You are invited! Fred Berman Fundraising party - Oct 15th 5-7pm

[jenniferdorsen.livejournal.com]

Somerville State Legislators Sponsor Event to Elect Fred Berman.

 

State Senator Pat Jehlen and Representatives Denise Provost and Carl Sciortino are jointly sponsoring a fundraiser in support of Fred Berman's campaign for Alderman-at-Large in the November city election.

 

The event will be held at Johnny D's in Davis Square on Monday, October 15 from 5 to 7 PM.   Refreshments will be served and donations to the campaign gladly accepted. The Darbys, a local band of musicians, will provide live music.

 

Berman is a first-time candidate who has been active in efforts to bring responsible development to Assembly Square and Union Square, to get an Orange Line T stop and the Green Line extension for Somerville, to protect the affordability of rental and first-time home ownership housing, and to expand access to important services like tax filing assistance, job search support, and health care enrollment.

 

        "Fred Berman is as knowledgeable, creative, and practical in his approach to city problems as anyone I've ever met," said Jehlen.

 

"Fred is great at bringing people together," said Provost. "He's patient. He listens. He's a great mediator and communicator."

 

"Fred is an incredibly hard worker. He can be a strong leader for Somerville," said Sciortino.

 

"I'm honored to have the support of these respected community leaders," said Berman. "I'm also grateful to all the people who have opened their doors and spoken candidly with me about Somerville's strengths and challenges.  

 

"Our conversations have only reinforced my belief that working in partnership, we can do better ... in preparing our young people for their futures, in protecting the affordability of our housing stock, in addressing the barriers to fuller participation in the community by seniors and persons with disabilities, in promoting the kind of development that enhances our quality of life, protects and adds to our open space, and relieves dependence on residential property taxes and State Aid.

 

"I look forward to winning the confidence and support of voters from across the City, and to the opportunity and privilege of representing them on the Board of Aldermen."

 

Berman has worked in human services for 25 years, at the non-profit, municipal, state, and legislative levels, designing, raising funds for, and managing programs serving seniors, youth, homeless and at-risk households, and people seeking new or better jobs.    He has been involved as a volunteer or board member with numerous organizations.

 

He and his wife, Lori Segall, a co-founder of Somerville Climate Action, live in the house they bought on Cherry Street 11 years ago.

 

For more information about this event or the campaign, contact tom@fredatlarge.net or visit www.fredatlarge.net.

 

Comments

[ron_newman]

I invited Jennifer to post here. I just e-mailed her to say that she needs to remove all the blank lines from the end of the post.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

and I just tried to tag it--hope I made the right guesses!

[philipph.livejournal.com]

In case it's confusing as to what's the matter with the post (it's not like there are tons of newlines at the end, literally), it's the "br clear='all'" at the end of it, that forces it to end after all the sidebar stuff in the page.
I guess it made sense in whatever context it was cut-and-pasted from, but here it just looks crazy.

[jenniferdorsen.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. . . .Actually, I invited Ron to post this invitation and perhaps if he had, it would look better. But to tell the truth, on my machine, it looks just fine, so that, plus my techno-illiteracy, means that I can't "fix" whatever is wrong. Sorry if it looks crazy to other viewers! Will we see you all there, anyway??

[ron_newman]

All you need to do is click on the pencil icon in this post, then remove <br clear='all'> from the end of it, then save it again.

(In the future, it's best to just post plain text instead of formatting it with HTML at all.)

[reverend-jim.livejournal.com]

State Senator Pat Jehlen and Representatives Denise Provost and Carl Sciortino are jointly sponsoring a fundraiser in support of Fred Berman's campaign for Alderman-at-Large in the November city election.

So Fred is Pat's Progressive Puppet for this election? (Okay, I just like the alliteration in that phrase. I don't know anything about Fred, although his list of endorsements makes it pretty clear who he'll answer to!) But seriously, with Marty Martinez unable to beat out Jack Connolly in the At-Large special election, will Fred stand a chance against the whole incumbent field? Not to mention Lafuente making a strong push...I think if a new face gets on the board, it's going to be Tony. At least we'll have a race, though!

[ron_newman]

I think Fred would easily do a much better job than Bruce Desmond. So far, two of my four votes are going to Bill White and Fred. Everyone else will have to try hard to get my vote, if I even cast a third or fourth vote.

[reverend-jim.livejournal.com]

Hah, I suspect a fire hydrant could do a better job than Desmond, but this is Somerville - that doesn't make him beatable! I'm guessing Sullivan is a lock, with Connolly and White pretty safe bets. The safe money says Desmond stays, with the challengers out in the cold. But I think Lafuente still has enough name recognition and residual support from his mayoral run to oust Desmond, or maybe Connolly.

With Martinez unable to beat Connolly one-on-one in the special election, do you really think Berman has a shot, or are you just tossing him a vote because you like him? And no love for non-progressives at all? What about Lafuente to shake things up? He might not be a progressive, but he's no Friend Of Joe. Right now I'm leaning towards White/Lafuente/Connolly, with the fourth vote up for grabs to the first candidate who knocks on my door.

The real pity is that we've got several qualified candidates running for At Large, but no one wants to take on my Alderman, Maryanne Useless.

[ron_newman]

I like Fred's ideas, and yeah, I'm voting for him because I like him (is there a better reason?). The lack of races for other seats is regrettable. If you lived in Ward 5, I'd urge you to vote for Joe Lynch.

[reverend-jim.livejournal.com]

There's definitely no *better* reason to vote for someone, but there sure are other reasons. I still shudder to think that I let my friends talk me into voting for Shannon O'Brien in a futile attempt to prevent Gov. Mitt. I ended up with the Governor I didn't want, and a dirty, dirty feeling that wouldn't wash off in the shower!

[ron_newman]

Is there someone else you'd rather have voted for in that election? (I don't even remember anyone else running.)

[reverend-jim.livejournal.com]

No, not really. I was going to throw a protest vote to the crazy chain-smoking lady, whose name I forget - "Guns, not government" was one of her catchy slogans if I recall correctly (it's possible that we made that slogan up as a joke, but that was definitely her general vibe). I had a long-standing policy of not voting for anyone who I didn't actually support, and I really detested O'Brien - mostly for dropping the ball on what should have been a slam-dunk campaign, but also because she couldn't have been more of a stereotypical Massachusetts political hack if she'd been birthed straight from the forehead of Howie Carr. So as you can see, I'm still holding a grudge over that particular vote!

[cos]

There were three other candidates: Jill Stein (Green), Barbara Johnson (independent), and Carla Howell (Libertarian).

You really don't remember Carla Howell, who answered every question in every debate and interview by saying "eliminate the income tax"? How will you preserve wetlands? eliminate the income tax. How will you reduce crime? eliminate the income tax. etc. It was bizarre, but also kind of funny.

Jill Stein got 3.5% of the vote.

Why you should vote for Fred

[lena-a-mermaid.livejournal.com]

If you want to know why you should vote for Fred Berman, take a look at his website http://www.fredatlarge.net (http://www.fredatlarge.net).

Fred is a candidate of Substance.