davis_square | Somerville/Medford Green Line extension kept alive

Quick backstory for those of you not familiar with the issue: As part of the big dig, the state planned a series of public transportation and related projects to balance out the spending on car traffic. One of these was a promise to Somerville and Medford to extend the Green Line. The Romney administration has been dragging its feet, not funding the project, and trying to convince us to settle for a bus line. In the new budget, funding for pre-construction work on the Green Line extension was entirely missing.

Remember Carl Sciortino, the young progressive who defeated 16-year incumbent Vinnie Ciampa in last September's primary? He's now the state rep for the 34th Middlesex district, which starts a couple of blocks from Davis Square and goes into medford. This week, he made his first speech to the MA House, and succeeded in passing one of only two funding amendments that were passed to this year's budget. Thanks to Carl, the Green Line extension project will probably be funded this year.

The Somerville News reports:

In an email to his supporters today, Carl wrote:

I want to share some good news that happened this week at the Statehouse. The House of Representatives Wednesday night approved my budget amendment to including funding for the environmental impact study for the Green Line Extension! This is the critical next step to keep this project moving forward.

It was a very difficult amendment to get included in the budget considering the extremely tight fiscal times facing the state budget. I was very happy to be able to give my first speech on the floor of the House Chamber (known as a maiden speech) on the importance of the Green Line extension.

I have received great feedback from colleagues who were alarmed to hear of the statistics from our community on pollution, public health hazards, and the lack of public transit, as well as the history of this particular project and the legal commitments the state has to Somerville & Medford.
[...]

The budget still needs to be approved by the Senate & Governor, and I will be working with my colleagues in both branches to try to get this through. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at the Statehouse at (617) 722-2014, or csciortino@state.ma.us.

I will keep you updated as this moves through the rest of the budget process.

Carl Sciortino
State Representative

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

good news, good speech, good email... but bad email address:

From: Postmaster@mailhub2.state.ma.us

Your message was not delivered to the following recipients:

          csciortino@state.ma.us: User unknown

Good catch. The correct address is Carl.Sciortino@state.ma.us
(the mistake was Carl's, not mine, but I'll let him know)

thank you, this is great news!

Yay Carl!

Hey, I see you live in Medford. Did you know there's a special election on August 30th to fill state senator Charles Shannon's seat? (He died of cancer about a month ago)

Shannon's district covers all of Medford, almost all of Somerville (although there are actually more people in the Somerville part of the district than in Medford), all of Winchester, and a bit of Woburn.

Pat Jehlen, state rep from the 27th Middlesex (which is the middle two thirds of Somerville), is running for that seat. I don't know if you know her, but if you like Carl, chances are you'd like Pat, so google around and learn about her and tell your friends.

Thanks for the tip. It sounds like you're working on Pat's campaign! I am starting to pay attention to the people running for Shannon's seat; so far there are a few people who intrigue me. Ihope this doesn't start a cascade of special elections though!

There's a Medford community LJ, too, where you might be able to post campaign-related items.

Why do you hope that?

(Usually a cascade gets smaller and smaller - for example, if a state rep wins a state senate seat, only the state rep district has the next special election)

Who are the other candidates who intrigue you?

I'm committed to Pat Jehlen, I think she's wonderful. But am still curious about the others.

Special elections are costly and usually don't get much turnout, and I think both of those are a problem.

I've heard that one of the curent Medford city councellors, Stephanie Burke, has pulled papers. There was also someone else with an interesting background, but I'd have to go look up the name. So far, it appears to be a wide open race.

I have met Pat Jehlen and think she's wonderful at least on a personal level. What is her stated reason for wanting the state senate job?

What is her stated reason for wanting the state senate job?

The obvious one. She's already a state rep. State senator is exactly the same job, but with more influence, so it's pretty simply a promotion. She wants to do all the same things she's wanted to do (and done) as a state rep. Are you familiar with her politics and her record?

I didn't actually ask her "why do you want the job", but she was at the Newton DfA meetup yesterday, and the Cambridge DfA meetup this evening, and she said she wants to have more influence to accomplish the same things she's already been working on as a rep, and that seems to be the obvious reason for her to want it. I have a second reason, which is that it would open up the 27th Middlesex house seat, where a lot of PDS members live. I hope one of them would run for it and win.

I don't know anything about Stephanie Burke. What about her is interesting or intriguing to you?

Somerville/Medford Green Line extension kept alive

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Jehlen for Senate

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