A Dem good turnout
As voters and potential delegates for the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s June nominating convention made their way to the Brookline High cafeteria for Saturday’s caucus, they had to cross a veritable gauntlet.
Lining first the streets and then the school’s hallway, petitioners thrust pens and promised imminent grassroots change while volunteers pedaled pamphlets espousing the virtues of candidates great and small. Inevitably, Lyndon LaRouche supporters showed up as well, shouting alternately about descending fascism and a return to the gold standard.
In spite, or perhaps because, of all the pomp and circumstance, nearly all of the 300 or so voters who came out seemed more than happy taking three hours out of a weekend afternoon to give the state party their 2 cents, although one woman quietly confided, "I told my husband this was only going to take a half-hour to get him out of the house."
"I can really feel my political juices flowing again," said another caucus participant, Estelle Noah. "I’ve been politically inactive for far too long. I’ve always felt as a citizen it’s important to participate in the system, but I haven’t recently, so here I am. I’m definitely glad I came. It feels good to be back."
"I really want to see a more vibrant, open Democratic Party where progressive views are reflected," voter Evelyn Frankford added. "You can’t just sit home and hope that will happen. You have to be a part of the process."
Deb Goldberg, a current candidate for lieutenant governor and former chairwoman of Brookline Board of Selectmen, strode into this milieu smiling broadly, clearly comfortable with her hometown crowd and energetic just days after officially kicking off her campaign.
"I am Brookline to the core, and the people here know it," said the fifth-generation Brookliner, in between the last-minute delegate nominee speeches. "This is the community where I grew up, where I’ve spent my life and where I’ve chosen to raise my children. It’s my home and I absolutely feel at ease here."
Goldberg’s great-grandparents founded the first Stop & Shop supermarket.
While Brookline’s slate of 46 delegates ultimately went to former federal prosecutor Deval Patrick - as did most across the state in Patrick’s first test against nomination rival Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly - there was no official tally of support for a lieutenant governor nomination that depends so much on the preference of the gubernatorial nominee. An unscientific survey of stickers proclaiming support for Goldberg and Andrea Silbert, another Brookline native running for the same post, suggested, however, that Brookline will be well represented at the convention. Both women graduated from Brookline High School.
Brookline weighs heavily in Goldberg’s campaign as well. She speaks often of her six years on the Board of Selectmen and always with particular relish when she gets to the details of how during the economic downturn she helped prevent any layoffs or cuts in essential services without any property tax overrides - all while continuing to put more police and firemen on the streets every year.
"I want to serve as a bridge between towns such as Brookline and the Corner Office," Goldberg said. "Our cities and towns can only be healthy if the whole state is healthy, so I want to invest in people - because it is all about people, my family taught me that - rebuild the economic base from the ground up, think outside the box on health care and get this state moving again."
In the past, anywhere from 70 to 900 voters have shown up for Democratic caucuses in Brookline, so a turnout of 300 is on the soft end of average. But one of the coordinators of Saturday’s caucus, local Realtor Chobee Hoy, said any evaluation of the event had to go beyond numbers.
"I think this is a marvelous turnout, but it’s more than that," said Hoy. "Voters seem especially energized this year, definitely more than usual. There’s a feeling that a change for the better is possible."
Indeed, more than 40 people signed up at a Brookline Democratic Town Committee booth festooned with a sign encouraging those who believe "16 years of Republican governors is 16 years too many" to serve as "block captains" (along with former Governor Michael Dukakis) and work to turn out Democratic voters in November’s midterm elections.
"It’s hard to call a day where we sign up 40 people willing to get out in their communities to help elect a Democrat governor anything but a success," Cindy Rowe, chairwoman of the Brookline Democratic Town Committee, said. "There’s a lot of good energy around Democratic policies and candidates these days."
So why in a state where the legislature is 85 percent Democratic do Democrats have such a hard time gaining control of the Corner Office?
"You’ll have to ask someone outside of Brookline," Rowe laughed. "This town always goes for the Democrat. Our grassroots efforts will be to increase the volume of Democratic votes we send out of town to help elect a Democrat, however other towns may vote."
For more information on the Brookline Democratic Town Committee’s efforts, call Steve Howard at 857-753-1298 or email stevenjhoward@earthlink.net.
