Group 1: The Clear Choice For Mainstream Framingham Democrats

On March 5, 2024, Framingham voters will decide on their new Democratic committee which will serve for the next 4 years. Unusually, two groups are competing for voter approval.

Group 1 is fielding a full team of 34 candidates, which brings energy, experience, and a forward looking vision aligned with mainstream Democratic values. They deserve a big YES.

Group 2 had recruiting problems and could only field 24 candidates. It is a much less coherent group, cobbled together at the last minute, with a demonstrated disconnection from mainstream Democratic values. They deserve a big NO.

A sample ballot showing the two groups can be viewed here:

https://framinghamma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/51466/Presidential-Primary-Sample-Ballot---Democrat-

Group 1 includes state representative Jack Patrick Lewis, and four current City Councilors amongst others.

Here is a quick explanation of what is going on, drawn from:

https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/elections/getting-on-the-ballot/how-to-run-ward.htm

“The 2024 Massachusetts Presidential Primaries will be held on March 5, 2024. In addition to candidates for President of the United States, the ballots will also include the party offices of state committee and ward or town committee.

In Massachusetts, ward and town committees are the building blocks of political parties. In towns, party town committees are elected town-wide. In cities, party committees are elected by voters in each ward.

Ward and town committees range in size from 3-35 elected members. Their duties include:

• Representing their party at the local and neighborhood level; and
• Promoting the objectives of the party; and
• Working for the nomination and election of party candidates.”

Note that Framingham is a city, but without being divided into wards, it has the political designation of a town. Strange, but true, so in this Democratic primary election, voters are choosing as many as 35 members of a ‘town’ Democratic committee. Note that any ballot which has more than 35 members chosen will count as a blank ballot, i.e. it will not count. So be careful in making choices on this ballot.

It is unusual for there to be competing slates for town committee, so more detailed commentary on both slates should be useful in helping voters decide on March 5, 2024.

Here are some thoughts.

The first is that Group 1 has a slate of 34 candidates with one slot left empty, as a courtesy to David Magnani, who is running independently of any slate. So, you can vote for Group 1 + Magnani and choose a full 35 member slate that way. That is a commendable and inclusive move by Group 1.

In contrast, Group 2 has a slate of only 24 candidates, so it is obvious that this group had trouble convincing local Democrats to join its effort. The genesis of this group is hard to discern, but it seems to be something of an effort by a small political faction to ‘get back in the game’.

John Stefanini was defeated by Leslie White Harvey, in an upset in the recent City Council election, and in the prior election, Mary Kate Feeney, was defeated soundly by Adam Steiner after a tied election. A year ago, these two were part of the state campaign in which Priscila Sousa defeated Margareth Basilio Shepard. So maybe they took encouragement from that to try, to take over the local Democratic committee. It still is a bit of a mystery.

The standout anomaly in Group 2 is Adam Freudberg, who seems to have been inclined to favor some kind of change in the Democratic committee. At the very outset, he set out some stipulations on who would be Group 2 members and hoped to bring some of Group 1 on board, but that failed. The assurances he got on Group 2 members were broken, as the recruitment effort faltered, and the whole effort went sideways.

Adam may have prominence on the Group 2 yard signs, but he has almost nothing in common with the rest of the group and remains in a very awkward position.

The difficulty in Group 2 recruitment is also obvious in its lack of citywide coverage. It only has candidates from 6 districts, compared to Group 1 which has candidates from all 9 districts, and 21 out of 27 precincts.

One of the big pluses of Group 1 is that it includes the winners from all 3 contested City Council races last November: Brandon Ward, Leslie White Harvey, and Tracey Bryant. They clearly align with an electorate which is supportive of change. Further, Group 1 has youthful members, such as Isabella Petroni and Brooke Harvey, which is in stark contrast to Group 2 which omits our youth completely, with no member under 35.

There is a lot of energy and new thinking in Group 1!

It is ironic that one of the arguments coming from Group 2 is that the current Democratic committee is stuck in the status quo and needs new voices. Yet Group 2 seems to have no new voices. Their recruiting effort should have ensured new voices were actually included in their slate. 11 empty slots is not a recipe for change, when the other 24 are old familiar faces!

Beyond these recruitment issues, a key question for any slate is: ‘How aligned are its members with mainstream Democratic positions on issues like taxes, public education, infrastructure investment and climate change action.’

Remarkably, two prominent members of Group 2 have as their #1 issue low taxes no matter what, have been constantly negative towards the school system, have been dominantly responsible for growing the city infrastructure maintenance backlog to $400 million, and have never shown any interest in climate change action, including ramping up solar installations.

I am talking about George King and John Stefanini.

I moved to Framingham in 2014, and when I first ran into these two, I thought they were Republicans, from their issue positions. In this current conflict of two slates, I regard them as the ‘Republican wing’ of the Framingham Democratic Party trying to disable progress with a takeover.

Further, Mary Kate Feeney is Chair of the Strategic Initiatives Finance and Oversight Committee (SIFOC), which has done nothing to combat the structural financial problems which lead to the city bond rating downgrade, nor has it raised any alarms about the rising infrastructure maintenance backlog. SIFOC also has no published meeting minutes and met just twice in 2023 for a total of 2 hours. It seems that SIFOC has had great difficulty inhabiting the role the City Charter intended for it and has dwindled to nothing. Injecting its approaches into the Democratic committee would be a clear mistake.

I could proceed and elaborate on the appearance of some erstwhile unenrolled folks as newly minted Democrats in Group 2 but let me leave it there.

The last thing Framingham needs is a fight in its Democratic Party.

The fortunate thing here is that Group 1 is a very appealing, sound choice, while Group 2 appears poorly organized, and has serious misalignment with fundamental Democratic values.

In conclusion, I want to reiterate one caution.

One must be careful to vote for no more than 35 candidates.

Voting for Group 1 gets you to 34, so you have space on the ballot for just one more person.

My favorite choice for that final slot is David Magnani, with his past great record of service, his roof packed full of solar panels and his wife, Nanette, a force of nature in the effort to awaken the city administration to the great value of curbside composting.

Don’t forget to vote for Group 1 on March 5, 2024!