Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition

Artists leaders and artist-run groups addressing policy issues that affect artists in Massachusetts

Get Your Vote ON! Part One – September 4th Federal Primary Races

Get Your Vote ON!

As mentioned in our August 7th blog post, this year the Massachusetts primary elections take place on Tuesday, September 4th.

Get Your Vote On – Part One is focusing on the Federal races: One U.S Senate seat and all nine Massachusetts Congressional seats.

MALC does not endorse candidates for office.

Note: All of our State Representatives and State Senators are up for re-election, as well as all of our State Constitutional Officers (Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Treasurer, Secretary of State, and State Auditor). The upcoming Get Your Vote ON posts will cover these primary races.

Primary races are extremely important!

Needless to say, we encourage everyone to vote in the upcoming September 4th primaries.

The website BallotPedia is a great, free resource for detailed information on the 2018 primary (September 4th) and the 2018 general election (November 6th):
https://ballotpedia.org/Massachusetts_elections,_2018

MASSCreative is also collecting questionnaires from candidates running for office via its Create the Vote initiative:
http://www.mass-creative.org/ctv2018

Arts and Culture platforms lacking for all candidates

None of the candidates running for any of the federal offices have an issue platform for our sector. In other words, none of their websites, as of this blog post, have a policy or issue platform for arts, culture and/or the creative economy.

We urge the candidates and their campaigns to create a platform for our sector and to take the time to read the MALC 2016 Labor policy paper and the 2018 By Artists, For Artists report. If you are volunteering or working on any of these federal campaigns, urge your candidate and their campaign to create a platform. Urge them to look at the two publications mentioned above and linked below.

Link to the 2016 MALC labor paper:
http://artistsunderthedome.org/malc/policy/labor-policy-2016/

Link to the 2018 By Artists, For Artists report and press release:
http://artistsunderthedome.org/malc/reports/announcing-the-release-of-2018-by-artists-for-artists-report-and-the-10th-anniversary-of-malc/

Key Federal Races

U.S. Senate

Each U.S. state has two U.S. Senate seats (thus there are a total of 100 Senators). One of the two Massachusetts U.S. Senate seats is up for re-election. It is a statewide election and this means everyone who is registered to vote in Massachusetts can vote in this U.S Senate race. (Note: U.S. Senators’ terms are for six years.) The incumbent (the current U.S. Senator) is running again to keep their seat.

Link to find out who is running for this Massachusetts U.S. Senate Seat:
https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Senate_election_in_Massachusetts,_2018

U.S. House of Representatives

The number of U.S. Congress people per state is based on a state’s population (hence why the U.S Census is so important).  A U.S. Representative’s or Congressperson’s term is only for two years and all the members of the House of Representatives are up for re-election this Fall! Massachusetts has nine U.S. Congressional seats or districts and all those seats are up for re-election.

Eight of the nine incumbents (i.e., the current Congresspeople now holding seats) are running for re-election. However, the Congressperson for the 3rd Congressional District (Niki Tsongas) is retiring and this race is what is called an open seat. And as a result, that race is very crowded and competitive (i.e., there are many candidates running for this seat). This primary will more than likely determine who ultimately wins the seat outright.

In several cases, District 4, District 7, and District 8, there are no Republicans or Independents running for the seat, so the September 4th primary will decide who wins those Congressional seats! Your primary vote really matters in those races!!

You will need to find out what Congressional district you live in and this is the link to do just that:
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/wheredoivotema//bal/myelectioninfo.aspx

Below is the link to BallotPedia’s guide to the ALL nine of the Massachusetts Congressional Races:
https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_Massachusetts,_2018

VOTE on September 4th and encourage others to do so!

A Democracy only works when its people take part!

Written by Kathleen Bitetti
Artist and co-founder of the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition