The Democratic Platform Process: Make it Progressive, Make Sure They Act on It

We’ve worked with ORMA and PDA to come up with solid progressive principles to help guide advocates engaging in the MassDems platform hearings. Check them out–but remember, the party platform is not policy. We have to hold lawmakers to account for the values in their party’s platform.

Many of our activist member volunteers work with the Democratic party, a fundamental principle of our point of view is that the Democratic party—especially in Massachusetts—needs to be pulled, and sometimes pushed, to the left. While  the Democratic ideals are on the whole worthwhile, the actual practice of governing has not yielded progressive policy:

  • Massachusetts does not have paid family and medical leave
  • Massachusetts has been chronically underfunding education from pre-K to higher-ed.
  • Massachusetts does not have single-payer health care, or even a plan to move in that direction
  • Massachusetts has a criminal justice system that replicates the racial injustices seen in other states
  • Massachusetts is not a “sanctuary” or “safe community” state
  • Massachusetts has undergone a series of devastating budget cuts for years, to accommodate a tax structure that gives the wealthiest a discount at everyone else’s expense
  • Massachusetts has underinvested in public transit for decades

Engaging in the Platform hearings process can help ensure that the stated, written principles of the Party which holds a veto-proof supermajority in both houses of the Legislature, is as boldly progressive as possible. And it is one of the means by which activists can start to build change “from the ground up” and “from inside.”

However, we must again stress that the Platform is but a promise that has been broken again and again at a legislative level. It’s not enough to craft a strong progressive platform. We need to hold Democratic Legislators to fighting for them.

This is why in addition to our progressive plank recommendations, we ask you to use our Legislative Agenda, which has identified current bills in the 2017-2018 legislative session that would move our Commonwealth in the direction of fulfilling the promises of a strong Platform.

If the Party platform is the promise, the legislation we’ve identified are real, viable steps to fulfilling them.

So, find out where your legislator stands on the bills on our Agenda, and push for their passage. Keep track, and stay involved. SEE MORE AT: PROGRESSIVEMASS.COM/AGENDA

And, we need to keep organizing, building our capacity as an engaged, progressive electorate. One of the biggest parts of politics is just showing up at the right moments. Attend hearings, town halls, and other events in your community–not just to speak your mind, but to connect with neighbors. The fights we face are vast and complex, and we will need strength and endurance and organizing for the long game: we must find allies, organize and work together. Progressive Mass has chapters and community groups all over MA, connecting and organizing, too; building progressive power through grassroots organizing, issue education and electoral/legislative activism is central to our mission. Become a member, connect, sign up! progressivemass.com/signup.

Beacon Hill, How About a Raise for Massachusetts Workers, Too?

A new legislative session in the Legislature typically kicks off with a string of votes setting the rules for the following two years.

But this year, before taking up the rules (or even finalizing offices and committee assignments), the House and Senate voted to raise the salaries and stipends for ranking legislative officers (such as Senate President Stan Rosenberg and House Speaker Robert DeLeo, among others), state constitutional officers (Governor Charlie Baker, AG Maura Healey, etc.), and judges.

And then the Thursday before last, both chambers easily overrode Governor Baker’s veto, with dissent coming from Republicans, a handful of conservative Democrats, and a trio of progressive Democrats (Jon Hecht of Watertown, Denise Provost of Somerville, and Mike Connolly of Cambridge).

Let’s be clear: paying public servants well is important to good governance.

If such offices are not well-compensated, then only those who are already well-off will be interested in running or serving.

And sufficient compensation can also reduce the need for legislators to have jobs on the side, a Pandora’s box of ethics conflicts.

Nonetheless, given the details and the context of the pay raise, it should be no surprise that it has rubbed many progressive voters the wrong way.

Process

First of all, the bill was rushed through at the start of the session without the deliberation and public input that a democratic process necessitates. The numbers in the bill did not come out of thin air—they stem from a 2014 Advisory Commission. But the report has sat largely dormant since then. A report is no substitute for public hearings and debate.

Priorities

But, more importantly, the whole episode reflects poorly on the Legislature’s priorities.

Although some Democratic legislators have spoken out against Governor Baker’s recent $98 million 9C cuts, they have acquiesced to a framework of austerity year after year for the state budget, averse to raising new revenue and content to underinvest in our public infrastructure, from transit and schools.

Funding the pay raise will require either new revenue or new cuts, and Beacon Hill always seems to prefer the latter.

Moreover, despite Democrats’ overwhelmingly large veto-proof majorities in both houses, Leadership (as well as many in the rank-and-file) has adopted a chummy and non-confrontational relationship with Governor Baker. They rarely send bills to his desk that they expect him to veto. This one is a notable profile in courage…for legislator raises. 

It is true that during budget season, Democrats will override line item vetoes (particularly on earmarks), but, overall, the Legislature is advancing a bold and comprehensive progressive agenda—in rhetoric or action–regardless of the affable Governor’s disposition.

A Challenge

The pay raise now is a done deal. We do not subscribe to a conservative frame of starving the beast and drowning governments in bathtubs. But there’s a reason why their actions feel out of touch.

So here’s a challenge to those on Beacon Hill:

If you are willing to override Governor Baker’s veto to give yourselves a raise, then do the same to give workers across the Commonwealth a raise by passing a $15 minimum wage.

If you are willing to override Governor Baker’s veto to give yourselves greater stipends, then do so as well to guarantee workers across the state a necessary benefit like paid family and medical leave.

And if you are willing to override Governor Baker’s veto to invest more in yourselves, then do so to invest in the Commonwealth.

Make Massachusetts a Progressive Fortress: Step 1 by Friday

Progressive Massachusetts proudly announces our 2017-2018 Legislative Agenda for the 190th session of the Mass General Court.

The Moral Urgency of Now: Massachusetts Must Lead.

We are watching the federal government under President Donald Trump, with little braking from the Republican Congress, move us rapidly in a fascist direction that deeply contradicts Massachusetts values and liberties. Resistance is imperative.

What are the ways we can resist? Where can we effect the most dramatic changes, shape a progressive alternative and protect the most people vulnerable under this regime?

Our efforts on the national scene are important–but our impact, as liberals served by Democrats in a majority Republican Congress, is unfortunately, realistically, quite limited.

But, we can make Massachusetts a blue, progressive fortress against Trumpism. There is no excuse for not passing a vigorous progressive agenda in one of the bluest states in the country.

We are no longer in normal times. We cannot abide our super-majority Democratic lawmakers playing by the old rules, the old hesitancies and cautions. This is a moral imperative: through our democratic system, we can must resist, chart an alternative, progressive, path forward, and firmly and proudly establish and protect a system of true justice–in all its dimensions–for all. 

Our recent survey of our members’ (your) issues of top concern served as a guide for the Progressive Mass Issues Committee (PMIC). Over several weeks, committee reached out to legislators, advocates, and allies, to learn about their priorities and the bills to be filed that address them, to explore what bold proposals would galvanize Beacon Hill, and to assess the issue movements with advocacy momentum and energy behind them.

Setting Progressive Goals and a Road Map for Action

Through this intensive process of research, outreach, deliberation, and member input, PMIC has crafted our multi-issue 2017-2018 Progressive Legislative Agenda. Following the four broad planks of our Progressive Platform, the Progressive Legislative Agenda represents a multi-issue road map for the next two years of advocacy for the progressive activist. 

As many in the BMG community already know, there are specific points of inflection in the life cycle of legislation, when grassroots action and advocacy is more important and has greater impact. Simply stated, timing matters.

We aim to reach out to our progressive network and membership at time-sensitive moments and ask for your action. The first action of many over the next two years: pushing legislators for Co-Sponsorship. And it needs to be done by Friday.

ProgressiveMass.com/takeaction:

Before Friday (the House’s deadline), please contact your State Representative and State Senator, and ask them to cosponsor the bills on our progressive agenda (both House and Senate versions, House and Senate members can cross-cosponsor). All the information, including plain text to copy/paste, if you should require that, is at our action kit: ProgressiveMass.com/takeaction

Note–while the deadline to cosponsor House bills is Friday, February 3rd at 5:00 pm, State Representatives and State Senator can cosponsor Senate bills at any point in the two-year session.

As a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots organizations committed to pushing our state Legislature and Governor to be more progressive, and hold them accountable when they’re not, Progressive Mass believes that the first step towards building a progressive agenda on Beacon Hill begins with outreach and conversations with your state legislators, and asking them to cosponsor and support critical legislation. And when you do reach out to your legislators, we want to hear what you learn. Drop us a line:  issues @ progressivemass.com  

After Marching, Another Step

This past weekend gave a pretty clear visual of how much power we have when we organize together. And we all know that showing up to march was merely the first step of many.

The next is engaging with the political process — via electoral, issue and legislative work — as well as the work of community organizing– building communities of trust, making outreach and strengthening our progressive infrastructure. We’re committed to both. 

This week, we are releasing our 2017-18 Legislative Agenda, and we will be asking progressives to make some noise about how Massachusetts should become a leader again in bold progressive policy. 

The Opposite of Trump

We all want to DO something to stop the coming wave of Trump’s — and the traditional conservatives’ — cruel and incoherent policies on immigration, health care, women’s bodies, education, and their accelerating privatization and corporate kleptocracy. 

While many emerging activist networks are urging outreach to Congress, we’d like to propose that, in Massachusetts, we’ll get a lot more mileage fighting Trump — and making real change, helping real people who are vulnerable — BY focusing on Massachusetts:

  • We could pass a millionaire’s tax, and restore funding to programs destroyed by repeated budget cuts
  • We could pass a $15 minimum wage
  • We could ensure safety and dignity for immigrants and their family
  • We could lead the fight on climate change by investing more in solar and energy efficiency 
  • We could insist on the highest standards for the air we breathe and water we drink
  • We could fully fund excellent public education for all
  • We could pass universal pre-K
  • We could pass Paid Family and Medical Leave 
  • We could re-invest in a 21st century public transportation system
  • We could dismantle the apparatuses of mass incarceration and their racist effects
  • We could mend then strengthen the safety nets that have been cut and frayed to threads

These are changes that are needed. In Massachusetts. 

In Trump’s America, these changes are still possible. In Massachusetts. 

The truth is — We have a lot of work to do to make Massachusetts the progressive ideal that we would like to think we are. 

But the great news is that all of this is not only possible — we are much, much, more influential with our state legislators. AND Democrats have have a Super (duper) Democratic majority in both chambers. 

If we aren’t passing progressive legislation in Massachusetts, it’s because Democrats are standing in the way. On Beacon Hill, we aren’t fighting Ted Cruzes or Rand Pauls. 

Reminding our elected representatives of the progressive principles at the heart of the Democratic platform, through organized, well-timed, on-going outreach and pressure…we can do this, if we mobilize together. And, this hill, if we climb it, will produce real changes for real people most vulnerable under Trump.

The Legislative session just opened this month. We are starting our 2-year cycle of outreach and advocacy and citizen lobbying afresh. 

Well-timed, informed outreach to your State Rep and State Senator is a key part of the next 2 years: 

  • We will ask our legislators to sign on to our progressive agenda as cosponsors to our highlighted bills (that’s coming right up)
  • We will ask our legislators to advocate with their colleagues to push for the strongest progressive legislation possible
  • We will ask our legislators to stay strong when the going gets tough
  • We will thank them when they stand up for our goals and values–especially when it’s hardest to do
  • We will talk with our neighbors and help them advocate — or help provide the context to help educate where there’s disagreement

This contact is key. We’re asking you to be ready–look up, right now, your State Representative and State Senator. 

2015-2016 Final Scorecard Analysis

The Senate had a productive second half of the 189th session, and we were happy to see several of our priority bill get passed.

The Fair Share amendment, or “millionaire’s tax,” passed its first constitutional convention. Massachusetts played catch-up to other states by modernizing our public records laws. And the Senate showed how we can continue to be a beacon to other states with bold legislation protecting the rights of trans individuals (and by beating back amendments to weaken it). The Senate’s paid family and medical leave bill, which it passed at the end of the session, would advance such a legacy as well.  However, consistent with a broader pattern, the Paid Leave bill, passing in the Senate, was not taken up by the House. We will continue to fight for it in the new session.

We scored other progressive bills that were not formally included in our legislative agenda, such as the zoning reform bill (which would increase the state’s stock of affordable housing), the family financial protection bill (which would provide greater protections and relief for consumers who are pursued by abusive debt collectors), a bill to divert youth with low-level offenses from going deeper into the justice system, and a bill to increase campaign finance transparency. Only the last one passed the House as well, and we hope to see the others come up again in the next session.

The scores of the Democratic caucus ranged widely, from a low of 39% (James Timilty) to a high of 100% (Jamie Eldridge). 19 Democrats, more than half of the caucus and almost half of the body, achieved a score above 80% for the full session. James Boncore, who elected in a special election in the spring, and Senate President Stan Rosenberg, who does not always choose to vote, join this high-scoring contingent, but on a smaller total of votes. Although many senators scored well, they can all be encouraged to do better in the next session— both in their votes and their leadership and advocacy in pushing progressive priorities.

A note on methodology: Absences are scored as votes against the progressive position: our elected officials are paid to represent us, and that demands showing up to vote. (There can, of course, be extenuating circumstances, which we can point out when brought to our attention). Present votes are scored the same way.  We encourage every constituent with questions about absences — or indeed, any vote — to contact their legislators and directly inquire about their records. Scorecards, as we have articulated elsewhere, are imperfect instruments, but legislators’ votes (or non-presence for votes) are the best material available from which to assess an elected’s record. A call and conversation can be very illuminating about the priorities and decision-making of your representative.

A note on vote selection: Although we commend the Senate for passing paid family and medical leave, we are not scoring it this session because there was only a voice vote. We hope–and will fight to make sure–that it comes up again this session in both houses. And although the public records reform bill that was passed marks an improvement on the status quo, it was watered down enough to achieve unanimity, leaving much work still to do. Scoring the vote would be of little utility to holding legislators accountable—for that, we need to continue to be vigilant and to push for bolder and better reforms.

Final 2015-2016 Scorecard Analysis

Scoring the House can be a tricky endeavor given paucity of votes compared to the Senate. Amendments or bills that might split the Democratic caucus are less likely to get a hearing, let alone a recorded vote. This was especially the case in the second half of the 189th session.

Because of this reluctance, the House had fewer accomplishments than the Senate. It did not, like the Senate, advance legislation to combat wage theft, guarantee paid family and medical leave, protect families from abusive debt collectors, divert youth with low-level offenses from going deeper into the criminal justice system, or set 2030 and 2040 climate benchmarks–to name a few.

However, the session was not without accomplishments The Fair Share amendment, or “millionaire’s tax,” passed its first constitutional convention. Massachusetts played catch-up to other states by modernizing our public records laws, and furthered good government principles by improving campaign finance laws. The House also showed how we can continue to be a beacon to other states by passing legislation protecting the rights of trans individuals (and beating back amendments to weaken it).

The scores of the Democratic caucus ranged widely, from 30% (Colleen Garry) to 100% (Jonathan Hecht). Unlike in the Senate, where no Republican scored above any Democrat, Republicans James Kelcourse and David Vieira scored above Garry, with 35%. Despite such a wide range, 40 Democrats, almost one-third of the caucus, had the same score (78%) as Speaker DeLeo, with 31 of them matching him vote-for-vote. This number would have been higher if not for occasional absences.

Two votes this session highlighted significant contrasts within the Democratic caucus. 31 Democrats voted for an amendment to the trans equality bill that sought to sow confusion about the bill and promote damaging stereotypes by redundantly criminalizing acts of trespassing. And 34 Democrats rightly voted against an amendment by Governor Baker to the bill updating Massachusetts’s IDs to be compliant with the federal REAL ID law. In its attempt to prohibit undocumented immigrants from obtaining state-issued IDs, the amendment created additional hurdles for documented immigrants to do so.

Looking Ahead

Massachusetts can boast the third largest Democratic legislative supermajorities in the country (after Hawaii and Rhode Island). However, a supermajority is only valuable insofar as it is put to use.

In Washington, the conservative agenda of slashing taxes, safety nets, public interest regulations, and civil rights is about to be unleashed.  Given the sharp regress to come, it is time for Massachusetts legislators to step up their game.

With veto-proof majorities in both Houses, Massachusetts Democrats cannot point to Governor Baker for excuses about their failure to pass the bold legislation we need to make our Commonwealth work for all of its residents (and for future generations).

A major obstacle going into 2017 will continue to be the centralization of power into the Speaker’s office–a problem exacerbated in 2015 when House Democrats voted to abolish term limits for Speaker Robert DeLeo (see our scorecard vote #189.2h). The Speaker tightly controls the agenda; under current norms of leadership, the body of work of the MA House will only be as progressive as the Speakers wants it to be. Under Speaker DeLeo, most truly progressive legislative priorities do not even get out of committee, let alone come to a vote — let alone a roll called (recorded) vote.

An important question progressives should consider is, who does their legislator see as his or her most important constituency — voters or the Speaker? One of the aims of  the scorecard is to help provide data for assessment and conversation.

Notes on Process

Methodology & Action: Absences are scored as votes against the progressive position: our elected officials are paid to represent us, and that demands showing up to vote. (There can, of course, be extenuating circumstances, which we can point out when brought to our attention). Present votes are scored the same way.  We encourage every constituent with questions about absences — or indeed, any vote — to contact their legislators and directly inquire about their records. Scorecards, as we have articulated elsewhere, are imperfect instruments, but legislators’ votes (or non-presence for votes) are the best material available from which to assess an elected’s record. A call and conversation can be very illuminating about the priorities and decision-making of your representative.

Vote Selection: Although the public records reform bill that was passed marks an improvement on the status quo, it was watered down enough to achieve unanimity, leaving much work still to do. Scoring the vote would be of little utility to holding legislators accountable—for that, we need to continue to be vigilant and to push for bolder and better reforms.

In the Dark, Undoing the Voters’ Will

On November 8, almost 54 percent of voters in the Commonwealth voted to legalize recreational marijuana, an important step in advancing social and racial justice and combating over-policing and mass incarceration. However, yesterday, in a special session, without any public hearings or public notice, 7 legislators were able to postpone the opening date for recreational marijuana stores by six months, creating a limbo situation in which possession is legal but retail is not.

We are very disappointed, but not surprised, by such behavior. If the Legislature had concerns about the wording of Question 4, they had ample time before the election to pass their own bill or to offer a substitute ballot question. Instead, they chose to undermine the democratic will of the Commonwealth in a most undemocratic way. The Legislature has a history of avoiding public debate and recorded votes—as well as a history of weakening or even repealing ballot initiatives. If Massachusetts is to be a model for other states, that has to change.

Your legislators are supposed to work for you, and they deserve to hear from you. You can find contact information for your state representative and state senator here. And when you’re done calling the Legislature, call Charlie Baker to urge him not to sign the delay.

WGBH: Before 2018, Progressives Hope To Push Legislature And Baker On Taxes, Justice Reform And More

“Before 2018, Progressives Hope To Push Legislature And Baker On Taxes, Justice Reform And More” — Mike Deehan, WGBH (9/4/2016)

“The progressive activist base is really, really frustrated with the status quo of the Democratic party and leadership in the Legislature,” Progressive Massachusetts board member Harmony Wu told WGBH News. “And honestly, the House does seem to be the bigger problem.”

“The Senate does seem to move more on stuff, but as a whole, the party does not feel like it is responsive to the progressive interest, which is I think is the animating base of the party,” Wu added.