Progressive Democrats of Cambridge - DFA

Why not?

Adam Reilly today discusses the race card, so far a non-issue in the spate of statewide races going on this year. Barney frank brought it up in his endorsement of Deval Patrick yesterday, but not much was made of Frank's comments.

DFA has a pretty good track record supporting minority candidates for statewide office - we jumped on the Barack Obama bandwagon long before he was popular in 2004, and now we've got Deval Patrick's back. Locally we've been supportive of Ken Reeves and Denise Simmons. Had he continued in his race for Middlesex DA, we probably would have endorsed Jarrett Barrios (note that I'm only speculating/guessing based on what I pick up at DFA Cambridge meetings; we didn't take any straw polls or any other semi-official measures.) Last year, DFA Boston was a bulwark of Felix Arroyo's campaign and especially Sam Yoon's campaign; Progressive Democrats of Somerville supported Marty Martinez and Herby Duverne. I'd like to think we're doing a decent job supporting minority candidates, although of course there's always room to improve.

In particular, I think we need to do a better job of recruiting and promoting minority candidates. DFA Cambridge is a little behind the curve as far as that goes, to be honest; PDS has done exceptional work in propelling its members into the ranks of credible candidates, with both Martinez and Duverne doing admirably last year, although not quite hitting the mark. We need to start looking for, and promising our suppor to, minorities throughout Cambridge who would do a good job in city council, the state house, and beyond. And we need to start early.

To promote candidates to the statewide level, we need to work together with our fellow DFA groups throughout the state, to identify and support strong minority candidates who are capable of running statewide campaigns, up and down the ballot. But we also need to pressure our US Reps and Senators to move on. Kennedy and Kerry are great, in their own wonderful ways, but we need to encourage them to step aside so that fresh voices can bubble up through the ranks. Were Kennedy to have stepped down this year, for example, I believe we would have seen at least two or three, if not more, of our US Reps running for his seat. That would have enabled many wonderful state representatives to step up and run for the US House, and eventually, the US Senate. Were Kennedy and Kerry to both step down, it would be entirely plausible that we could have a Senator Byron Rushing representing Massachusetts by 2008, and certainly a Representative Barrios by then.