Get Your Vote On!
Introducing MALC’s new blog series: Get Your Vote On!
Mark your calendars: The Massachusetts Republican and Democratic Primaries are September 9th.* There are several very competitive primary races. It is MALC’s hope that this series will help to inform and to inspire Massachusetts artists of all disciplines and our state’s residents to exercise their right to vote in the primaries. (To find out where to vote: http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.aspx)
In February, MALC released its policy recommendations and advocacy challenge for the candidates running for Governor. MALC does not endorse candidates for office, but seeks to provide needed and timely information about candidates’ platforms and policies that impact artists of all disciplines, the art, and cultural and creative economies. Recently we sent brief questionnaires to the candidates running for Lt. Governor, Attorney General, and Treasurer. Often, the policies of these elected officials do impact our sector. MALC feels it is important that all candidates running for these offices know what Massachusetts working artists of all disciplines face.
MALC did not send questionnaires to the Republican or Democratic candidates for Governor. Members of the MALC Steering Committee had met with almost all of those running for Governor earlier this year and we shared our policy vision for our sector with them: http://artistsunderthedome.org/malc/news/massachusetts-governors-race-update/ Instead, MALC reached out to the Republican and Democratic candidates for Governor to specifically ask them when their policy platforms for our sector will be posted on their websites. We urged the candidates to post them before the September primary. MALC feels strongly that any candidate seeking to be Governor needs to have a specific policy platform for our sector.
As of this post, none of the Republican or Democratic candidates competing in the September primaries (including those running for Governor) have stand alone platforms/issues papers regarding our sector posted on their campaign websites. MALC will be monitoring their websites for any new policy platform postings.
Tomorrow we will release the answers to our questionnaire provided by the candidates for Attorney General. On Monday we will release the answers provided by the candidates for Treasurer, and on Tuesday we will release the answers provided by the candidates for Lt. Governor.
The candidates are (in alphabetical order):
For Governor:
Charlie Baker (R)
Don Berwick (D)
Martha Coakley (D)
Mark Fisher (R)
Steve Grossman (D)
For Attorney General
Maura Healey (D)
John Miller (R)
Warren Tolman (D)
For Treasurer
Tom Conroy (D)
Barry Finegold (D)
Deborah Goldberg (D)
Mike Heffernan (R)
For Lt. Governor
Leland Cheung (D)
Steve Kerrigan (D)
Michael Lake (D)
Karyn Polito (R)
Stay tuned for their answers to the MALC questionnaire!
Best,
Kathleen Bitetti, Artist and MALC Co-Founder
John Weeks, Writer and MALC Steering Committee Member
*From our June 9th MALC blog post:
“There will be primaries in September for candidates of the Democratic and the Republican parties who are running for statewide positions. The winners of those primaries will be on the November ballot for the general election. Those candidates running as unenrolled (also known as independents), and who have met the 10,000 certified signature requirement, won’t have a primary in September. Instead, their names will appear on the November ballot along with those candidates who won their respective party’s primaries.” http://artistsunderthedome.org/malc/news/massachusetts-governors-race-update/
** DATE AND TIME OF POST: Thursday, 8/21/14 at 9:23 a.m.
———
Notes for the next installment
Tomorrow we will release the answers to our questionnaire provided by the candidates for Attorney General. Often the policies of these elected officials do impact our sector. The candidates’ campaigns were first contacted via emails and/or by phone and were followed up with additional emails and phone calls.**