The Committee is being chaired by Former Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Murphy, Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins, and Paul Feeney, the Legislative Director of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2222 and former Massachusetts State Director for Bernie Sanders for America. These three Democratic leaders have decades of experience working on behalf of Massachusetts residents and voters. They will be overseeing the entire Platform Committee, which is made up of local Democratic activists, officials, and organizers. “Considering the state of our democracy and nation, people are concerned about where we’re headed and we’ve seen a swell in momentum at the local level,” said Massachusetts Democratic Party Chair Gus Bickford. “We’re excited to get these hearings underway and learn about the issues our residents and voters are most concerned about. I want to thank Lieutenant Governor Murphy, Sheriff Tompkins, and Paul Feeney for their dedicated work on behalf of the Party and its members.”
Following the hearings, the Platform Committee will draft the proposed 2017 state Party Platform. The Massachusetts Democratic Party Platform is a statement of values and reflects the current policy positions of the Party.
The Committee held hearings in Springfield on April 8th at Van Sickle Middle School. About 100 democrats attended and around 25 gave testimony about changes and additions they would like to see in the Platform. Some of the additions and changes proposed included: college student debt forgiveness, climate change, arts and humanities support, unfunded mandate for schools, world peace, raise minimum wages, funding of pubic schools, senior citizens, voting fraud, equal pay for women and single payer health care.
If you are unable to attend a hearing or were unable to offer testimony at a hearing, please submit written testimony here: http://bit.ly/2017writtentestimony. Written testimony should include your name, address, email and phone number and be in a PDF or Word document format.
