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 8th
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.
