Posted: 03/04/2022 17:02:05 Modified: 04/03/2022 17:01:40 Congratulations to journalist Bera Dunau for highlighting the lack of De...
Posted: 03/04/2022 17:02:05
Modified: 04/03/2022 17:01:40
Congratulations to journalist Bera Dunau for highlighting the lack of Democratic Party delegate caucuses in rural Hampshire county.
Let’s explore why that is. In January 2014, the Chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party asked me to draft a proposal for a rural subcommittee for the state party, which was passed in Lowell at the February 2014 meeting of the Committee of the Democratic State (DSC).
The panel was supposed to take the lead in working to organize Democratic Municipal Committees (DTCs) in localities where they currently do not exist. You need a working DTC to organize a caucus of delegates. It was also hoped that the rural subcommittee might help that year’s gubernatorial candidate (Martha Coakley) better compete for votes in the state’s small towns.
But Coakley never adopted a rural strategy. She did not campaign in rural towns, nor did she address issues of concern to rural voters such as agriculture, lack of broadband, or health care. She ran the same television ads in the Springfield market as in Boston and never used radio spots or advertisements in rural weeklies to reach outstate voters. Coakley vastly underperformed in rural Massachusetts and could have made up the 40,000 vote shortfall with which she lost the race with a focused effort in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Dukes counties.
The DSC has seats for every minority and special interest group except geographic minorities (rural people) and takes the votes and support of rural residents for granted. Unfortunately, the rural sub-committee was chaired by lazy and incompetent members of the DSC and never did anything but hold a few conference calls.
Senator Adam Hinds represents the Senate district with the most cities without DTCs, about a third of the 52 communities. With each city getting a minimum of two delegates, Hinds’ failure to hold DTCs last year means he could have had more than 35 delegates committed in his own district.
Nationally, the Democratic brand has become toxic in rural America. Here in Massachusetts, unregistered voters continue to outpace Democrats in registration.
Matt L. Barron
Chesterfield
COMMENTS