Candidate Responses Now Available at VoteMedford.org
In Medford, up to 75% of all registered voters choose not to vote during municipal elections, despite the number of issues we all face.
This November, Medford’s entire city council and school committee will be up for reelection; two new candidates are running for the council and four for the school committee. The mayor is also up for reelection, but is running unopposed.
The composition of our city government over the next two years could affect everything from budgeting to the environment, to special education, and to revitalization efforts. But will people vote?
Vote Medford 2007 (www.votemedford.org) is a public-education project organized by five Medford residents who are unaffiliated with any politician, candidate or political party. Our goal is to encourage voters to participate in this year’s municipal election by providing them with information directly from candidates running for local office. Where do candidates stand on important issues? What are their differences of opinion?
To help find answers, everyone can access our website to read questionnaire responses from each of this year’s candidates. Over the past three months, the questions were compiled, written and edited by residents, a 43-member advisory group, and Vote Medford’s organizers. Each of the candidates deserves credit for taking part in this public Q&A.
As you are reading this letter, the candidates are taking part in a series of short video interviews. The series includes five additional questions that were developed by the same public process. When videotaping is over, all of the interviews will be available for viewing on TV3. They will also be available on www.votemedford.org before Election Day. Please keep your eyes on TV3’s listings and refer to our website for additional updates.
Medford residents are to be thanked for submitting to us the nearly 300 questions from which we were able distill the candidate questionnaires. All of the questions we received are available for reading through our website, as are the questionnaires themselves. We will keep them posted indefinitely so people can refer to them now and over the coming years. Questionnaires from the 2005 election are also available on the website.
Medford’s community organizations are also to be thanked for having set aside time to serve on Vote Medford’s advisory group. Some of these organizations disseminated information about this project to their membership and encouraged people to submit questions to us; others critiqued and edited the final set of questionnaires to make them fair and accurate.
The 43 organizations that served on the advisory group are as follows:
Brooks School PTO, Carpenters Local Union 218, Chevalier Theatre Organ Society, Columbus School PTO, English At Large, Friends of Chevalier Auditorium and Gene Mack Gym, Friends of the Medford Public Library, Friends of the Middlesex Fells, Friends of the Upper Mystic Lake, Greater Medford Visiting Nurses Association, Medford Arts Center Inc., Medford Bipeds, Medford Citywide PTO, Medford Clean Energy Committee, Medford Climate Action Network, Medford Council on Aging, Medford Environmental Alliance, Medford Family Network, Medford Field of Dreams, Medford Garden Club, Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance, Medford Historical Society, Medford Human Rights Commission, Medford Police Patrolmen’s Association, Medford Professional Firefighters Association, Local 1032, Medford SEIU Local 888, Medford Special Education Parents’ Advisory Council, Medford Square Market, Medford Square Revitalization Committee, Medford Street Tree Advisory Group, Medford Superior Officers Association, Medford-Brooks Estate Land Trust, Mystic River Watershed Association, Mystic Valley Area Branch NAACP, Mystic Valley Elder Services, Outdoor Explorations, Roots & Shoots Medford, Salem Street Business Association, South Medford Neighborhood Group, South Medford Residents Together, Springstep, Tufts Institute of the Environment, and TV-3 Medford.
In closing we would like to ask that people not simply visit www.votemedford.org or watch our video series on TV3, but that they also speak with one another about this November’s election. Information made available through the efforts of other organizations such as the Medford Citywide PTO and the Democratic Ward Committee is also important.
In the end, if you have any questions you need answered, contact the candidates directly. Do anything to participate, but please, do not stay home on Election Day.
Thank you!
Dave Adams
Matt Gasbarro
Allison Goldsberry
Jim Kiely
Jim Ospenson