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Too many progressives in Hyde Park state rep's race

Progressive West Roxbury/Roslindale isn't endorsing any candidates in the 14th Suffolk state-rep race (Hyde Park, Roslindale and West Roxbury), because neither of the progressive candidates - Gretchen Van Ness and Segun Idowu - were able to get the required 60% of the vote at a recent endorsement meeting.

We do, however, believe that either of them can win this race. Both Gretchen and Segun have been campaigning vigorously for months, generating engagement on the issues; they report hearing enormous interest in fresh, responsive leadership.

The two are running against the state's longest-serving state rep., Angelo Scaccia, in the Sept. 4 primary. Also on the ballot: Virak Uy (who ran against Scaccia two years ago) and Christopher Nzenwa.

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Comments

Mike Rush, Jeff Sanchez, Steve Lynch - we don't have any progressive representation that matters in Roslindale but I'm sure these fine folks all recycle and have lots of resist bumperstickers on their Priuses so job well done.

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The area is not really "progressive" in the way you want it to be. They could probably endorse Wu over Lynch, but Lynch will still be weighing the votes in wards 19 and 20 come September. Rush has no opponent, and goodness knows what they are doing with Sanchez-Elugardo. As for my state rep district, if the group had any gumption, they'd support Idowu, given that the district is majority minority. At the end of the day, the Parkway isn't JP or Amherst. It might be a bit to the left compared to the rest of the US, but so are the guys you list.

That said, look to Scaccia being reelected and deciding in 2 years not to run again.

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My point is that the WR/Roslindale progressive group appears to have zero effective impact given the actual results on the ground.

Not 100% on board with some of her recent moves, but I will have my checkbook open when/if Wu runs against Lynch or Walsh. I think Lynch is an easier target these days now that Walsh has locked in the city apparatus.

I couldn't pick Mike Rush out of a line up and would be harder pressed to name a single thing he's done as State Senator. That whole legislative body needs to be eliminated.

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I mean, yeah, Scaccia is my state rep, but Chang-Diaz is my state senator and Capuano is my congressman.

But that does bring up the issue of how Roslindale always seems to be the place where the legislature or city council stitches up new district boundaries, so we wind up with no single person representing the neighborhood in any given legislative body.

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I think the fact that the entire city has two different Congresspersons is absurd.

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It's in the middle of everything.

If you take a starting point in the southern end of the city, everything gets built up from Hyde Park, West Roxbury, or Mattapan.

That said, you live further south than me, yet your senator is north of me, while my senator is south of me.

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More about keeping the Massachusetts Congressional delegation reliably all-D.

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You're going to say with a straight face that splitting up the splitting up the 7th and 8th Congressional Districts differently would result in a Republican winning one (or both) of them?

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The guys are young with a learning curve ahead of them. Scaccia doesn’t seem to be working. Gretchen should have been the choice. She has the experience to start getting things done right away.

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Idowu represents the future, both of the district and of the city.

But then again, I'm voting for Scaccia anyway, and if we did that Maine style of voting, Uy would be my second choice, since he ran 2 years ago when no one else was challenging Scaccia.

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Valuable experience counts. Gretchen has it.

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There’s really only one candidate who knows Beacon Hill. You know, with his decades of experience in the House.

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Gretchen has been involved with cleaning up the Neponset River, helping high school kids with debating, been an active civil rights attorney, headed neighborhood associations,...there is an impressive list showing how much she cares about her neighborhood. Yes, experience counts and so does working.

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