After being frankly overwhelmed by the volume of emails, direct mail pieces, and the final email and robocalls from retiring Rep Alice Wolf on behalf of my principal opponent in the 25th Middlesex state rep race – all the more distracting as this has been transpiring while trying to take seriously my role as an elected Delegate to the Democratic National Convention still in progress in Charlotte, NC – I made the difficult decision late yesterday to ask all of my election day volunteers to pull back from our polling place and other visibility coverage as an expression of party unity. This will, I know, virtually ensure Councillor Decker’s election as Cambridge’s next state representative, and I congratulate her anticipated victory.
As one progressive to another, however, I will ask two things of Councillor (and now State Representative presumptive) Decker:
First, there is long list of legislative issues that I discussed during my campaign. Some of these can be addressed when the new legislature takes office, and I would certainly welcome Ms. Decker’s reaching out to me between now and then to take these on. Two, however, are so urgent – and so near and dear to my heart – that I must voice them in these pages, as I have done throughout my campaign, as needing immediate attention and commitment:
(1) The Silver Maple Forest at Alewife reservation – long a major priority of my Ward Committee, the Cambridge Democratic City Committee, and many of Councillor Decker’s colleagues on the Cambridge Council, must be preserved and protected from what is now being seen as imminent threat of destruction by an avaricious developer’s wrecking ball.
(2) The Public Accommodations section of the so-called “Transgender Rights Bill”, which was dropped this spring in a forced compromise in order to get something of this bill passed after four years of intense effort by both the LGBT community and by many supportive legislators, must be restored. The present status of this legislation, while admittedly an accomplishment in its own right, is still as ugly and unacceptable a compromise as the 1964 Federal Civil Right Act would have without its Public Accommodations Title. The job must be finished. Rep. Carl Scortino has already pledged to reintroduce this matter in January. It is imperative that it be supported!
Second, Councillor Decker has publicly stated that if elected to the legislature, she intends to retain her City Council seat for the coming year, despite publicly documented pledges during the past several Cambridge municipal election cycles – most recently in September 2011 – that if re-elected she would pursue no other elected office (with the possible exception of Mayor), during the ensuing Council term. The voters of Cambridge and the citizens of the Commonwealth pay two salaries for City Councillor and State Representative. They expect and deserve to be represented by two public servants who can give their full attention – even if not their 100% full time engagement – to the duties and obligations of each. I respectfully urge Councilor and Representative Presumptive Decker to do the right thing upon taking her oath of office as a member of the legislature – which any true progressive would do without hesitation – and resign her seat on the Council.
Democratically yours,
Lesley Rebecca Phillips
Democratic State Committeewoman (Middlesex & Suffolk District),
Chair, Cambridge Ward 6 Democratic Committee,
and Co-founder and past Chair, Progressive Democrats of Cambridge
