Voters who have settled on a Ward 6 candidate: Why are you supporting your chosen candidate?

[keithn.livejournal.com]

I'm just curious from people who are not the candidates or linked closely to any of them - how did you reach your decision? I have personally found that for the issues I care about, I can't see much of a reason to vote for one candidate as opposed to any of the others. So I'll probably end up voting based on some other reason I haven't decided on yet. They all seem like good people.

I'm wondering as to what is driving other voters. I'm probably not a typical municipal election voter (as a young and relatively recent renting resident of 4 years) but I'm willing to bet some more people like me are here on DSLJ.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I have some recollection of Chisholm running a really racist and anti-immigrant campaign against then-Ward 6 alderman Jack Connolly in the early 1990s*. Enough so that I campaigned for Jack that year. Maybe Charlie has changed since then, but it concerns me even today.

This was back when "Sanctuary City" was a major local political issue.

(He has run unsuccessfully for Ward 6 alderman four times -- three against Jack, once against Rebekah Gewirtz.)

*EDIT: I'm pretty sure this was in 1993, which was the last time Chisholm ran against Connolly. I moved from Ward 2 to Ward 6 in 1992, and I would not have campaigned for some other ward's alderman when I still lived in Ward 2.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

That is surprising given his involvement in the civil rights movement. Do you have any citations?

[ron_newman]

This was a really long time ago so I don't have any paper saved from then. But I may go look up old Somerville Journal articles in the library now. And maybe also drop by Jack Connolly's office and talk to him.

[ron_newman]

See my new post on this subject.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

In light of this, I'm now a little surprised that you initially said you were disinclined to vote for Chisholm due to his lack of participation in the "Ask Me Anything"/Somerville Journal interviews. If he ran a "really racist and anti-immigrant campaign" at some point then I wouldn't expect his participation in those forums to really make any difference in overcoming this issue.

[lanze108.livejournal.com]

Charles had a stance against Somerville as a sanctuary city, because he thought that Cambridge was in a better position to take in immigrants at the time. This was because Cambridge had double the tax base as Somerville at the time.

He was taking a pragmatic approach to a hot button issue. He has been heavily involved in civil rights over the years. He has even stood against segregation in the Freedom Schools. I don't know how you can even imply that he is racist.

As someone with a Hispanic background, I'd vote for Charles ten times over, because he's the only candidate that has definitive stances on the issues. We don't need more alderman that are just going to stand around and talk. We need someone that is going to represent the people and do something for them.

Let's also not forget that Charles has already been an alderman in the past. He knows how to navigate the system already better than the other candidates, and he's not beholden to high rolling donors that have given him $1,000. Lance Davis has 5 $1,000 donations and 15 $500 donations. He's the establishment candidate. He's the type that will be all talk.

We need someone that will act on behalf of the residents of Ward 6, not on behalf of the establishment.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

Please note that I didn't imply that anyone was a racist. I was replying to someone else who did. It's a pretty serious allegation and one that does not jive with the campaign literature sent out by Chisholm, and I was hoping for some more details/clarification from Ron. I don't have anything negative to say about any of the candidates.

Given that the second spot in the 2013 ward 1 preliminary election was decided by only 5 votes, comments here could actually sway the election. Ron is a great guy and I trust that he believes what he is saying, but I definitely think he could be interpreting events in a way that not all people would, especially given that he volunteered for the guy Chisholm was opposing. I just wish I knew the details of those events.

[ron_newman]

I need to do some library research and hope to do so within the next day or two. Right now all I have is my 22-year-old memory .... but lanze108 does confirm that Chisholm opposed Somerville's Sanctuary City resolution, which was at the time supported by Mike Capuano, Jack Connolly, and many other leaders in our city.

I do not recall him ever saying "Cambridge does this better so Somerville shouldn't bother" as justification for this position. There was a fair amount of anti-immigrant rhetoric floating around our city at the time, and opposition to Sanctuary City was part of this.

(And Sanctuary City did not involve any expenditure of money whatsoever. It simply declared that the city would not voluntarily cooperate with Federal immigration agencies in facilitating deportations.)

[lanze108.livejournal.com]

Sorry. I'm new to Live Journal. I meant for that to be put under Ron Newman's post, because he was the one that was implying that Charles Chisholm ran a racist anti-immigration campaign. I think that's pretty close to calling someone racist.

[ron_newman]

See my new post on this subject. Had Chisholm participated in the DSLJ "Ask Me Anything", I would have asked him if he still stood by these statements today.