Cambridge mayor talks turkey
by Laura Kiritsy Editor-in-chief Thursday May 8, 2008 In her remarks, Simmons, a long-serving city councilor, revealed a little about how she’s managed to get elected. Riffing on earlier remarks by state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson about the importance of voting, Simmons told the mostly LGBT African-American crowd, "On every voting day you bring your brothers, your mothers, Grand Aunt Tillie, Uncle James, Snookie - whatever they call themselves; get your mother and father, your lover, and now you can say your spouse, into the voting booth. I would just promote it with this: ’If you did not vote don’t come to Thanksgiving dinner.’" Lesbian state rep for Framingham? The first thing Dawn Harkness has to say about her second bid for the 6th Middlesex District House seat is, "It’s nice to have more than two weeks to campaign." The Framingham lawyer and Town Meeting member first ran for the seat in a 14-day special election scramble back in 2006 that was prompted by the unexpected passing of state Rep. Debby Blumer, a beloved Democrat who represented the Framingham district for three terms. Harkness, who ran as an independent in that race, placed a distant third in a field of six candidates. Democrat Pam Richardson topped the ticket. This time around, Harkness, an out lesbian, is running as a Democrat. And she’s won what some local political observers consider an influential endorsement from Blumer’s family, which includes her husband Irwin, her son Adam Blumer and his wife Sarah Guerney, and her daughter Lynne Beattie and son-in-law Scott Beattie. The family will host an informal campaign kickoff for Harkness at Irwin Blumer’s home from 4 to 6 p.m. on May 10. "They are supporting me because they believe that I have the same values and vision that Debby Blumer had," said Harkness of the Blumer family. "And it’s a very big deal around here." Blumer championed social justice issues as a legislator, and was a strong supporter of marriage equality. But one endorsement Harkness won’t be getting is MassEquality’s. The organization endorsed Richardson, who was active in local Democratic politics, in the 2006 special election. And there’s no reason they won’t stick with her through the current election cycle given their oft-stated policy of endorsing pro-equality incumbents come what (openly gay challengers) may, a strategy that has served them well thus far. Richardson, of course, voted against the anti-gay marriage amendment at last year’s constitutional convention. But Harkness would prefer MassEquality endorse her, or stay out of the race. She aims to muster the support of the Framingham gays with or without backing from the LGBT political machine. "I understand the need to support incumbents who took a risk in order to support marriage equality rights," said Harkness, who gathered signatures in support of marriage equality in Framingham as a MassEquality volunteer. But she added that Richardson wasn’t in a risky situation since all of the Dems running in the special election were marriage equality supporters. (However, it should be noted that not all of the Republicans candidates were pro-equality, and because of the haste of the special election, all of the candidates ran against one another in one general write-in election, regardless of party affiliation.) "Pam became an incumbent in an extraordinary circumstance, through the death of a strong advocate for LGBT rights," Harkness added, noting that even Blumer’s family believes "I’m the better advocate. "We’ll have a list of lesbians, gay, bisexual, transgender folks from Framingham who are saying, ’This is our candidate,’" Harkness predicted. "So it would be my hope that MassEquality would appreciate the community support an out lesbian has for this office." Harkness is one of three openly gay candidates looking to break into the Beacon Hill sausage-making biz this year: Democrat Sara Orozco of Needham has already announced her challenge to anti-equality GOP state Sen. Scott Brown in the Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex District, while Steve Kerrigan of Lancaster, the openly gay former chief of staff to ex-AG Tom Reilly, announced this week he’ll be running for the 12th Worcester District House seat now occupied by Rep. Harold Naughton of Clinton, who is rumored to soon be moving on to bigger and better things. Wilkerson readies for election rematch We recently chatted up state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, who delivered remarks at the annual Bayard Rustin Breakfast on May 3 (see related story, p. 1) about her re-election campaign for the 2nd Suffolk District. Wilkerson is facing another challenge from Jamaica Plain progressive political operative Sonia Chang-Diaz, who came close to unseating Wilkerson in a hairy 2006 Democratic primary, where Wilkerson was forced to run a sticker campaign after failing to gather enough certified signatures to have her name placed on the ballot. Wilkerson, whose campaign has submitted 3200 signatures to the Secretary of State this year - well beyond the requisite 300 - exuded confidence about being re-elected. "I’m very encouraged. And I’m excited," said Wilkerson. "For us the reality is, right now, getting through the budget [process]. That’s the priority. I’m looking forward to getting through this process because we can then start the full time campaigning. I also like to think that working is campaigning," she added with a smile, "and that sometimes they can be one and the same." Despite her long record of leadership on LGBT issues, Wilkerson lost LGBT voter-rich areas like Jamaica Plain and parts of the South End to Chang-Diaz, who also ran strongly on LGBT issues, a fact attributable to frustration over Wilkerson’s well-documented personal and professional missteps. Following the primary, Wilkerson made the rounds in the LGBT community, reminding them of her lengthy history of leadership (the first piece of legislation Wilkerson filed as a freshman senator back in the early 1990s was a domestic partnership bill). She said she has continued to remind people of her work in the LGBT community over the past two years. In fact, she’s done quite a bit of work, for instance, becoming the Senate sponsor of the transgender civil rights bill, and taking the lead on some LGBT funding priorities as the Senate prepares its Fiscal Year 2009 budget. "Our work’s not done. We have the loss of Jarrett," Wilkerson said, noting the departure of her openly gay colleague Jarrett Barrios, who was the Senate point person on LGBT issues, last year. "So I’m back on full time," she laughed.
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