Mass Primaries

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

The Massachusetts primaries are next Thursday September 6. There are three local contested races on my ballot, and I've had no time to research the candidates. I'm voting in the Dem primary, and the races and candidates are under the cut. I'm just looking for opinions, endorsements (or anti-endorsements) or any general information that might help me make the best choices possible.



COUNCILLOR
SIXTH DISTRICT
TERRENCE W. KENNEDY 3 Stafford Rd., Lynnfield
Present Governor's Councillor
FRANCIS XAVIER FLAHERTY, JR. 55 Norwich Cir., Medford
Former Assistant Attorney General, Assistant District Attorney


REPRESENTATIVE IN GENERAL COURT
TWENTY-SEVENTH MIDDLESEX DISTRICT
DENISE PROVOST 20 Albion St., Somerville
Current State Representative; Former Alderman at-Large
HARRY KORTIKERE 82 Oxford St., Somerville


REGISTER OF DEEDS
MIDDLESEX SOUTHERN DISTRICT
ROBERT B. ANTONELLI 355 Broadway, Somerville
Former Middlesex County Register of Probate
FRANK J. CIANO 65 Woodside Ln., Arlington
Current Town Meeting Member
THOMAS B. CONCANNON, JR. 8 Bacon Rd., Newton
Former Mayor, Newton
MARIA C. CURTATONE 37 Munroe St., Somerville
TIZIANO DOTO 140 Harrison Ave., Wakefield
Current Selectman
MARYANN M. HEUSTON 115 Beacon St., Somerville
Present Somerville Alderman, Ward Two

Comments

[tikva.livejournal.com]

I haven't voted in Somerville in several years, but I remember Denise Provost being rather progressive. This was a huge plus for me. :)

[cos]

Denise Provost has historically been the bridge between Somerville progressives and old-skool Somerville (many of whom are economically liberal, but politically distinct from progressives). While a strong progressive herself, she's well respected on both sides of this divide, which I think is the main divide in Somerville politics. She's also extremely well informed on the details of everything going on, and her ability to explain and answer questions in depth is remarkable. When she was city councilor at large, she used to get more votes in Somerville city elections than the Mayor, which is why she's sometimes called Somerville's most popular elected official.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Huh, there are 6 candidates for Register of deeds? I guess it's a big district. I have only seen any campaign material or information from two of them (Maryann Heuston and Maria Curtatone)
and yet it looks like one other candidate lives in Somerville and another one in Arlington. I know very little about the race, except that Maria Curtatone is related (sister, I think?) to our current mayor and yet he has endorsed Maryann Heuston, who has served as an alderman for some time, and so has the current registrar of deeds.

Denise Provost is our current State Rep and I've been quite happy with her, and her opponent hasn't even sent out any literature to say why one might want to vote for him instead. I plan to vote for Denise.

I'd love to be enlightened about what the "governor's councilor" role even is.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Maria Curtatone is related (sister, I think?) to our current mayor and yet he has endorsed Maryann Heuston,

Really? That kind of says something.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

My source here is a vague recollection from something I might have read in the Somerville Speakout or might have been elsewhere in the Journal, so please take it with a grain of salt in case it was Speakout!

Maybe it's not an official endorsement but he's been seen at Maryann Heuston's campaign events or something?

[ron_newman]

The Register of Deeds 'district' is called 'Middlesex South", and in fact covers about 2/3 of the county -- all the towns except the ones clustered around Lowell (which is where the "Middlesex North" registry is).

Yes, Maria Curtatone is Mayor Joe's sister. When she ran for Mayor herself many years ago, against Mike Capuano, she did not impress me very much. She opposed Capuano's support for the 'sanctuary resolution' which protected undocumented immigrants to Somerville. But she was pretty young and inexperienced then.

There are six candidates because the current register, Eugene Brune, is retiring and not running for re-election. He has endorsed Maryann Heuston. We are electing the new register to a six-year term, by the way.

The Governor's Council confirms the Governor's appointments to state courts. In my opinion, this should be done by one or both houses of the state legislature, as is the practice both federally and in many other states. It's a colonial relic which predates the establishment of the United States.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

There's some information on the Flaherty campaign site that I've found interesting reading.
http://flaherty2012.com/in-the-news/

Nothing in the 'issues' section besides a press release.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Governor's Council approves/appoints judges.

[ron_newman]

Governor appoints, Council approves (confirms).

[rmd.livejournal.com]

I've been really pleased with Denise Provost so far.

[gosling.livejournal.com]

I have also.

[ron_newman]

Denise Provost is absolutely worth your support to be re-elected in the Massachusetts House.

I think I'm going to vote for Maryann Heuston for Register of Deeds, based on the folks I know who have endorsed her -- most notably the current Register, Eugene Brune, but also historic preservation planner Brandon Wilson, Ward 5 School Committeeman Mark Niedergang, and Denise Provost.

Maryann is the current Ward 2 alderman, and the only one of the 6 candidates who would not try to continue running a private law practice while also serving as Register. (I got to meet her last night at a little garden party that Brandon Wilson held for her, and this subject came up.)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to put my support behind Denise Provost and Maryann Heuston. Now I just have to get info on Kennedy and Flaherty in the Councillors' race.

[jicama]

After looking at Flaherty's website, which leads with criticism of Elizabeth Warren, I'm going to vote for Kennedy.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That's good information to know. I'm going to vote for Kennedy, too.

[ron_newman]

Do you have links to Kennedy's and Flaherty's websites?

[unferth.livejournal.com]

I posted one for Flaherty's site earlier:
http://flaherty2012.com/in-the-news/ is the content I found most revealing, including the criticisms of Elizabeth Warren.

[kyriacarlisle.livejournal.com]

And while I have no objection to Mr. Flaherty's faith as a private matter, I'm made...nervous (perhaps unnecessarily)...when one of the only 4 articles a candidate for public office has chosen to put on his campaign website has the headline "Movie exec’s mission is to follow God’s path." I'd rather know more about what he means by "a prospective judge will need to demonstrate how the needs and rights of victims will be part of their daily decision-making process" and less about his thoughts on Narnia.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

I was considering Maryann Heuston, even though I've never really liked her as an alderperson, but today, in Medford I saw one of her signs on someone's lawn next to a Romney sign. I'm now having serious doubts....

As for Curtatone, I wouldn't vote for her if you held a gun to my head. My experiences with her as a neighbor when i lived in Prospect Hill made me realize she's an appalling human being. Just awful.

[ron_newman]

I'd love to hear more about your experiences with Maria as a neighbor.

[ron_newman]

My friend siderea put a lot of time and energy into learning everything she could about all of the Register of Deeds candidates. She concluded that Maryann Heuston deserves our vote. Here's her post:

http://siderea.livejournal.com/963930.html

[cos]

I lived in ward 2 for 7 years, but only contacted Heuston around the end of that time, when some friends and I were working on the Somerville Bill of Rights defense committee, and when I was hanging out with Rebecca Gewirtz (who I met through the Dean campaign in 2003, the same year the SBORDC began). My impression of Maryann Heuston was relatively neutral. More or less on the right side of things I cared about, more often than not, but hardly ever taking initiative to make them happen - just willing to support others if she saw that the effort already had a good chance. She also didn't seem to me like she was trying to make city processes more open and transparent, though she didn't seem particularly opposed either. My impression of her was a weak positive. However, I don't know how she's progressed in recent years.

P.S. If I were a Somerville voter I'd likely vote for her for this position, because she seemed competent and would probably do a good job. Register of Deeds strikes me as more of an administrative position, and I think there's a lot of value in supporting the general movement by making the endorsements of politicians I strongly support, count. As long as I don't see a case for why another candidate is clearly better, my vote for Heuston would be on the basis of wanting to encourage others to seek Denise Provost's support, for example, because I think that will give Provost more political influence to accomplish the things she wants to do, which I want her to be able to do.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Some googling turned up some tidbits for me:

The Maria Curtatone who's running for Register of Deeds is in fact the mayor's sister.

Maryann Heuston has a bunch of endorsements from other Somerville politicians, including the outgoing officeholder.
http://www.thesomervillenews.com/archives/22784 (The comments are typical for online journalism. Ugh.)

There's an hour-long debate hosted here, with five of the six candidates participating.
http://vimeo.com/48009786
That's more time than I personally want to spend studying the matter, especially for a position that's more about competence than public policy.

An early article from the Somerville Journal gives brief descriptions of several of the final candidates.

And there's a short questionnaire from the Somerville Journal here:
http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/x976204540/Election-questions-for-Registry-of-Deeds-candidates#axzz253mDBIxK

[unferth.livejournal.com]

Oops, missed the URL for the first Somerville Journal article:
http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/x1712046680/Broad-field-considers-run-for-south-Middlesex-register-of-deeds-in-2012

[ron_newman]

My earlier informational post about the primary (which doesn't answer any of your questions, but may be useful to other folks anyway)

Not everyone in Somerville will have Denise Provost on their ballot -- some folks are in Carl Sciortino's or Tim Toomey's district instead. They have no Democratic primary opponents but will face Republicans in November.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

If you're in the North-Cambridge/Belmont/whatever area, I've been hearing great stuff about Dave Rogers from politically-savvy people.

[nathanjw]

I remain puzzled why Register of Deeds is an elected position. I think I'm going to call up the campaigns and vote for the one that has the best answer (which could include "it shouldn't be, but as long as it is, I will..."). My current suspicion is that it's a result of covering (part of) a county, but there not being any county-level government that could appoint someone.

[ron_newman]

Even when Middlesex had a county government, this office was elected.

[nathanjw]

Maria Curtatone called me back (personally) to discuss this. She pretty much just said "the law establishing the registry says so", which wasn't terribly satisfying, and then had a bunch of campaign soundbites to relate to me. I did ask her if she thought that there were other registries that were state of the art and/or that Middlesex South could follow; she cited Worcester and Essex as doing particularly good jobs. So points for making the personal connection, but no points for the answer.

[stargazer.livejournal.com]

The UAW mailed me to say they've endorsed Denise Provost.

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

Chip Flaherty 's brother Peter is a veteran of the Romney administration and a senior advisor to Romney's presidential campaign. Chip and another brother, Michael, run the entertainment company Walden Media. I like many of their films, but am not crazy about their politics.
http://chnonline.org/news/local/10018-movie-execs-mission-is-to-follow-gods-path-chip-flahertys-enthusiasm-helped-bring-narnia-to-life.html