Framingham Democratic Town Committee
Minutes of October 15 and 17, 2006
The minutes of both minutes are being combined as the second meeting was a continuation of the first.
Held at The Meadows from 7:00pm to 9:30pm.
Attendance October 15
Members
Associate Members: Elsa Aviza, Susan Elwyn, Gerard Heng, Pam Roberts
Attendance October 17
Associate Members: Elsa Aviza, Susan Elwyn, Gerry Heng, Steve Joyce (joined Oct. 17), Lloyd Kaye (joined Oct. 17), Laura Medrano (joined Oct. 17), Pamela Roberts
Guests on October 15 and / or October 17 (those that signed in):
Ralph Mero, Deborah Mero, Phil Jack, Adam Blumer, Tony Alencar, Carone Berman, Stan Berman, Mike Dineen, Phil Dinsky, Bill Dooling, David Finkelstein, Alan Frankel, Dennis Giombetti, Steve Grossman, Audrey Hall, Gwendolyn Holbrow, Helen Lemoine, Christine Long, Tom Manders, Larry Marsh, Susan Massad, Katie Murphy, Ilma Paixao, Chris Petrini, Wes Ritchie, Rep. Tom Sannicandro, Chris Sciaba, Adam Sisitsky, Charlie Sisitsky, Carol Spack, Sen. Karen Spilka, Pam Richardson
These were special meetings following the tragic and untimely death of the FDTC Co-Chair, our friend and leader, the State Representative Debby Blumer.
Remembering Debby Blumer
After a moment of silence in memory of Debby Blumer, people shared their memories, mentioning Debby‘s energy, inclusiveness and how she stuck to her principles no matter what. Adam Blumer, the youngest child of Debby, was gracious enough to attend our meeting, saying his mother would have wanted that. Adam talked about Debby’s tireless work to improve the community, the state and the country and that she had a strong moral compass which enabled her to take unpopular stances if she thought they were right. Adam mentioned Debby’s strong support for Deval Patrick’s campaign and urged everybody to volunteer and to amplify their efforts, to make 10 phone calls instead of one, as a fitting tribute to Debby’s memory.
Esther Hopkins submitted a motion to have the FDTC send the family a card, and it was passed.
On Tuesday Norma Shulman moved to donate 200$ in Debby’s name to a charity of the family’s choice. Motion was accepted.
Business
A lot of discussion took place about what to do about Debby Blumer’s seat in light of Secretary of State William Galvin’s ruling that votes for Debby Blumer would be thrown out and that no special election would take place, and the winner would be the one who got the most write-in votes. Joan Rastani moved to vote right then and there and choose the Democratic candidate, as the FDTC is an elected body and represents the Democrats in Framingham, so it was within our rights. There was a lot of discussion and the general feeling was that a special election would be the best and most-Democratic solution, and having a non-binding unofficial caucus the second most Democratic. Many favored running a candidate who would commit not to serve and so trigger a special election. John Stefanini moved to create a caucus committee who would arrange an unofficial caucus. At the end of Sunday’s meeting it was decided to convene on Tuesday to reach a decision, and Joan Rastani and John Stefanini tabled their motions.
On Tuesday Joan Rastani withdrew her motion. Norma Shulman entered a motion to to choose a person who would refuse to serve, this triggering a special election no earlier than 14 weeks after the certification of the election. The Senator Karen Spilka and her aide Mary Anne talked about the risks and chances of bringing about legislation to allow votes for Debby Blumer to be counted and to have a special election. One risk – even if the law got passed, the candidate with the most write-in votes would likely sue the state and we could find ourselves in limbo, without representation. John Stefanini moved to hold a caucus with slight variations on Tuesday’s motion and Alan Silver suggested an amendment to pursue the legislation avenue in parallel to holding the caucus. Norma’s “faux nominee” motion was rejected and John Stefanini’s motion was passed. Full text of motion follows:
1) Ask Representative Sanicandro, Senator Spilka and Governor Romney to immediately file and pass legislation to allow Massachusetts, like other states, to vote for a deceased person in order to allow sufficient time to conduct a special election according to state law and to pass this legislation no later than Monday, October 23, 2006;
2) Establish a seven person committee appointed by the Chair, all of whom shall be registered Democrats from the district, including three members of the committee, one member of the Blumer family and three others, to organize, convene and publicize a Democratic caucus/forum amongst all registered Democrats interested in serving as state representative from the sixth Middlesex District to determine the Democratic candidate with a majority of support amongst Democratic caucus attendees, including the authority to:
- spend up to $600 to complete its charge;
- solicit written responses from candidates on the major issues facing this disrict and our state;
- publicize nomination through a mailing to every good-voting Democratic household in the district;
- Said forum shall be held at the Cameron Middle School on Sunday, October 22, at 4:30 p.m. All candidate choosing to participate shall be asked if they will abide by the vote of the caucus and support the winner of said straw poll. All caucus attendees will be requested to support the winner of said caucus.
3) Members of the Democratic town committee agree to support the winner of said caucus.
The members of the 7 person committee:
- Parwez Wahid
- Nancy Coville Wallace
- Cheryl Tully Stoll
- Adam Blumer
- Mike Dineen
- Steve Joyce
- Helen Lemoine
Next Regular Meeting – November 12
Rochelle Sivan · (508) 333-5698 · [email protected]