Many long-time Somerville and Medford residents are probably frustrated with the current state of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. I sure am — and that’s why I’m running for a leadership position in the state party. We need change!
Let me explain what’s wrong and why.

In Massachusetts, over half of the state party’s current governing group, the Democratic State Committee, are either members who have served for 20-years and are rewarded with “lifetime” membership or they are “add-on” diversity delegates who are self-nominated and elected internally by other state committee members. A highly insular process.

With a majority of the committee unaccountable to grassroots Democrats, it’s no wonder that the Democratic Party’s leadership hasn’t addressed the major problems facing regular working people, and instead, has quietly protected the millionaire (and now billionaire) class and their corporate special interests.

The party is all talk and no action. While Massachusetts has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the U.S., Democrats have done little to redistribute wealth from the rich to working families. And while our seacoasts flood coastal communities and temperatures rise to the highest in recorded history, state-level Democrats have shied away from passing a much-needed Green New Deal.

The party’s lack of accountability contributes to paralysis at the statehouse. Despite having elected Democrats in control of all branches of our state government, we can’t pass rent control or build enough affordable housing. Our state minimum wage is well below a living wage. Our public transportation is neither affordable nor well-functioning.

The party’s true colors were displayed when, after finally winning a “millionaire’s tax” which generated significant new revenue for public education and transportation, the Democratic governor and the majority Democrat-controlled legislature turned around and gave huge tax breaks to richer, higher-income households and corporations.

We need a Democratic Party that leads the fight to reverse economic and social inequality and campaigns for a Green New Deal. We need to elect state leadership that shares these goals and holds our elected officials accountable. That’s why I am running for a seat on the Massachusetts Democratic State Committee.

The DSC is the governing group of the state party. I am a candidate in the Second Middlesex district which includes all of Somerville and Medford, about half of Winchester and a part of North Cambridge.

We won’t be able to do anything about economic inequality or climate change without also redistributing power from the “one percent” to working people. That will take aggressive grassroots political organizing. If elected, I will fight for a state party that pays more attention to what working people need, and less attention to what its millionaire donors and their corporate lobbyists want.

I have worked for over 40 years as a labor organizer helping workers build power to win better wages and working conditions. I will bring the energy, values and enthusiasm of the labor movement to my work on the DSC.

As a longtime resident of Somerville, I serve on the Ward 6 Democratic Committee and am a trustee of the Somerville Job Creation and Retention Trust Fund. I also help convene a community-labor coalition, Somerville Stands Together.

My candidacy has been endorsed by Rep. Mike Connolly, Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, 14 city councilors in the district, six unions and many other local leaders.

I urge everyone to vote in the March 5 primary election and to give me the chance to help create a state Democratic Party that fights harder — and wins more often — for all of us!

Sincerely,

Rand Wilson