Hello

The 2nd half of my speech at Trivia Night 2

I’d like to start off with the thank you portion of the night:

First, thank you all for being here.

Thank you everyone at Sala, Erin McMillen, my inner campaign circle: Dan, Dave, Walter, Merideth, Jill, Deb, Gail, and everyone who has donated their time to helping.

It is a huge undertaking to run for office. And it feels even bigger when you get great people helping you. Letting yourself down is one thing, but letting others down is quite another. You all inspire me to keep working hard.

Thank you very much to School Committee member, Katherine Hubley for coming by. And a special thank you to School Committee candidate, Courtney Perdios for attending and for being a source of friendship, support, and ideas as we both run.

Thanks especially to my girls. Cheryl, my best friend, my partner, most of what I’m doing here is to try and make you think I’m cool. My daughters, Maddy and Ellie, you are the sweetest kids in the world and I can’t believe your mine. Most of what I’m doing here is so you grow up thinking your hometown is cool.

I’m running for city council and I think you should donate to my campaign. I think we can do something very special here. If I’m elected I will have beat back a 400-1 funding disparity. Imagine the message that sends to the special-interests and developers the next time they want to open their wallets to buy influence...if someone like me--who takes no special-interest or developer money can win, then what good is their bought and paid for agenda...why waste money on campaigns when someone who just gathers his friends, neighbors, and community, gives them Cheese and Chicken and says “will you help me help our community?” That’s an amazingly powerful message.

I’m running for city council and I think you should volunteer. Again, we can do something very special here. When we stand out tomorrow morning and wednesday evening, those cars that go by are going to see faces they know. They are going to see parents from the school yard, fellow band boosters, small business owners from the neighborhood, the couple who walks the boxer past our house. They are going to see the faces of their community. What they won’t see are strangers from a special interest or union who wants a candidate to help them get on the next big job site, a variance or license, or access to the next big city-funded project. Our volunteers are friends who got to know me through PTO or the climate action network, or parents who know me from play-dates. Neighbors and residents who read my blog, watched my video, or listened to a speech and decided I was someone worth getting behind. I’ll take 5 people like that over 50 strangers who were told to show up and stand.

I’m running for city council and I think you should vote for me. Vote for me because you miss having a city councilor who communicates with you. Because you are tired of having decisions inflicted on you rather than discussed with you. Vote for me because you care about ideas, and you value character. You believe the job of the city councilor is to represent us and not the mayor. Because you want to get an answer from your city councilor even if it’s not the answer you want. You want our agenda and timetable fought for at city hall and you aren’t satisfied to wait for timetables convenient to the administration.

Vote for me because you care about the earth and you believe there are ways to save the environment while saving money and jobs.

You believe that citizens should at least have a small but direct say in how their tax money is spent.

Because while you are happy for progress in the city, you know that a 425 Million dollar unfunded pension liability is unacceptable and the time has come to get an independent set of eyes to review our finances.

And vote for me because you know that infrastructure can’t be neglected, and a 400 year old city needs upkeep not just fancy green spaces. Because you know that getting sued by this federal administration’s EPA is not that easy to do.

So there you have it. You should donate, volunteer, and vote. And one last thing...get your friends to do the same. Get your family to do the same.

What’s scary about where we are is this. IT IS IN REACH. Don’t wake up Nov. 6th and see that we almost did it...don’t give yourselves 2nd thoughts. Leave it all on the field this month.

Thank you all...