Beyond 495

Well, I finally got my GPS-stuff together and managed to make it to the DSC meeting in Newton on Thursday night. I try to avoid Thursday night meetings because my favorite teevee show, The Office (8:30 PM on NBC - Go Team Pam!) is on that night, but it was a repeat, so I managed to pry myself off the couch.

It was great to see sco and Andy. It’s been too long since we had a chance to hang out. We made our way to the peanut gallery to take in the meeting. As I’ve mentioned before, things at these meetings move pretty fast. There’s a lot more inside.

As already reported by sco at .08 Acres, and the Globe, Phil Johnston will be stepping down within the next 30 days and has endorsed John Walsh for State Commitee Chair. Phil made a very heartfelt farewell speech where he thanked everyone on the commitee and executive board for their service. He also told a very charming story about how his mother raised him to be a good democrat though example. During the civil rights era, his mother organized a rally at the Woolworth’s in Wellsley in solidarity with the similar demostrations going on down south to desegrate the Woolworth’s lunch counter.

John Walsh was also elected Deputy Treasurer of the State Party, so now he is a full member of the DSC. I guess the third time was the charm. All kidding aside, I think John is going to make an excellent DSC Chair.

During the gubernatorial campaign the top two questions/comments I would always seem to get were: “Hey, can you tell Deval…” (insert your pet project/issue/complaint) Yeah. Like I have Deval Patrick on my speed dial. (I don’t) and “What are you getting in return for working for Deval Patrick?” Well, I got a $200.00 speeding ticket (running late from a GLAD meeting to a DLP field meeting - my husband was psyched!), I went from using 6% of my allotted phone/text messaging minutes to using 140%, and I got a thank you call (not a robo-call, unless they can personalize those now) from Deval that is still on my answering machine - because yes, I’m nerdy like that. In the back of my mind, what I really hoped for was that with a more progressive, action-oriented governor, we’d get a more progressive, action-oriented state party. I’m hoping with John Walsh running things, we’ll see some improvements on that front. Not overnight, mind you. I get that change comes slowly, especially with an organization as large as the state party.

What’s on my wish list? Three things:

1. Publicize where and when the subcommittee meetings are held. According to the charter (Article 8: Section 2), these meetings are open to the public. I’ve asked several times for those meeting dates to be published on the Mass Dems calendar. I’ve never been told outright that they won’t or can’t do it, they just never do.

2. Level the playing field so smaller communities (with smaller delegate counts) can compete fairly for seats on the state committee. In my senate district, you can have every vote of all the smaller towns, but you will never come close to the delegate counts of even one of the three cities.

3. Make state commitee membership more accountable.
For some, not all, mind you but for some DSC members, being on the state committee is just something nice to put on their resume. If you go to the trouble of getting on the committee, which is not easy, at least follow up by being responsive to the people you’re representing. I’ve met too many activists from too many areas around the state who first, don’t have any idea who their state committee members are, and second, don’t have any idea of what they do, or should be doing. Article 3: Section I of the charter says the state committee is intended to be a working committee.

That’s just for starters. Don’t even get me going on local committee chairs who never have meetings, or communities that don’t have committees at all.

UPDATE: Uh, the meeting was actually in Newton, not Natick. No wonder I get lost with GPS! Thanks, sco for keeping me on track.