? (:-)

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Pinkerton could answer that.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

How useful! Now I have a list of all the actual numbered houses on my street. Since this list is 5 numbers long, this is actually useful...

[matildalucet.livejournal.com]

Thanks! My local paper has helpfully reminded me of the upcoming primary, but totally failed to tell me if there were any actual contests. It turns out that, at least in my ward and precinct, the only contest is on the Democratic ballot and is for sheriff.

Anybody know what the sheriff does, or if I should care?

[kiya]

I don't know if any of your readers are up here in Ward 3, Precinct 4, but if they are, State Rep. Petersen is being opposed in the primary.

I've written to Petersen several times on the subject of marriage rights for everyone, and he's written back to me to inform me that he's on the right side. I'm looking forward to voting for him next week.