Running for Office Convinced Me Massachusetts Has a Democracy Problem

I decided to run for State Representative because I wanted to push for change on housing, childcare, and transit. But this race has shown me that our biggest problem actually is democracy - and our serious deficit of it.

I’m running in Somerville and Medford, in a seat that is open for the first time in 12 years. I assumed that my biggest problem would be balancing my own childcare with all the events, forums, and debates I’d have to go to, as well as the thousands of doors I planned to knock to talk to voters.

Instead, my biggest problem is getting anyone to pay attention to the race.

Are you there, voters? It’s me, a candidate

With mail-in ballots going out in a few weeks, my race has seen zero public forums. Only one debate has been promised, but not yet scheduled. The biggest scrutiny I may face is a Reddit AMA.

This isn’t just a problem for me.

Massachusetts has the least competitive legislature in the country. Many incumbents coast to reelection unopposed. In fact, this year, there are three open seats - meaning there’s no incumbent running again - but where only one person has qualified for the ballot, meaning that the voters there still have no choice.

Over time, that changes the culture of politics to favor insiders and risk aversion. One group explicitly told me that they made their endorsement decision based on fundraising numbers. When legislators may stay for decades, organizations are incentivized to get on their good side early.

However, I don’t want to complain about this. I want to fix it.

Ten steps to a better democracy

I’m proposing ten items to reinvigorate our democracy so that elections are contested, incumbents do not have a prohibitive advantage, and voters have the chance to participate in the process.

You can read more about these items here and I’ll be writing more about each as the campaign goes on.

These policies are:

1. Move the primary election to mid-June

2. Make the general election the one that matters, through multi-member proportional representation or open primaries (either the All-Party Primary on the ballot this year or Top 4 plus Ranked Choice Voting as in Alaska)

3. Allow fusion voting so smaller parties can participate

4. Remove legislative stipends and increase legislator base pay to encourage more people to run

5. State-funded booklets to voters with candidate information, as we do with ballot questions

6. Voluntary public financing of elections

7. Limit how much campaign funds can be carried through elections

8. A legislative debate commission to ensure voters can hear from their candidates

9. Encouraging monthly office hours of legislators

10. Term limits of 12 years in each chamber and 24 total in the legislature to force more competition

Reasonable people can disagree with any individual item. I expect that. In fact, healthy disagreement is exactly what I’ve been hoping to see throughout this campaign.

But I hope we can agree that something is deeply wrong here with our democracy.

We can do better than this

An open legislative seat should be a civic event. It should generate debate, curiosity, and public engagement. Choosing the person who will represent 40,000 neighbors should never feel like an afterthought. It certainly shouldn’t happen on September 1 when renters are moving, parents are getting kids back to school, and campaigns are competing with the beach for attention.

Running for office has convinced me that Massachusetts doesn’t just need new laws to build more homes, or fund better bus routes, or fill the potholes on so many of my neighborhood’s streets.

It needs a democratic system where voters are at the center and every two years they get to make the choices.