Six candidates are vying to fill Ellen Story’s large shoes in the 3rd Hampshire District. I will vote for Solomon Goldstein-Rose. He is the youngest candidate – the only millennial – on the ballot and I’m investing in the belief that he could give us 50 years of public service devoted to fighting for equal opportunity for all our citizens and promoting bold solutions to the impending climate crisis brought on by the continuing use of fossil fuels.
After my 44 years in the state House and Senate and in the Congress I have seen that racial and gender bias persists, that globalization has shaken job markets and economic opportunity for all but the super wealthy, that income inequality has soared and that we are rapidly approaching a precipice because of our negligent inaction to curb the use of fossil fuels.
In that time the diversity of America’s population has expanded dramatically and I see that those who grew up in the 1990s and finished their high school and college education in this 21st century embrace the diversity of America.
In our state the number of people between the ages of 18 and 29, the millennials, is roughly 20 percent of our voting age population. Only five out of 160 members of our House of Representatives, just 3 percent, are under 30. Millennials are grossly underrepresented, but they must become the leaders who heal the divides of all kinds in America. Electing Solomon will move us in the right direction.
John Olver
Amherst
When many are cynical about a government that does not work for most people, Vira Douangmany Cage’s candidacy for state representative gives me hope. Vira’s positions on climate change, environmental justice, single-payer health care, an economy for all, quality public education, the broken criminal justice system, institutional racism, reproductive rights and pay equity for women align with my own.
Vira was endorsed by Mass-Care, the Commonwealth’s largest advocacy group for single-payer health care reform. Vira stands out because she is a lifelong activist and organizer who believes that only grassroots movements have the power to effect change. Vira is unafraid to speak truth to power. As a Laotian-American immigrant, she has an important perspective to bring to the House. In 1980, when she was 6, Vira’s family arrived in the U.S. after spending time in a refugee camp in Thailand. Vira witnessed their struggle to navigate life in the United States.
Only 9.5 percent of the members of the House are people of color, compared to 26 percent of the population. Vira gives me confidence we can build a powerful movement based on anti-racism and social and environmental justice.
Carole Horowitz
Amherst
Many of the candidates running for state representative have views that reflect our community. So how do we choose among six candidates? For me, it’s a question of who is most ready and able to represent us. One of a state rep’s key responsibilities involves constituent services — hearing and meeting the needs of people in their district.
I’m supporting Lawrence O’Brien because he is ready and willing to spend the energy and hours it takes to assist community members, address their concerns, and find the solutions they need. I’ve known Lawrence for many years and can attest that he is a keen listener who’s tenacious in getting things done. Having served on School Committee, Town Meeting, and a range of other boards and subcommittees, Lawrence has plenty of experience.
As a high school social studies teacher, he knows the legislative process and can put that knowledge into action. O’Brien will do an outstanding job representing and serving the 3rd Hampshire District.
Jackie Churchill
Amherst
On one candidate’s lesser-known qualities
I have seen many letters supporting Sarah la Cour’s candidacy for state representive based on her understanding of the issues facing our region and her tireless work within the business community.
In my eyes, she is the most qualified candidate on these grounds, but I would like to offer a window into a side of Sarah that may not be as well known to the community that I believe further makes her our best choice. I had the good fortune of working alongside Sarah this past winter as a volunteer assistant coach on the Amherst Regional High School alpine ski team. With the team’s future in doubt due to staffing cuts, Sarah stepped up to offer her time and skills to make sure the team could continue to compete when she was already fully booked with her more than full-time job.
Throughout the season, Sarah’s patience and good humor when dealing with skiers aged 13 to 18, as well as race officials and parents, was a stabilizing force in what was otherwise a chaotic environment. Sarah’s steady personality and excellent judgment would be an asset to our region should she become our representative.
William Wear
Amherst
One who stood
by military family
As a veteran I fully support Bonnie McCracken for state representative. Bonnie went above and beyond to help my son after he was wounded in Afghanistan in securing the deed for his home.
She also organized a group of volunteers to help out, from banging nails to cooking and feeding volunteers. Her help and compassion during a very trying time for my family has never been forgotten.
James Bouchard
Granby
Boston experience comes with candidate
My husband Dennis Bromery and I invite residents of Amherst, Pelham, and Granby’s Precinct 1 to join us in voting for Eric Nakajima for state representative. When I learned that Ellen Story was retiring, I thought to myself, “Oh, I hope Eric Nakajima will run!”
As a former chair of the Amherst Democratic Town Committee, a delegate to several Democratic State Conventions, and a supporter of campaigns for progressive democrats for more than 30 years, I am excited about Eric’s potential as our future representative.
Because I have known and respected Eric for so long, I am volunteering as his committee treasurer. He has deep local roots and a wealth of statewide leadership experience, beginning as a student trustee for the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and more recently, as a member of Deval Patrick’s administration.
Eric is well known and respected throughout the commonwealth, enabling him to get things done for our 3rd Hampshire District, western Massachusetts, and all of us across the state. Nakajima has the values, working knowledge, and experience we need.
Linda L. Marston
Amherst
Ready for systemic change in Massachusetts electoral politics? Vote for 22-year-old Solomon Goldstein-Rose for state representative. With disenchanted millennials more inclined to join grassroots movements, Goldstein-Rose is a model for the next generation to get involved within our electoral system.
Representing 20 percent of the state population, only as scant 2 percent of millennials are in the state legislature. The other primary reason why I support Goldstein-Rose’s candidacy is his urgent message about climate change, the effects of which we already experience here.
With experience writing statewide climate legislation in Rhode Island and with funding for R&D in energy storage central to his mission, we can count on him as an advocate to get Massachusetts on course for a transition to 100 percent clean energy.
This young candidate is ready to be our full-time advocate, unencumbered. We need young Democrats in office. Let’s take a page from the Republicans who have the savvy to groom their young candidates. Still skeptical? Be reminded that none of the other five candidates are experienced as state legislators; any one of them will have the same learning curve if chosen for this job.
Madeleine Charney
Amherst
John Adams, author of “the oldest functioning written constitution in continuous effect in the world,” is a good role model for those we would elect to the General Court of Massachusetts.
Reflecting on Adams, I arrive at an unequivocal endorsement of Vira Douangmany Cage for state representative. Vira is without peer in her love for working people and their work. She will preserve and improve laws to benefit the poor, mournful, meek, merciful, and peacemakers. Vira hungers and thirsts for righteousness. I met her fighting to overturn the wrongful conviction of Charles Wilhite. She is the salt of the earth and Adams would not wince, but welcome her with open arms.
In a time of candidates who are narrow, inept, or into “foolish trumpery,” Adams, would recognize in Vira the kind of revolutionary he was in 1776. She is the real deal and will listen and represent us well in these serious times when leaders are needed who are not just for themselves.
She embodies the political revolution Bernie Sanders catalyzed in the 2016 presidential race. Continue the revolution and elect Vira state representative.
Amilcar Shabazz
Amherst
As long as I’ve known Bonnie McCracken, she’s enjoyed meeting people, talking and listening to them at concerts on the common, at county fairs and organizational lunches where she has heard their concerns and helped connect them with agencies in our community or in Boston that might be able to help them.
Bonnie has been working to help people feel more secure in their homes. She worked with state Rep. Ellen Story to draft legislation that protects military families from illegal foreclosure and had the opportunity to get to know legislators in lobbying them to pass this bill.
Working with legislators and the statewide Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending, she also helped draft three more bills making it more difficult for banks to foreclose illegally. With Bonnie representing us, I know she will work with all of us to protect our homes, to increase our supply of affordable housing and to address the concerns of the people of this district. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity of supporting her.
Sylvia Cuomo
Amherst
I am voting for Solomon Goldstein-Rose because he is the strongest candidate on environmental issues: Global warming and climate change is his strong suit and he is dedicated to work hard on the issues that threaten all life on the planet. He is knowledgeable about all facets of this problem effecting all of us and future generations.
No other issues really matter if we can’t sustain life on earth. Nonetheless, he also cares deeply about racial justice, women’s rights, responsibility to seniors, homelessness, healthcare, education, transportation and infrastructure, and inclusivity of all genders and romantic identities.
Solomon is a millenial, the generation that will feel the brunt of climate change. He is young and has the kind of energy and steadfastness needed to initiate and shepherd legislation through bureaucratic entanglements with stamina and optimism.
We have the opportunity to help a young man who is dedicated to public service and improving life on the planet to start a political career. Hopefully, this election will be the beginning of a political career for a young person who will work hard for all of us on life enhancing and sustaining issues.
Batya Bauman
Amherst
Vira Douangmany Cage stands up for justice and makes change possible. Vira is there, fighting for the causes close to our hearts. Vira is there to listen to the teachers, parents and students who speak out at School Committee meetings.
In February, she heard our opposition to the elimination of the para-educator positions in Amherst’s three elementary school libraries. After listening to our concerns and suggestions, Vira and another committee member found the funding necessary to restore the libraries’ para-educator positions for next year.
Vira is there to vote our values, not the status quo. When her colleagues on the Amherst School Committee voted for a school administration recommendation to reconfigure pre-, elementary, middle and high schools into a new building project, Vira stood out and voted no. She does not want our small school communities to be lost in a mega-school vision.
Vira is there to be a state representative who will fight to include new voices in the political process. She has a track record of standing up for racial justice, for our environment, for justice in the court and for quality education for all.
Lissa Pierce Bonifaz
Amherst
I write to ask residents in Amherst, Pelham and Granby’s District #1 to vote for Bonnie MacCracken on Thursday to replace Ellen Story as our state representative.
When I attended two of the candidate forums I had no idea who my choice would be. One candidate stood out to me so I went to speak with MacCracken to get a better understanding of her views.
I was highly impressed to find that she had not only written but worked to pass legislation that closed a loophole in a state law that allowed banks to foreclose on the homes of military members when they were deployed overseas.
It is outrageous that banks would do that to our men and women who are serving our country in Afghanistan and Iraq and in other hot spots around the world. When MacCracken told me about her efforts to help members of the military I was relieved and truly grateful.
I have a personal interest because my son (who lives in another state) had a bank foreclose on his home while he was serving in Afghanistan. The bank tripled his payment then sold his house from under him. He is now engaged in a lengthy and costly process to get his home back.
I believe MacCracken’s legislation should become a federal law and that’s why I think we need a person like Bonnie representing us in Boston.
Jacqueline Maidana
Amherst
Bonnie MacCracken has earned voters’ support with a lifetime of principled progressivism at the state level and continuous involvement in the Amherst community.
As a housing specialist, she initiated and lobbied for legislation that protects deployed military personnel from illegal foreclosures. Locally she has served on the Amherst Community Land Trust, promoting affordable housing. She has chaired the Housing Committee of the Amherst NAACP branch.
Mostly I know Bonnie as a neighbor. I have watched her children grow up. I have had many conversations with her husband, Greg, while our dogs snarled at each other in the courtyard. I have seen that helping her neighbors is second nature to her. Bonnie sees that something needs to be done and she does it.
Issues of economic and social justice are personal to her. She will work hard to protect small business and ensure the rights of underserved populations. Having represented our district on the Democratic State Committee, she knows how to use the political process to achieve progressive results.
I admire Bonnie. More important, I like her and have confidence that she has the strength, the values and the commitment to be our state representative.
Michael Greenebaum
Amherst
Integrity, kindness, progressive values and a collaborative spirit have been the hallmarks of retiring state Rep. Ellen Story. We should expect no different from the next state representative. I believe that Sarah la Cour possesses these values and qualities to lead us in challenging times.
Based upon her life and work experience, progressive values, and ability to bring people together to solve problems Sarah is a worthy successor to Story. Sarah has been a strong and gentle leader of the Amherst Business Improvement District bringing a vibrant downtown economy and job opportunities to the community. She has real life experience in fighting for the environment in preserving thousands of forest lands and helping develop our next generation of youth stewards through her work on the Hitchcock Center for the Environment Board of Directors.
It is never an easy task selecting the best leader. However, Sarah’s roles as a working parent, UMass adjunct professor, assistant ski coach, and community leader have given her a unique insight into the values of work, family and community. I am confident Sarah will continue to fight for the environment, equal rights, smart economic growth, affordable housing, and public education from pre-kindergarten through community college and university.
David E. Sullivan
Easthampton
There are a number of candidates who I respect and could work with, but I am supporting Sarah LaCour for state representative. I’m making this choice based on the many years I’ve known Sarah and my experiences of her both professionally and personally.
What I’ve learned is I can always count on her to do what she says she will do. Sarah stands for progressive democratic values. She supports a $15 minimum wage, a cap on charter schools, single-payer health care for all and more funding and access for the University of Massachusetts.
She has exemplary credentials as a planner and landscape architect with a demonstrated track record in the protection of natural resources. And she has shown her versatility while executive director on Amherst’s highly successful Business Improvement District, increasing economic opportunity in our community.
We need a thoughtful and steady hand representing us in Boston. While our population is modest compared to the eastern part of the state, our tradition of good representation has given our district a clear voice that is taken seriously at the State House. Sarah will continue the tradition we have had of a representative who will advocate for her district, build coalitions, listen to diverse opinions, and work for the changes that will improve lives in our district and across the Commonwealth.
Connie Kruger
Amherst
I’m voting for Bonnie MacCracken for the Democratic nomination for state representative and invite you to join me. Bonnie will do the same great job for us that Ellen Story has always done.
Bonnie’s commitment to the Valley runs deeply. She and her husband, Greg Bascomb, raised their four children in Amherst. I have known Bonnie for years. I value how she sees links among the problems that make ordinary people’s lives harder, and how she targets them with imaginative, workable legislative solutions.
Using her legal background and her experience in fair housing, Bonnie helped me draft and lobby for legislation to make it easier for illegally foreclosed Massachusetts families to challenge the banks and recover their homes. Rep. Story co-sponsored it. The Commonwealth’s many illegal foreclosures also increase homelessness. Bonnie already has a concrete plan for helping people who are currently homeless, and knows where to get the money for it.
Bonnie’s combination of systems thinking, care for people, practical solutions, and legislative deftness is rare. Bonnie MacCracken belongs on Beacon Hill as our next representative.
Sarah McKee
Amherst
The key skill any politician needs is knowing how to influence others for the benefit of constituents. This entails knowing when to compromise versus when (and how) to dig in and fight.
Sarah la Cour knows, and she puts that knowledge into action every day when she goes to work trying to generate new jobs and homes for Amherst. That’s one of the reasons I hope she will be our next state representative.
Amherst needs a state representative who can work effectively to bring home the bacon for UMass and our public schools. As someone who worked in the State House, albeit briefly, I know how much Beacon Hill insiders from the eastern part of the commonwealth yearn for Western Mass to send along naive visionaries who don’t want to sully themselves with log-rolling. That way, the Boston crowd can carve things up among themselves.
Yes, Sarah has her ideals and a vision of a more just and equal society, but she is certainly not afraid get stuck in and get her hands dirty. She used to be a rugby player, for goodness sake, in the front-row of the scrum (where the punches get thrown). No wonder Sheriff Bob Garvey, state Rep. John Scibak, and District Attorney Dave Sullivan – people who know how the Statehouse really works – have endorsed her.
Peter Vickery
Amherst
Eric Nakajima has the right education and experience to become the next state representative. Eric graduated from our local schools, received a bachelor’s in political science from UMass Amherst, a master’s in city and regional planning from UC Berkeley and was a fellow at the Community Innovation Lab at MIT.
Eric’s work experience is equally on target to provide the know-how to represent our community in the Statehouse. He has worked as a policy coordinator in the Dukakis administration, senior associate of Bay Area Economics and a senior research manager of the UMass Donahue Institute.
More recently he served as a senior policy advisor in the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development and from 2012 to 2015 as the Assistant Secretary for Innovation Policy in that Office. From 2015 until recently Eric was director of the Mass Broadband Institute.
Karl and Isabel Ryavec
Pelham
State and local governments intersect with environmental policy – the places where change actually happens. In choosing our next state representative, I look for someone who has a record of achievement in working collaboratively with state and local governments, landowners, public and private entities.
Someone with a deep understanding of environmental policy that stems from both graduate study and wide ranging practical experience, real life challenges calling for workable solutions.
The sole candidate with those credentials is Sarah la Cour. Her work in New York, Rhode Island, or in shaping the Blackstone River National Heritage Corridor demonstrates her skills as a landscape architect, environmental advocate and consensus builder.
Locally, her talents brought together the largest conservation restriction in the Commonwealth – the 3,300-acre Jones working forest. Sarah’s ability to merge policy and practice, to understand issues and craft successful outcomes will serve us well when she becomes our next state representative.
Sarah believes that sound environmental policy brings multiple benefits. Developing a robust public transportation system means it becomes easier to access your work and needed services, whether you own a car or not.
Bernie Kubiak
Amherst
Bonnie MacCracken is the most qualified candidate for state representative. Her political activism and values will aid us all.
What Bonnie has personally done for me and my family can barely be expressed in words. She is a true and caring person who is dedicated to serving us all.
When the 2013 federal budget sequestration threatened local housing subsidies, Bonnie understood the devastating impact that these cuts would have on me and our entire community. She demonstrated strong leadership and compassion by testifying at the Statehouse against the cuts being made to housing vouchers.
Bonnie also spearheaded and raised several thousand dollars to assist families in our community with emergency housing costs.
I am thankful for Bonnie’s moral support during my fight against eviction as a resident of Echo Village Apartments. As a mentor and colleague, Bonnie’s extensive knowledge of the legal system has been invaluable in our work together on various housing issues.
TracyLee Saraia Grace Boutilier
Amherst
It’s time to select a new representative to advocate for our needs and interests, and I believe that candidate is Sarah LaCour.
One of the key reasons Sarah has earned my support is that she can bring knowledge, wisdom and leadership to a wide range of issues touching our daily lives — housing, local economy, environment, education, resources. She is just as passionate about a widely shared but ineffable value: the vitality of our community’s distinctive cultural identity, past, present, and future.
Sarah’s contributions to Amherst cultural life are notable. Through the Business Improvement District, she established a summer series of live performances in Kendrick Park, initiated the community-wide block party bringing town and gown together for music and fun, and co-sponsored an annual town poetry festival.
Sarah has been a leader in the creation of a new Amherst Center Cultural District, a designation of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, to promote creative collaborations.
This kind of leadership typifies what I value most in a state representative: embracing multiple values, needs and interests; bringing partners to the table; shaping plans that aim for the best possible outcomes; and, most important, making them happen.
Jane Wald
Amherst
Vira Douangmany Cage’s commitments, values and accomplishments speak for themselves. As an undergraduate student, Vira worked as a campus organizer and went on to work in the labor movement in Washington, D.C., upon graduation as she believes in strong unions. In Massachusetts, Vira led a successful “innocence campaign” to free a nephew from life imprisonment; the success was due to Vira’s diligent research of the case, learning about the laws, and working closely with his lawyer.
I have witnessed her work ethic, research skills and fulfillment of projects. Vira applies her whole self to the issues she works on, from her engagement in coordinating the first Climate Justice conference in the area, to her work at ACLU, to her work on the School Committee.
Before Vira thought about running for office, she has been involved in our community, advocating for strong public education, social and racial equity, climate justice and reproductive justice.
Hind Mari
Amherst
I write to share my enthusiastic support for Solomon Goldstein-Rose to be our next representative in Boston. Solomon is a product of our local schools who brings passion and significant experience in the battle to address climate change, having already written a bill for the Rhode Island legislature that is now close to passage.
He has thought deeply about both equity and economic issues and I urge voters to go to his extensive website (www.solomonforrep.org) to read much more detail about his positions on these and many other issues. He has heart, energy and a youthful perspective, all of which are sorely needed on Beacon Hill.
I have no doubt that he will fight for a fairer and more just society and will make us proud.
David Mullins
Amherst
Vira Douangmany Cage is the best candidate to represent the needs of all segments of our community as our state representative.
Vira was the former Western Mass coordinator for one of the country’s oldest civil rights organization, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. Vira opened the Springfield field office in 2014. While with the ACLU of Massachusetts, she led a campaign on educational issues to stop school push out and the criminalization of school discipline known as the school to prison pipeline. As a board member of Arise for Social Justice, she helped plan the first climate justice conference held in Springfield in 2013.
Vira is also a trusted voice and leader on the Amherst School Committee, broadening discussion, deliberation and debate when it matters such as speaking up to save paraeducators from being cut from school libraries and the need to save Amherst’s small schools.
Her successful engagement of different communities on urgent issues over the years has been recognized by the Massachusetts Latino Chamber of Commerce, Prison Birth Project and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Center for Women and Community.
Sovann-Malis Loeung
Amherst
Bonnie MacCracken and husband, Greg Bascomb, chose to live in Amherst 37 years ago because they wanted a diverse community for their multi-racial family. It is here, too, that Bonnie started her business, a land title research firm. During the presidential campaign we heard about the continued pay inequity facing women.
Bonnie has been working to address this problem for two years by collaborating with the Commission on the Status of Women to establish a local commission for us. Commissioners’ objectives are to assess the status of women locally and statewide and to push for beneficial legislative changes.
When Bonnie was working to put her husband through school, she experienced the injustice of having to choose between resigning her job or being fired because she was pregnant. Now Bonnie is advocating for passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to ensure that women receive accommodations to protect their health, their babies, and their family’s financial security.
Mary L. Wentworth
Amherst
On Thursday, I will be casting my vote for Bonnie MacCracken. Bonnie and her husband raised a family in Amherst and started several small businesses. She has consistently worked to improve the quality of life of everyone living in our community.
I first met Bonnie when the tenants at Echo Hill Village Apartments were being evicted. We worked together to give tenants a voice by forming two coalitions. I am also impressed with the numerous pieces of legislation she has already written and submitted to our legislature.
Bonnie shares our values, the values of the 3rd Hampshire District. She is already providing critical services to our community and advocating for our citizens. She is already performing the job of state representative and by far is the most qualified and experienced candidate.
Chad Fuller
Amherst
Ellen Story leaves big shoes to fill, and each of the candidates who have thrown their hats into the ring seem capable, so I made the decision to research the candidates with an objective approach.
I made a list of priorities and then watched the debates and read the candidates’ platforms carefully. Only one candidate actually addressed all the things on my list: Solomon Goldstein-Rose. Knowing how to work collaboratively is the most important skill for political effectiveness and, believe it or not, the youngest candidate is the only one who seemed to get that in his prepared statements.
The most effective approach in the political arena is to form coalitions with other members – discerning the priorities of other members and working to help support their causes. Listening to all sides and weighing in only if you have something strong to add is a far more effective strategy than speaking frequently in a fired-up manner, causing you lose the ear of the House.
Goldstein-Rose is young and idealistic, but he balances that with a pragmatism beyond his years. He has well thought-out approaches which ring true as feasible and far-reaching.
Katherine J Atkinson, MD
Amherst
Already set
to file legislation
I will be casting my vote for Bonnie MacCracken for state representative. Bonnie personifies the 3rd Hampshire District.
Bonnie and her husband raised a family in Amherst, started several small businesses in the community and she has consistently worked to improve the quality of life of everyone living in our community.
I first met Bonnie when the tenants at Echo Hill Village Apartments were being evicted. We worked together to give the tenants a voice by forming two coalitions known as Amherst Fair Housing Now! and Amherst Regional Tenants Association. I am also impressed with the numerous pieces of legislation she has already written and submitted to our legislature.
Bonnie shares our values. She is already providing critical services to our community and advocating for our citizens. She is already performing the job of a state representative and by far is the most qualified and experienced candidate. Bonnie is ready to start on day one!
Charles (Chad) Fuller
Amherst
