Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition

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

Get Your Vote ON! Part Two – MA Governor and Lt. Governor Races

Get Your Vote ON!

Guide for the September 4th Massachusetts Primaries

Part Two – the Massachusetts Governor and Lt. Governor races

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

We encourage you to visit Ballotpedia, a great, free resource for the 2018 primary (September 4th) and the 2018 general election (November 6th):
https://ballotpedia.org/Massachusetts_elections,_2018

No Candidate has Published an Arts and Culture Platform!

Please note that only one of the candidates running for governor or lieutenant governor 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 have updated this post to reflect that one candidate for Governor has a platform for our sector 8/23/18)

MALC once again urges 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 campaigns, urge your campaign to create a platform and refer to the two publications mentioned above and linked below.

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

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

MALC does not endorse candidates for office.

MASSCreative has collected questionnaires only from the gubernatorial candidates running for office via their Create the Vote initiative:
http://www.mass-creative.org/ctv2018

As of this date, three of the four candidates running for governor have responded to MASSCreative’s questionnaire.

Massachusetts Governor’s Race

There are two Republican gubernatorial candidates and two Democratic gubernatorial candidates. Thus, the September 4th primary will decide which two candidates will face off in the general election on November 6th. The governor’s race, obviously, is a statewide election and this means everyone who is registered in Massachusetts can vote in this race. The only candidate as of 8/23/18 that has a platform for our sector is Democrat Bob Massie: https://www.bobmassie2018.com/artslanguage

Massachusetts Lt. Governor’s Race

There is one Republican lieutenant gubernatorial candidate (the incumbent Lt. Governor) and two Democratic lieutenant gubernatorial candidates. Thus the September 4th primary will decide which of the two Democratic candidates will face off in the general election on November 6th against the current incumbent Republican Lt. Governor.

Like the governor’s race, the lieutenant governor’s race is a statewide election, which means everyone who is registered to vote in Massachusetts can vote in this race.

Please see the Ballotpedia page for more information on both the gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial races:
https://ballotpedia.org/Massachusetts_gubernatorial_and_lieutenant_gubernatorial_election,_2018

Remember to VOTE on September 4th!
Encourage others to do so!

Find out where to vote:
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/wheredoivotema//bal/myelectioninfo.aspx

A Democracy only works when its people take part!

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

It is important to note that all of our State Representatives and State Senators are up for re-election, as well as all of our other State Constitutional Officers (Attorney General, Treasurer, Secretary of State, and State Auditor)!! And as discussed in Get Your Vote On – Part One, there are also federal primary races: One U.S Senate seat and all nine seats Massachusetts Congressional seats.