Many of the regulars around here will remember Marty Meehan from Chris Bower's effort to shake loose some money from Democrats in safe districts last November - specifically, you'll remember that he decided to be miserly and hoard his cash, apparently in the hope that it could be used to finance a Senate run. With both Kennedy and Kerry running for re-election, Congressman Meehan has decided to retire after 8 terms, to take up the helm as chancellor of UMass-Lowell. He formally announced his retirement yesterday.
Now the commonwealth must conduct a special election within 160 days, and several good Democrats are entering the race - I'm here today to introduce you to the one I support, the one true progressive candidate in the race, Jamie Eldridge. Kindly follow me over the fold for the details...
Jamie is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Boston College Law School. At 33, he's the youngest candidate in the race, but he has more experience than many of the other candidates. In 2002, he made history as the first Clean Elections candidate to win state-wide office in Massachusetts, when he was elected to the State House of Representatives - to this day, he's the only legislator in the state to hold that distinction.
Here's where he stands on the vital issues of our day:
- On the occupation of Iraq, Jamie wants to begin bringing the troops home now, and allow funding only for an orderly withdrawal of our forces. Further, he feels that we should attempt to rebuild Iraq through the wise use of diplomacy, and he supports Congressman Tierney's effort to keep reconstruction funds out of the hands of Halliburton and all other Bush cronies. He believes that the United States must reclaim our human rights leadership in the world by explicitly abolishing torture, ending all human rights abuses, and he supports Congressman Markey's plan to disallow the outsourcing of torture.
- National security begins at home, and Jamie wants to tighten controls around nuclear and chemical plants and improve the security of our water supplies. At the same time, we need to improve mass transit security, fully fund our hospitals and enhance our disaster preparedness. Finally, he'll work for more money for police, firemen and first responders, and he vows to cut through the red tape so that the people get the vital services they need from their government.
- Millions of uninsured Americans suffer needlessly in the richest nation in the world, and Jamie has a plan to deal with that. He wants a universal single-payer health care plan for all Americans, allowing people to choose their own doctors and care options. He'll promote stem-cell research, fund community health centers similar to the Metta Center in Lowell, MA, and he wants to establish a national program based on Boston Medical Center's Family Advocacy Program, a new approach for the treatment of low-income patients.
Jamie's complete platform can be found at his web site, where he covers these and other plans in detail. A special election like this will be won by the people on the ground, and Jamie is building the kind of grass roots campaign that will get it done - I've created an ActBlue page for him here:
http://www.actblue.com/...
Please show him some love today - anything you can contribute is greatly appreciated. And if you don't mind, please recommend this diary, I'd love to see Jamie get a boost from the rec list...