Recommendations for Worcester's municipal election from Margot Barnet and David Coyne

Friends,

For several years now we have written and shared with friends and allies our opinions about candidates running for office.  We do this with sincere humility and a tremendous sense of responsibility, with our best thoughtfulness and attention.  We came to do this originally and now return to it in response to requests from some friends who, much to our amazement, respect and appreciate our attention to things political and electoral and actually have asked for our advice.

We offer this today, to some of you for the first time, to others once again.  Of course, you should feel free to ignore our views, to disagree partially or even completely, to vote your own conscience, or, if you so choose, to share our views with your friends and allies as well.  We welcome your sharing your own views with us.  

This year’s Worcester municipal elections are fraught with high stakes volatility.  At a level that we have not seen before in our more than two and a half decades living here, this election presents a series of choices that reflect dramatically different assumptions about both the purpose of government and its legitimacy, and about the current state of our city and its prospects for the future.  Our personal choices, in the light of such a debate, obviously reflect our own values and perceptions.  And we owe you at least a brief articulation of where we are so that you can determine for yourself if your own views and sensibilities would lead you to similar conclusions.

In a healthy democracy, people feel that their votes and voices matter.  When many people do not feel this, and feel squeezed, both economically and by unsustainable demands on their time, unscrupulous media and candidates can exploit their unease with demagoguery.  They fan people’s fears, and they blame and demonize the members of our community who have the least resource and the most visible breakdown of social fabric. 

By contrast there are many people in our community who struggle in many different ways to promote a livable community for everyone.  We have witnessed and been inspired by how people from really tough circumstances blossom, move toward self-sufficiency, develop leadership, and come together to solve problems when they are approached with respect and dignity.  Local government, while it often cannot on its own provide sufficient resources, can play a big role in shaping a culture that embodies the respect and dignity that allows people from different backgrounds to partner and find solutions together. 

We support candidates who believe that government has a constructive role to play, who respect the dignity and are willing to listen to the stories of everyone in our community, and who work to build consensus to solve the problems we face.  We need leaders who have the vision and courage to challenge demagoguery whenever it occurs. 

With all of this in mind we are supporting the following candidates:

Joseph “Joe” Petty for Mayor and City Councilor at Large

Morris “Moe” Bergman, Khrystian King, Linda Parham, Matt Wally, and Christina “Tina” Zlody for City Councilor at Large.

Some people contend that the best way to support their candidates of choice is by bullet voting, by voting for fewer and sometime many fewer candidates than there are spots.  In this case we believe block voting will be more effective, as bullet voting leaves too much room for candidates who should be defeated. 

We are declining to comment on district council races except for District 4, where our good friend Sarai Rivera is facing a challenge from a candidate with a very different agenda.  Sarai understands and embodies the vision we outlined above more than anyone else in our city leadership.  It is crucial that she return for another term. 

We have quite honestly paid far less attention to the race for School Committee this year.  Three incumbent members of the School Committee have, we believe, provided high quality consistent leadership and representation.  We will be voting for Jack Foley, Tracy O’Connell Novick, and Hilda Ramirez.  We also urge you to reject the candidacy of Donna Colorio, a Tea Party extremist.

For more background about our choices, see our September blog post here.  Our thoughts and vision about public policy for a healthy future require a much longer series of conversations, and we invite you to engage in them with us.  Please let us know if you would like to talk with us about anything we have touched on after Tuesday’s election. 

Thank you for your attention and for exercising your sacred right to vote,

Margot and David

Recommendations for Worcester’s Preliminary Election from Margot Barnet and David Coyne

Some of our friends have asked us for our recommendations for this year’s municipal election.  We are always honored that people we know and respect value our opinions! 

The Preliminary Election on Tuesday, September 8^th will narrow the field for at-large city council, eliminating four candidates from November’s ballot.  You get to vote for up to six.  In November the top 12 will be on the ballot for the six at-large seats, as well as candidates for district councilor and school committee.  The election for Mayor will also take place in November.  Under Worcester’s charter, all candidates for at-large City Council are automatically candidates for Mayor unless they opt out a week after the preliminary.  (Most usually opt out.  This year only Mayor Joe Petty and Councilor Mike Gaffney have so far declared their candidacy for Mayor.)

We are so late in getting out our list of recommendations this year because it has been hard to figure out our choices.  We have seen a lack of political courage and skill among most incumbent councilors and are more certain of who we do NOT want to vote for than those we do want to support.  Despite this disappointment, we believe there are substantial differences among the candidates and that the election of some of them portend serious harm to our city. 

We ask you to join us in supporting and voting for Joe Petty for Councilor at Large and, in November, Mayor, as well as Moe Bergman, Khrystian King, Linda Parham, and Tina Zlody, for Councilors at Large. 

We have left open one slot for an additional candidate of your choice.  However, we ask you to NOT vote for Konnie Lukes or Mike Gaffney. 

Here are some of the issues that are important to us and the reasons for our choices.  We will weigh in on school committee and district council races after the preliminary.  We will discuss the Mayor’s race now because it is relevant to how votes for the at-large councilors are distributed. 

Both of us value, and have worked for many years to promote, a healthy, vibrant community.  This has many dimensions.  We proudly recognize Worcester’s leadership on issues of primarily environmental concern like recycling and becoming a Green Community.  Being a healthy community also includes fostering a locally based economy so that good jobs are close to where we live, local dollars build local prosperity, and economic relationships are based on trust.  It includes a culture of respect for people of all backgrounds and stations in life, including making sure that voices of historically disenfranchised populations are heard.  It includes recognizing that public safety depends on relationships of trust.  Policing, a dangerous and important job, is made more difficult when large swaths of law-abiding residents believe they cannot trust the police to treat them fairly. 

Issues of race relations have been in the forefront in Worcester in the past year as they have been around the country.  We have been present as members of People of Color communities, many of them our longtime allies in social justice work, spoke out about racial disparities in the community, especially regarding law enforcement .  We regret that none of the at-large city councilors seeking re-election exhibited courageous and effective leadership in addressing these issues.  However, some city officials have tried to play constructive roles while others have initiated actions that were decidedly not constructive.  This distinction informs our choices for future leadership. 

Mayor Joseph Petty has brought a constructive mindset to the challenging issues of racial disparities.  He has brought groups together both in public and behind the scenes for useful discussions and has made sure that voices are heard.  He has also been a visible and outspoken supporter of initiatives promoting worker justice and a strong local workforce. 

While our point of view on several issues differs from that of Councilor Moe Bergman, we see him as a person of integrity who is dedicated to improving the community for all of its residents.  He has actively engaged with some leaders in the People of Color communities and is open to learning from people whose backgrounds differ from his. 

Khrystian King has demonstrated a grasp of the relationship between youth empowerment and good public health and safety outcomes that goes beyond what most public officials express. He is articulate and practical in his policy statements.  We think he would be a great asset to the City Council. 

Rev. Linda Parham brings a grassroots community organizing perspective to the City Council race.  She played a key role in the Initiative for Engaged Citizenship, a local organization dedicated to bringing new voters into the electorate and sponsoring meaningful voter education forums.  Her leadership has promoted a dramatic increase in participation of members of minority communities in electoral politics.   We believe Linda would be an asset to the City Council. 

Christina “Tina” Zlody has contributed enormously to the quality of life in Worcester and to the economic viability of local artisans through the stArt on the Street program which she co-founded and co-directs.  She brings a can-do attitude, a wealth of organizing experience, and a generally progressive outlook to the City Council race.  She also would be an asset to the Council. 

Here are some thoughts on our recommendations for NO votes.  Both Councilors Lukes and Gaffney have introduced resolutions to the City Council that have taken issues of race relations in the wrong direction.  When informed of the divisiveness of their proposals and asked to withdraw their motions, they instead doubled down.  As a mayoral candidate, Gaffney is really dangerous.  He is positioning himself as an anti-establishment populist, so he has some appeal to people who feel the system isn’t serving them.  But he plays to the lowest impulses in civic life.  He engages in fantasyland rhetoric around public resources (lower taxes and spending while bringing in more police and more support for schools).  Both Gaffney and Lukes have taken the lead from a hate-spewing local blog, attacking local programs that improve lives and conditions in impoverished and disenfranchised communities. The quality of our civic discourse would be enhanced if they were not re-elected to the Council.  Gaffney’s and Petty’s respective showings in the preliminary election could well impact their chances in the Mayor’s race in November. 

There is a lot of background to the points we have made, but we have tried to keep this brief.  Please contact us if you have any questions or comments.