| Home | About | Archives | RSS Feed |
Nuciforo, Shein Talk Live on New England Public Radio
 |
Middle Berkshire Registrar of Deeds Andrea F. Nuciforo Jr. will join host Susan Kaplan on Monday, July 16, at 4 p.m.; and Alford activist and humorist Bill Shein joins Kaplan on Tuesday, July 17, also at 4 p.m. Each will hold a live, one-hour discussion of their campaigns and the issues facing Massachusetts voters as they go to the polls on Sept. 6 for the primary. Both candidates will take calls from listeners live from New England Public Radio's Peggy & David Starr Studio in Springfield.
Listeners are invited join the conversation by calling toll free: 877-522-8850.
Both special editions of "Focus: Western New England" will air again on their respective dates at 6 p.m. on AM-640 and 91.7-FM all-news WNNZ.
"Focus: Western New England" features news makers and notable thinkers from around the region, and listeners' comments help shape the timely conversations. To listen to past programs, visit www.nepr.net/focus.
Richmond Town Caucus Set March 26
 |
Nomination papers for the May 26 town election are now available from the town clerk's office. The offices that will appear on the ballot are as follows:
One Member of the Board of Selectmen: 3-year term
One Member of the Board of Health: 3-year term
One Member of the Board of Health: 3-year term
One Member of the Finance Committee: 3-year term
One Member of the Finance Committee: 3-year term
One Member of the School Committee: 3-year term
One Member of the School Committee: 1-year term
One Member of the Board of Library Trustees: 3-year term
One Member of the Planning Board: 5-year term
One Member of the Planning Board: 1-year term
Town Moderator: 1-year term
To qualify for the ballot, candidates must obtain the signatures of at least 25 registered voters and file their nomination papers with the town clerk 10 days prior to the town caucus or be nominated and approved for the ballot by at least 25 voters at the caucus.
North Adams Democrats Host Candidate Shein
 |
Northern Berkshire Democrats and independent voters are invited to attend. Shein will address the gathering, which will also feature greetings from guests and city committee members.
Shein, of Alford, is a syndicated humor/political columnist and political activist. He recently announced his candidacy for the newly redrawn and consolidated 1st Massachusetts District seat.
Also, Greg Maynard, Western Massachusetts coordinator for U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, will speak on her behalf.
North Adams ward chairs are Lisa Blackmer, Joanne DeRose, Diane Parsons, Greg Roach and Frances Buckley.
This will be an opportunity for North County voters to gather information and to become active in specific campaigns or in the local Democratic party.
Refreshments will be provided for a nominal charge.
Warren Calls for Berkshires to Join Grassroots Campaign
 Elizabeth Warren during her first trip to the Berkshires in August. The Senate candidate returned last week to begin ramping up a grassroots network. |
"And I said to those people, 'Mine, too.' " Warren quipped in her opening remarks to a packed house at the volunteer sign-up and strategy rally at the Itam Lodge on Thursday.
"I have done one campaign, though. That was to get a Consumer Protection Bureau," she continued, to overwhelming cheers and applause from the room.
Warren first gained national attention when she conceived and made a reality of the new bureau under the Obama administration. She was first tapped by President Obama to lead the fledgling agency on an interim basis, but was passed up for permanent appointment because, many believe, of harsh opposition from Republicans in Congress.
The Harvard professor described the process of advancing the bureau's creation, despite even fiercer opposition from many corporate lobbies. "How do you beat the biggest lobbying force in the world if you have no real lobbying money? You get organized, and that's what we did," she said.
Warren said the same kind of widespread grassroots coalition will be needed in Massachusetts for her to defeat incumbent Scott Brown, the Wrentham Republican who won the 2009 special election following the death of longtime Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
"What I took away from that is that's how you make real change. You make real change from one person to another, from that person to someone else, and we create in our own wind in our sails," said the Democrat.
Warren, an Oklahoma native who moved to Massachusetts in 1992, told supporters of her upbringing in a struggling middle-class working family. Of graduating from law school at 24, while nine months pregnant.
"I'm the daughter of a maintenance man and I ended up a fancypants professor at Harvard Law School," she joked, adding she is proof of the American dream because "I grew up in an America that invested in me."
That is not necessarily the America workers face today, however. Warren outlined her view on the ways in which economic depression had been allowed to occur again in the United State on a massive scale through the repeal and rollback of many of the bold initiatives that brought it out of the Depression of the 1930s and made it a superpower.
The brief talk was followed by an almost as brief working meeting to begin preparing volunteers. Warren introduced core campaign staffers, including key Deval Patrick campaign coordinator Doug Ruben, who talked with supporters about strategies for approaching next year's Senate campaign.
Warren told supporters at the Itam that her decision to run for Senate was in part because of the warm reception she received on her first visit here, during the campaign's testing-the-water phase.
"Pittsfield, you're a big part of this, too!" Warren proclaimed.
Caccamo Rally to Get the Vote Out
 |
The popular Noah Weiss Quartet will provide entertainment, where candidates in all municipal election races are invited to provide information about their campaigns and help instruct voters in the critical 18-35 demographic why they should turn out. This demographic comprises about 7,000 of Pittsfield's 29,000 registered voters, a little less than 25 percent in total.
This event is free and open to the public and all Pittsfield candidates running for office.
State Election