Candidate Development and Legal Committee (CDLC) Candidates and Committee Report

July 8, 2017

CDLC currently has 6 members: John Andrews (co-chair), Charlene DiCalogero (co-chair), Steven Ballard, Maureen Doyle, Nat Fortune, Jonathan Martin. We are in need of 1 to 2 new members to replace a long-time member who resigned in November 2016.

Trainings and Workshops

The CDLC sponsored people to present two workshops at the State Convention:

1. Becoming a Candidate workshop (mentioned above)

John Andrews led this workshop, as a last-minute replacement for Greg Williams, who was not well enough to attend. Eight or nine people attended the workshop. Charlene dropped in on part of the workshop. Darlene Elias, past candidate and current co-chair of GRP, and Angel Ayala, StateCom member, attended.

2. Campaign Volunteer training workshop

Joe Carvalho, former GRP mayoral candidate, Fall River, led this workshop with assistance from Steve Ballard, CDLC. Charlene dropped in on this workshop. Looking for #s attended, @ 8.

Because we were unable to devote time to putting together longer trainings for the spring, we have been referring candidates and volunteers to Mass Alliance grassroots campaign trainings. We continued to encourage candidates to attend GPUS Coordinated Campaign Committee (CCC) webinars this quarter.

3. Campaign School, Fall 2017

We have been too busy to plan for this workshop, plan to get back on this during the summer. We welcome assistance from other StateCom members and chapters in the planning of this workshop.

Recruitment of candidates and volunteers

We have been recruiting candidates, and volunteers to campaigns, through the state convention, chapters, chapters in formation, and FB groups. The Membership Director and State Com members have also referred potential candidates to us.

Reporting to GPUS

Charlene forwarded data for 3 of 4 election wins this quarter to Mike Feinstein and Chantel for the GPUS database:

Charlene DiCalogero, Berlin Library Trustee

Sharon Moss, Shrewsbury Town Meeting Rep

Joyce Palmer-Fortune, Whately Select Board

Not reported:

Gus Steeves, re-elected to Sturbridge Town Council, is registered U, and therefore cannot appear on the GPUS roster, though he does on GRP.

CDLC has been requested to supply names and basic info on candidates as they officially attain ballot status. While we will do the best we can, our priority is candidate support.

CDLC webpages and candidate support docs 

We continued to update our webpages. We have support docs to update.

Current Candidates or Potential Candidates

See section on reporting to GPUS for 5 victories!

We have 45 people on the "Current" list of people we are mentoring. This number is considerably higher than the amount our committee members have the ability to maintain contact with. We continue to attempt to winnow out those people who have not stayed in contact with us. We have had turnover on this list since our Spring 2017 report, so a number of folks are new.

Four (4) candidates are announced as running for office for Summer through Fall 2017: Ian Jackson is on the ballot for State Senator, 4^th Middlesex, Special Election, Darlene Elias is running for Holyoke City Councilor, Ward 3, Juan Gabriel Sanchez is on the ballot for Holyoke City Councilor, Ward 1, and Sean T. Connell is running for School Committee, Fall River. We believe Ian and Juan are registered J; Sean Connell says he’s registered U, and we don’t know Darlene’s registration status, it was U for her last race.

One (1) candidate is listed as committed but not yet announced, for federal office (it is unclear if they are registered GRP).

Twenty seven (27) are considering running in the next one to four years for local, state or federal office; some of these have not yet been contacted. Some may not be reachable and will be archived.

Of the additional names in our “current prospectives sheet”: 

Five (5) have no plans to run in the next 2 years, though one would run if a local seat became vacant mid-term.

Seven (7) are potential recruits to be a GRP candidate, who have had previous experience in running or serving in public office, or in some other way are thought to be potential prospects. Some of these are people we believe are from underrepresented communities/identities. Two are we believe registered GRP.

At least three have not been reached in the last quarter.

Elected and Appointed

We believe the following are currently in elected or appointed office as GRP. The first 9 are elected, an increase of 33%; the rest appointed:

                Name                                Next election     Level/Position                           Town                     Chapter if known

1. DiCalogero Charlene       5/2020               Local      Library Trustee          Berlin                       CMGR
2. Moss     Bryan                    5/2018                Local      Town Meeting            Shrewsbury            CMGR
3. Moss     Sharon                  5/2020               Local      Town Meeting            Shrewsbury            CMGR
4. Larner   Tar                         3/2019                Local      Housing Board         Concord                   AVGR
5. Jespersen Damon             5/2020?             Local      Select Board             Newbury (Byfield)
6. Merelice M K                       5/2019               Local      Town Meeting           Brookline                GBC
7. Steeves Gus                       6/2020?             Local      Town Council            Southbridge
8. O'Connor Vincent                                         Local        Town Meeting.           Amherst
9. Palmer-Fortune Joyce       6/2020?           Local        Select Board            Whately         PV
10. Ballard Steven                                              Local         Finance Comm.; Affordable Housing Trust  Boxborough    AVGR
11. Doyle    Maureen                                          Local         Conservation Comm. Southbridge
12. Factor Danny                                                 Local        Disabilities Commission Acton               AVGR
13. Jackson Ian                                                    Local        MLK, Jr Day Committee  Arlington

Respectfully submitted,

Charlene DiCalogero, co-chair