Yearly Archives - 2021

The members of the Arlington Democratic Town Committee, at their October meeting, passed a resolution urging our State Representatives to support S. 459 and H.805 – An Act fostering voter opportunities, trust, equity, and security (the “VOTES Act”) sponsored by Senator Cynthia Stone Creem and Representative John Lawn. The Senate has already passed its version of the bill. See https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/H805/.

Both Arlington Representatives, Sean Garballey and David Rogers, are co-sponsors of the House bill. ADTC members hope they will fight hard for all its provisions, including no-excuse mail voting, in-person early voting, and voting rights for incarcerated persons, and hope that the House bill will include same-day registration, which twenty other states now have. These provisions align with the Democratic Party platform passed by the State Convention in September.

Democrats in Arlington held a virtual caucus June 30 to elect delegates to the 2021 Massachusetts Democratic Convention.

Elected as delegates were Jane Arsham, Adam Badik, Robin Bergman, Elinore Charlton, Aimee Coolidge, Colby Cunningham, Joseph Curro, Silvia Dominguez, Peter Gast, Camilla Haase, Jennifer Litowski, Linda Magram, Hannah Markelz, Christine O’Connell, June Rowe, Paul Schlichtman, Amy Slutzky, David Swanson, Noah Sweder, Michael Watson, and Edward Witham.

Co-Chair Stephanie Swanson will serve as an ex officio delegate. Other Arlingtonians serving as ex officio delegates are James DiTullio and Marlene Silva, who serve on the Democratic State Committee, as well as State Representative Sean Garballey and State Senator Cindy Friedman.

The Convention will be held on Saturday, September 25, 2021, at the Tsongas Center in Lowell. Democrats from across the state will come together to adopt a party platform. For information on the Convention, please contact the Massachusetts Democratic Party at 617-939-0800 or go to https://massdems.org/.

Arlington Democrats are invited to attend a virtual caucus on Wednesday, June 30, at 7 p.m. to elect 37 delegates and 6 alternates to the 2021 Massachusetts Democratic Convention.

At this year’s state convention, to be held Saturday, September 25 at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, thousands of Democrats from across the state will come together to adopt a party platform.

The caucus is open to all registered and pre-registered Democrats in Arlington. Pre-registered Democrats who will be 16 by June 15, 2021, will be welcome to participate and run as a delegate or alternate.

To participate in the virtual caucus, please use this Zoom registration form. You will receive a personalized link and passcode to the Zoom caucus in an email, which you’ll need to keep.

Youth, minorities, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ individuals who are not elected as a delegate or alternate may apply to be an add-on delegate at the caucus or at www.massdems.org.

Delegates and alternates will be divided equally between men and women, except that candidates whose gender identity is non-binary can run for delegate without needing to classify themselves as male or female. Candidates must be present at the caucus to be elected (except those serving in the Armed Forces, who must notify the chair of their candidacy before the caucus).

For more information on the caucus or the Arlington Democratic Town Committee, please contact Co-Chair Stephanie Swanson at 716-435-4153 or Co-Chair Aimee Coolidge at 781-775-5343. For general information on the Convention or the Democratic Party, please call 617-939-0800 or email contact@massdems.org. Details on the caucus rules can be found at https://massdems.org/.

The Arlington Democratic Town Committee is appalled at the leadership role President Trump played in the violent attack on the Capitol and Congress on January 6. We strongly condemn President Donald Trump for inciting his supporters to “fight like hell” in support of the lie that the November election results were invalid.

Equally we condemn the 139 Republican Congresspersons and 8 Republican Senators who supported this lie and voted to invalidate the election results from two states. We condemn the actions of these individuals, which have resulted in lives lost and threaten our democratic institutions.

We condemn the racist assumption behind this lie and these actions: that votes from majority-Black and majority-Latinx cities such as Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Phoenix should not be counted.

We are thankful for the safety of our Representative Katherine Clark and our Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren and support their efforts to impeach and convict President Trump for his egregious attack on the democratic process. Truth and justice are the only road to healing.