{"id":418,"date":"2008-09-14T18:05:53","date_gmt":"2008-09-14T22:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/?p=418"},"modified":"2008-09-15T16:20:34","modified_gmt":"2008-09-15T20:20:34","slug":"why-im-voting-for-jack-hurd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/why-im-voting-for-jack-hurd\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I’m Voting for Jack Hurd"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve had the opportunity to both work with Jack Hurd<\/a> and watch him from a distance. He’s a good person, an excellent listener, a good communicator, and wise in his decisions. I’m proud to support him for State Senate.<\/p>\n

I first watched Jack when I was new to Town Meeting, the spring of 2002, and every year since then. He’s covered dozens of issues and covered them well. His website does a better job than I do of detailing his accomplishments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I first worked with Jack when I started trying to improve the town’s IT department. I had been frustrated with the town’s Data Processing Advisory committee, and was working with Annie LaCourt to get a citizen petition before Town Meeting. Jack met with us, listened to us, and helped us get a compromise that was supported by the selectmen and passed through Town Meeting. He turned what could have been a confrontation into a compromise that moved the town forward. The end result was the consolidation of the town’s IT department under a CIO. That change is reaping huge gains in town productivity.<\/p>\n

The skills Jack has demonstrated as Selectman will serve us all well in the State Senate.<\/p>\n

Why I’m Not Voting for Ken Donnelly<\/h2>\n

By all reports, Ken is a nice guy. His stated positions are very similar to Jack’s – you can compare them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I will not vote for Donnelly because I fear that he will be a union mouthpiece. In the last year, he’s received more than $100,000 from unions and union members (you can verify this yourself by reading the state filing reports<\/a>, or read my analysis<\/a>, or the Arlington Advocate<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In private discussions with Donnelly supporters, they’ve told me that the unions are supporting him because he’s a good guy, not because he’s going to be totally pro-union. I just don’t buy it. These unions are not <\/strong>shelling out this kind of money because he’s “a good guy.” They’re shelling out this money because they think he’s going to vote their way in the Sentate.<\/p>\n

Do we really need another legislator who thinks we need police details<\/a> at every road construction sites? Why hasn’t the state reined in the Boston fire department<\/a>? Why does the teachers’ union successfully continue to block any reform efforts that are linked to teacher performance? Why does the state permit the SEIU to bully teaching hospitals<\/a>?<\/p>\n

I think unions have a positive role to play in the state. I support them, in general. However, their role needs to be balanced. The state government is already very pro-union; we don’t need another union voice on Beacon Hill.<\/p>\n

My bottom line on Donnelly: he’s going to be a very big friend of the unions, and the unions already have big enough friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve had the opportunity to both work with Jack Hurd and watch him from a distance. He’s a good person, an excellent listener, a good communicator, and wise in his decisions. I’m proud to support him for State Senate. I first watched Jack when I was new to Town Meeting, the spring of 2002, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-massachusetts","category-politics","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dandunn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}