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President Obama and company need to move the question on the health care reform bill so they can focus more energy on the joblessness and job insecurity that are gnawing at the nation’s collective confidence. Bob Herbert of the NYTimes has his “jobs” drum out again today, and he’s pounding it in hope that the Democrats in Washington will hear the message. Read his column here, and subscribe to the NYT if you appreciate it.

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The Friends of the Tewksbury Patriotic Activities Committee is sponsoring a Candidates Breakfast this coming Saturday March 13th from 8:00AM to 11:00AM at the Tewksbury VFW on Vernon Street. Inspired by the traditional St. Partick’s Breakfast held annually in South Boston, this breakfast is more about fun and roasting that serious political jousting among candidates. 

Among those that have confirmed their attendance and participation at the breakfast are 5th District Congresswoman Niki Tsonas, Senator Sue Tucker, State Representatives Barry Finegold and Jim Miceli, GOP candidates Jamison Tomasek for State Senate and Mario Marchese for State Representative as well as candidates for local town office. With Senator Tucker’s recent retirement announcement there is a distinct possibility of many more candidates to round out the program. Stephen Bjork local comedian and columnist will act as moderator.

The event is open to the public. Tickets - available at the door - are $5 per person with politicos paying slightly more! Proceeds from ticket sales and a 50-50 raffle will help fund the town’s Memorial Day parade, Fourth of July fireworks and Veterans Day ceremonies — events that according to event chair Jerry Selissen - can no longer be funded through Tewksbury’s municipal budget.

Read more here in a recent Lowell SUN article: http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_14511749?IADID=Search-www.lowellsun.com-www.lowellsun.com#ixzz0hcZ0c3xZ

NOTE:

The Lowell City Manager’s St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast will be held on Wednesday March 17, 2010 at 7am at the UMASS Lowell Inn and Conference Center to benefit the A.O.H. - Ancient Order of Hibernians.

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The Sunday SUN political column item about the fall-out from Senator Sue Tucker’s decision not to run for re-election has me confused. It’s both the analysis and and some “facts” that I wonder about. I’ve included the Tucker Senate seat item here as the column is not availble in the Sunday on-line edition - only in the subscribed “electronic” version. My comments are in bold italics.

TREMORS SHOOK the political landscape of the Merrimack Valley last week with state Sen. Susan Tucker’s decision not to run for re-election. Many politicos did not see her departure coming.Democrats are scram­bling to line up her support­ers and stave off a flurry of entrants.

The scorecard:

 • State Rep. Barry Fine­gold, an Andover Democrat, has done little to hide his ambition for higher office since running for Congress in 2007. Aides to Finegold said he is still debating, but multiple sources said his candidacy is very likely. The district also includes Dracut, Lawrence and Tewksbury.

 

Finegold would be the conventional front-runner.

He will have the money lead against almost any oppo­nent — $93,000 in his cam­paign account today — and would run from a strong base in Andover and a sec­tion of Lawrence. Wouldn’t his longtime representation of precincts 3 and 3A in Tewksbury be a part of this strong base?

 

Finegold’s money advan­tage could discourage state Rep. Barbara L’Italien, another Andover Democrat, from running, though she said she is still considering her options.

 • Democrat Deb Silver­stein, chairman of the Andover School Committee, announced Friday that she’s in.

 

• Other Democrats con­sidering entering the race are David Abdoo, a former Lawrence city councilor who ran unsuccessfully for mayor last year; Francisco Urena, Lawrence’s veter­ans- services director; and former Lawrence Mayor Michael Sullivan.   The former Mayor of Lawrence when I last checked was a Republican - he night have gone “Independent” but certainly not Democratic.

 

 • Three Republicans pulled nomination papers before Tucker’s move: CPA Jamison Tomasek of Andover, telephone union president John Kelly of Dracut, and Mark Baldwin.  The IBEW/Union leader John Kelly had pulled papers to run againt Tucker in the Democratic Primary - he’s not a Republican.

 • Rep. Colleen Garry, of Dracut, is sitting out.

 

 • Word coming out of Dracut late last week was that Selectman John Zimini might run, but Kelly supporters will likely try to discourage his entrance and keep from splitting the Dracut vote. There is some speculation among politicos that Kelly might change his mind about the Senate race and go against Rep Colleen Garry in her Democratic primary.  

 • Tewksbury’s state rep, Jim Miceli, said he’s heard no chatter about any candi­date emerging from Tewks­bury. (Miceli lives in Wilm­ington, outside the district.) No name from Tewksbury has emerged and I don’t expect one. The Friends of the Patriotic Activities Committee Candidates Breakfast scheduled for Saturday March 13th at the VFW in Tewksbury might be a “hot spot” to get a scoop or check out the serious candidiates in the field.

Several people close to Tucker said she had consid­ered retiring two years ago. The Senator herself mentioned that she’d thought about retiring in the past.

  Tucker spent more than 22 years in the House and Sen­ate, making her claim of wanting to spend more time with her grandchild credible — even if it’s going to be a tough year for incumbents.

Nomination papers are available for this seat in the local town clerk and city elections offices and from the Secretary of State. Signatures need to be presented to local election officials by April 27, 2010 for certification. Candidates for State Senate need 300 certified signatures. There is time for this candidate scramble to play out - but not much time. Stay tuned.

Regarding Senator Tucker - as I wrote in my blog post on Thurday night: 

I live in Senator Tucker’s District and can speak from experience about her years of excellent representation and service. Her leadership on the issues of housing, senior citizens, education has been outstanding. She still has nearly a year left to continue her important legislative and constituent work.

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Tsongas supporters at campaign kick-off

Niki Tsongas at campaign kick-off

This afternoon I joined more than 150 others at the Niki Tsongas Re-election Headquarters at 17 Kirk Street in Lowell. With five Republicans and two unenrolled candidates already having taken out papers, Tsongas is sure to face multiple challengers this fall. Far from shying away from this fight, she seems highly energized by it, saying that she is looking forward to making her case to the voters over the coming months and that the Democratic case in general “is a case that needs to be made.”

Tsongas spoke quite a bit about health care reform, saying that the cost of doing nothing is unacceptable because the current system of health care is simply unsustainable. She said that Washington was caught completely off guard by the Scott Brown victory in January and the immediate reaction by many was to pull back and to break up health care into a series of smaller bills. (Tsongas herself believes that the Brown victory was not a referendum on health care reform, but the result of a “perfect storm” of political circumstances).

With the passage of just a few weeks, however, many have returned to the position that health reform must happen now. With both the House and the Senate having already passed health care bills, she predicted that a bill will soon be on the President’s desk for his signature and that the differences between the House and the Senate bill will then be worked out through the reconciliation process.

Once the President signs a health reform bill, Tsongas believes it will be as if a great weight has been lifted off of the country and we will then be able to move onto other critically important issues such as creating new jobs for regions such as the Merrimack Valley that have been especially hard hit by the recession.

But Tsongas is not naïve about what lies ahead. She said that politics in Massachusetts right now is very unsettled and that she and her supporters have to work hard for every vote. As if on cue, a group of union workers from Dorchester who were angry about not having gotten a job on a Tsongas-assisted project in Billerica (that did utilize 80% union labor), materialized on the sidewalk across Kirk Street from the headquarters, loudly expressing their displeasure. Their chants were unintelligible inside the headquarters, but they served to raise the political-adrenalin of the Tsongas supporters inside. In that way, the union protesters were helpful stand-ins for the Tea Party activists who will inevitably pop-up on the campaign trail in the coming months.

My sense is that Tsongas’s supporters are fully engaged and ready for a fight. Beginning with the Town Hall-Tea Party fiascos of last summer and continuing through to the Brown election, Democrats have been on the defensive for far too long. There’s now an eagerness to aggressively rebut the lies and misstatements from the other side that have gone unchallenged for far too long and to take the case for health care reform, banking reform, credit card reform, mortgage reform and job creation directly to the people.

It’s certainly going to be an interesting summer.

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Poet and writer Brian Turner writes about the “hurt locker” in everyone who gets damaged by war. He wrote this essay for the NYTimes after attending a showing of the film “The Hurt Locker” in Hanoi, Vietnam. Read the essay here and subscribe to the NYT if you appreciate it.

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Senator Sue Tucker

An announcement is imminent as another member of the Massachusetts Legislature decides not to run for re-election. The dominos will fall in the Merrimack Valley when Senator Sue Tucker finishes her personal calls and her decision becomes public tomorrow. Senator Tucker - a Democrat - represents the Second Essex and Middlesex District which includes the city of Lawrence and the towns of Andover, Dracut and Tewksbury.

Senator Tucker will be the third woman currently serving in the Massachusetts Senate to chose not to stand for re-election - she joins colleagues Senators Joan Menard of the First Bristol and Plymouth District and Marion Walsh of the Suffolk and Norfolk District. There are currently twelve woman in the Senate including the Senate President Therese Murray.

She served in the House of Representatives representing Andover from1982 to 1992.  When John O’Brien left the Senate for the private sector back in 1999, Tucker ran in a field of Democrats  to win the Senate seat. A member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee the Senator serves on a number of  Joint Committees including Education and Telecommunications, Ulitities and Energy and is the Chair of the Housing Committee.

Stay tuned as the potential candidates test the waters. The only currently declared candidate for the Democratic nomination for this seat - John Kelley of Dracut - won’t be alone for long! Expect State Representative Barry Fingold to take the plunge - he has over $100,000 in his war chest - a good start to a State Senate campaign!

Note: I live in Senator Tucker’s District and can speak from experience about her years of excellent representation and service. Her leadership on the issues of housing, senior citizens, education has been outstanding. She still has nearly a year left to continue her important legislative and constituent work.

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Susan Milligan is reporting on breaking news on Boston.com that Democratic Congressman Bill Delahunt will announce tomorrow that he will not run for re-election to his 10th District seat. Read her story here: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/ 

For many politicos this announcement will come as no surprise. Who will run in the Democratic primary? Do the Republicans have a chance to capture this seat? How many more Massachusetts Democrats will retire from public office at the end of their terms this year? Stay tuned.

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The AP is reporting that longtime Congressman and Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee has requested a leave of absence from his committee position. Saying that he didn’t want his ethics controversy to hurt the election prospects of his colleagues, Rangel - the 20-term Congressman from Harlem - sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi requesting that she ”grant me a leave of absence until such time as the ethics committee completes its work.”  There is no confirmed information as to which colleague would fill his position.

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The NYTimes’ Frank Rich paints a troubling picture of what may be in store for the US if the Tea Party mindset catches on. Time to get that “Coffee Party” movement going. Read Frank Rich here and subscribe to the Times if you appreciate it.

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The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is hiring 250 workers. Read the article here from www.seacoastonline.com

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