State Representative Candidate John Worden
John Worden, former Moderator of Arlington, is a candidate for the position of Representative in General Court for the 23rd Middlesex District (West Medford-Arlington). Mr. Worden has been active in civic and charitable affairs in greater Boston for many years, and his long legislative experience as both Town Meeting Member and Moderator makes him the most qualified candidate for being a legislator on the state level.
Since Medford has a city form of government, it might be in order to provide a brief explanation of Town Meeting form of government. Of the 351 municipalities in Massachusetts, 300 are governed by open town meetings, 20 by representative town meetings (e.g. Arlington, Winchester, Belmont), and the rest by either mayor-council forms (e.g. Medford, Cambridge, Somerville), or town councils (e.g. Watertown). Representative Town Meeting in Arlington consists of 252 Town Meeting Members – 12 elected from each of 21 precincts. They form the local legislature, and alone have power to appropriate money, approve borrowing, and pass by-laws (equivalent to ordinances in cites). The executive is a five-member Board of Selectmen, and day-to-day administration is in the hands of a professional Town Manager. As Moderator, Mr. Worden presided over Town Meeting for 19 years.
Mr. Worden, as mentioned, has long been involved in local affairs. Some of the positions he holds, or has held, include president, officer, director, trustee, or member of: Affordable Housing Committee of the Real Estate Bar Association; Animal Rescue League of Boston; Arlington Boys & Girls Club (former corporator); Arlington Civil Rights Committee; Arlington Conservation Association; Arlington Heritage Trust; Arlington Historical Society; Arlington Preservation Fund; Arlington Republican Town Committee; Assistant Moderator; By-Law Recodification Study Committee; Edwin S. Farmer Trust (benefits indigent elderly women and couples); Elizabeth & George L. Sanborn Foundation for the Treatment & Cure of Cancer; Historic District Commissions; Massachusetts Moderators Association; Metropolitan Ecology Workshop; Millennium Celebration Committee; Mystic River Watershed Association; Old Schwamb Mill Preservation Trust; St. Jerome’s Church [now closed], (former lector); 350th Anniversary Committee; Town Meeting Procedures Committee; Vision 2020 Steering Committee; and Zoning By-Law Review Committee.
Mr. Worden is a graduate of Harvard Law School and St. Bonaventure University. He and his wife Patricia (former member of Arlington School Committee and Arlington Housing Authority) have five children and seven grandchildren.
The function of the Legislature is, of course, to make laws. As a lawyer in private practice in Massachusetts for many years, Mr. Worden has had the responsibility on a regular if not daily basis to advise clients with respect to those laws, and to follow them meticulously in the preparation of documents important to his clients. His experience has shown that many laws passed by our Legislature are excessively complicated and confusing, and he looks forward to the opportunity to bring clarity of expression and beneficial purpose to new enactments and to helping constituents cope with the state bureaucracy.
Space limitations prevent discussion of all the issues, but his positions can be found on his campaign website: www.worden2008.com.