by Ariel Burch

The organization of city Democrats, which seeks to hold its party’s elected officials to the party’s platform, endorsed State Rep. Patricia D. Jehlen at its endorsement forum June 15 at the VNA home at 259 Lowell St. for the special state Senate race. 

The Progressive Democrats of Somerville invited all candidates for the Democratic nomination for the 2nd Middlesex District seat, left vacant by the passing of Charles E. Shannon Jr., said Todd Kaplan, the organization’s endorsement chairman.

Jehlen and attorney and former state representative Joseph K. Mackey were the only two to contest for the endorsement, he said.
Each of the candidates 30 minutes with the PDS members, separately, first making an opening statement and then taking questions from the floor.
With the members out of the room, members debated the merits of the two, and then held a secret ballot vote.
Jehlen won the PDS endorsement with 96 percent of the votes cast, said Katie Wallace, the group’s chairwoman, who was the event’s moderator.
The involvement in PDS is very important regardless of which candidate it supports, she said.
The forum was established to determine the endorsement of PDS going into the Aug. 30 Democratic Primary, said Kaplan.
Mackey spoke to the group first.
“Be brave. Do the right thing. Support me in this election”, said Mackey.
In his opening statement, Mackey said he had that the format would have more like a debate, where he would be able to engage Jehlen in a direct conversation about the issues.
Then, warming to the task at hand, he said worked hard to rebuild Somerville as legislator on Beacon Hill.
“Somerville was a very different place then,” said Mackey.
The city was filled with abandoned buildings and struggling with financial cuts in schools and other areas, he said.
But, Mackey said the city recovered because a lot of the right decisions that he and other elected officials made.
He said the problem in his leadership was then he made the city too attractive. “Sometimes, I think we made too many right decisions.”
“This is the dark lining in the silver cloud,” he said.
Mackey said he was proud of his accomplishments as state represtative helping Massachusetts become the first state to provide health care to uninsured pregnant women and being instrumental in making this the second state to pass a gay rights law.
A Somerville native, Mackey said that his family is very important to him, and that he remained active in the community as a father and community leader during his years out of office. “I’ve been a strong voice in the city.”
Mackey said after his left public life he took leadership roles in the  scholarship program at Somerville High School and the Dreams for Youth program at the elementary schools and girls youth basketball program.
If elected, Mackey said he plans to improve city services and put more money into schools and work hard to improve local aid.
The city’s loss of significant state aid was a major issue that demands active advocacy, he said.
“I promise you I will be standing on my desk screaming if Somerville does not do better in the local aid situation,” Mackey said.
“We need someone kicking and screaming, not just quiet and decent,” he said.
Fielding questions from the members, Mackey said he supported the city’s anti-gang ordinance and opposed the divestment by the city’s employee retirement funds from Israel bonds or companies doing business with Israel.
Mackey said he was proud of the way Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and the Board of Alderman confronted the divestiture issue and turned it down.
Mackey said that he will be an affective leader in the state Senate, and that his aggressively-thorough campaign style has shown this.
“I am the only candidate campaigning for every vote in every part of the district,” said Mackey.
Mackey would be a more effective campaigner than Jehlen, he said. “I will raise more money, I’ll have more volunteers.”
“I’m gonna compete for every vote,” he said.
When his time expired, Mackey said he had been warned that he had no shot at the PDS endorsement, but it was important to him that he reach out to all factions and communities in the district.
Expecting to stay for his rival’s session, Mackey said he was very surprised when he was asked to leave the room as Jehlen was about to begin.
“I think it’s important for me to win this race” said Jehlen.
The race was an important test of strength for progressives, because her victory would encourage legislators who agree with progressive ideas to vote their conscience, she said.
She said the district needs a senator that will protect the values of the party, values that she learned in her early work as a civic activist before she entered elected politics.
In 1990 Jehlen, ran for state reprentative after serving on the city’s school committee, she said.
Since then, she has fought for many social issues including education aid and policy and gay marriage, Jehlen said.
The gay marriage issue was very emotional for her, in part because of the enormous response she received from voters in the district, she said.
“That same level of commitment and energy needs to go into issues of economic justice,” Jehlen said.
“We need to be angry and organized about local aid. We need to be angry and organized about health care,” she said.
Jehlen was asked similar questions as Mackey, though the three hostile questions came from audience members who did not bother to take off their “Mackey for State Senate” stickers.
Unlike Mackey, Jehlen said she did not support the final version of the city’s anti-gang ordinance, after failing to fix the bill’s flaws in the drafting process.
Her concerns about the anti-gang ordinance were vindicated when Martha Coakley, the Middlesex County District Attorney, said the ordinance was virtually unenforceable, Jehlen said.

Like Mackey, Jehlen said she did not support the movement to have the city divest from Israel.
Although, she is sympathetic to the greater goals of the movement, Jehlen said she was concerned that the divestiture controversy has become too divisive.

Jehlen said she did not want the progressive vote split. “I wish there weren’t two progressives from Somerville running.”

She said that PDS needs to be united and support one candidate.

Jehlen said that the audience and public know where she stands from her record of many years in office. “I’ve told you what I’m about.”

Her presentation over; Jehlen received very warm applause as she left the room to await the results.

Green Line lobbyist Ellin Reisner, the president of the Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership stood up to voice her support of Jehlen and encouraged the PDS to make her the endorsed candidate.

Reiser was joined by State Rep. Carl M. Sciortino, Jr. D-Somerville, who said he had personally endorsed Jehlen.

“We owe it to Pat,” he said.

Robert E. Colt, the state committeeman for the district, said if the PDS could not endorse Mackey, it should consider not making an endorsement, since the momentum was behind Mackey and the PDS would risk being seen as a spoiler.

Colt is an active in the Mackey campaign and was one of the 60 Mackey supporters holding signs outside the VNA home.

“Joe was the person to get things done in the legislature,” Colt said of Mackey, his friend of over 30 years.

When Colt worked in the district attorney’s office, and later the state attorney general’s office, Mackey had the reputation as a man of action. “Often people play it cautious, but I’ve really seen the effectiveness.”

A number of other notables and politicians attended the meeting, including former mayoral candidate Tony Lafuente; John L. Sullivan, who is challenging incumbent Ward 5 Alderman Sean T. O’Donovan; Rebekah Gewirtz, who is challenging incumbent Ward 6 Alderman John M. “Jack” Connolly.