If you live in the 21st Middlesex district here in MA – that’s Burlington, Bedford, and a corner of Wilmington – please vote to re-elect State Rep. Ken Gordon on Nov. 4.

There haven’t been many times in my life where I’ve felt fortunate to be represented by the person who did/does.  I feel fortunate to be represented by Ken.  In fact, with apologies to Sen. Warren and State Sen. Mike Barrett, I can’t think of an elected representative that I’ve felt better about.   Not only does Ken do a great job representing the district but, as a fellow Bedford resident commented several months ago, he’s one of those rare people who can sit down with someone who has fundamentally different beliefs, talk through the issue at hand, and come up with a solution which all are pleased with.  We need more of that.

From his website, some of Ken’s accomplishments during his first term in office:

Traffic

Ken worked with The Middlesex 3 Coalition to reduce the traffic problems in Burlington and throughout the district, and has been honored for this work with its 2014 Economic Development Advocate Award:

“When it comes to addressing traffic concerns in our area, nobody has worked harder,” said Buckley, who is also on the board of Middlesex 3, a group of business and municipal leaders. “He realized early on that addressing our traffic problems required a regional approach, and Middlesex 3 is a consortium from various towns that is set up to address it.  Rep. Gordon came to all our meetings,  and pitched right in.  He helped us obtain one round of state funding and is working with us on another. We can count on him to follow through.”

Ken obtained funding so that The Middlesex 3 Coalition could form a Transportation Management Association to reduce the number of cars on the road, by offering an alternative to business owners such as bringing their employees to work through shuttle buses and ride shares.

Jobs

Ken partnered with The Burlington Area Chamber of Commerce, which has honored him with its 2014 Partners in Prosperity Award for his work bringing new businesses to Burlington, thereby creating new jobs:

“Representative Gordon has worked tirelessly and effectively for the businesses in Burlington and we want to recognize him for it,” said the Chamber’s outgoing president, Jim Murphy. “He came to us early on and we knew we had an open door.  He has proven to be an effective advocate for the businesses and the residents of Burlington and we are proud to recognize him with our Partners in Prosperity Award.”

Ken steered Burlington’s request for additional liquor licenses through the legislature, overcoming opposition from House leadership by drafting original language that satisfied all parties. The new licenses helped Burlington welcome several new restaurants in the past two years.

Schools

Ken won increased state aid and school funding for Burlington, Bedford and Wilmington.  Ken worked with Sen. Mike Barrett to win permanent funding of more than half a million dollars annually to reimburse Bedford for the education of children of military families at Hanscom Air Force Base.
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Please vote in the primary election next Tuesday, Sept. 9.   Independents as well as Democrats can pick up Democratic ballot.   I encourage you to support former Treasurer Steve Grossman for Governor.

See the Sept. 3 Democratic candidates debate here.

Read a summary of the debate here in the Lowell Sun or listen to WBUR’s summary here.  Listen from the 2:00 min mark until about the 2:30 mark for my core criticism of Coakley, i.e., lack of a coherent plan to achieve her stated objectives.   In contrast, Grossman has plausible plans for achieving his objectives.  When it comes to the chief executive, good ideas are worthless if they can’t execute them.

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There are three good candidates running for Lt. Governor:  Mike Lake, Steve Kerrigan, and Leland Cheung.  I’ll be voting for Mike Lake.  Why Lake?  Cheung seems very solid on the issues but the vibe I get from him is that he’s not yet ready to step up and be an effective Governor if he had to do so.  That said, I hope he runs for statewide office again in the future.  In the end it came down to Kerrigan and Lake for me. I’m confident either could step up and serve as Governor should the need arise.  Both seem good issues.  In the end, I decided on Lake because he’s opposed to casinos and supports repeal the casino law whereas Kerrigan is a casino supporter.   It was close.  Casinos were the tie-breaker.

I believe both Maura Healey and Warren Tolman would make a good AG.  (I liked Tolman when he ran for Governor in 2002.)  Again, I’m using their views on casinos as the tie-breaker.  Healey is opposed and Tolman is in favor so my vote goes to Healey.  (I believe she’ll enforce the law no matter what it is.  I just like that she’s on record that casinos are a bad idea for MA.)

I other day I commented that I believe we’d be better off doing away with the Governor’s Council and transferring their responsibilities to the MA House or Senate.  (Their primary responsibility is to approve/disapprove judicial nominations.)  That stated, the Council isn’t going away anytime soon.   The two candidates on the Democratic primary ballot are Charlie Shapiro and the incumbent, Marilyn Devaney.  I’ve had two face-to-face interactions with Ms. Devaney, one at a Democratic Town Committee meeting in 2012 and the other at the polls in 2012.   Continue reading →

Another endorsement for Tuesday’s Democratic primary:  There are three strong candidates for Treasurer:  Tom Conroy, Barry Finegold, and Deborah Goldberg.  I’m supporting Tom Conroy.

Tom is a State Rep from Maynard, Sudbury, and Wayland.  I know one person who’s worked with him on legislative issues and has high praise for him based on that.  The Boston Globe has endorsed him.  I’ll quote from their endorsement here:

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This article is nearly six years old but I have no reason to believe things have changed:

The Governor’s Council is a prestigious-sounding, 229-year-old elected board that was originally formed in the newly independent Commonwealth to check executive muscle. But the council has slipped in stature since the days it counted among its members such names as Samuel Adams, and is today little more than a ceremonial eight-member rubber-stamp and favor-bank headquarters for political beauty contestants.

The current, all-Democratic devolved Governor’s Council — also known as the Executive Council, or, officially, simply as the council — is a well-below-the-radar, arguably useless curiosity, but, mind you, one that costs taxpayers approximately $400,000 each year for eight $26,025 salaries plus administrative support.

Of the State House insiders who even know the obscure body’s function — which is primarily to vote on judicial appointments — many, including at least one former governor and several sitting legislators, believe that the council should be axed altogether. “The council may have been necessary to regulate the actions of a governor appointed by the English monarchy, but its purpose is clearly archaic,” says Democratic state senator Brian Joyce of Milton, who, along with State Representative Barry Finegold, a Democrat from Andover, filed unsuccessful legislation to do away with the council in 2004, and plans to do so again this session. “Abolishing the Governor’s Council [would be] a small but important step toward streamlining government.”

The purpose of having a committee that automatically approves the judges recommended to it seems redundant. One 12-year member of the council, Marilyn Petitto Devaney of Watertown, admits that she can recall only one instance in her tenure that the council voted against a recommended judge. But more insidious is the claim that the council is an out-of-the-spotlight arena for pay-to-play politics.

“Every time there’s anything significant written about the council,” concedes rebel council member and Peabody attorney Mary-Ellen Manning, “we come out looking like a bunch of buffoons.” It takes just a few minutes in their chambers to see why. What’s not so clear, however, is why this long-standing farce is still running.

Read the entire article here.  (Barry Finegold did follow up on trying to do away with it but apparently his efforts were unsuccessful.)

Some more recent news:

• Oft-overlooked panel drawing new scrutiny
• Ethnic tensions flare over governor’s judicial nomine
• Judge nominee gets unfair rap in Armenian genocide dispute
• Manufacturing madness

A request:  If you’ll be a delegate at this weekend’s Democratic state convention then please vote for one of the candidates other than Martha Coakley when you vote to endorse a candidate for governor.   Actually, please vote for whoever appears to be in second place so that there will be at least two candidates on the primary ballot this September.

For those not in the know, Democratic candidates for governor must receive at least 15% of delegate votes at the state convention in order to get on the primary ballot.  Coakley currently leads Treasurer Steve Grossman 49% to 14% according to a recent poll.   (The other three candidates only have low single-digit support.)  I have no idea how that translates into support amongst convention delegates but I really don’t like the thought of an uncontested primary.  Not to be coy, it’s not just the thought of an uncontested primary that bothers me.  I just plain don’t care for Martha Coakley.

Why don’t I like Coakley as a candidate?  Simple:  I listen to her speak and visit her website and what immediately comes to mind is “Poll-tested platitudes.”  I’ll elaborate.

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