February 11, 2021
I understand that I am not allowed to respond to the posts about "Luciforo" on your awesome blog. Here are the two posts:
(1) “If a little guy like my dad (or me) spoke out to them, we faced retribution." - Jon Melle
Most parents live the dream of what they wished could have been through their kids, your the kid who lives the dream of what you wished through your dad. Your dad was a great commissioner for the time and believe me he didn’t need your input of you trying to be a political maker which in the end caused trouble for him and yourself.
Most parents live the dream of what they wished could have been through their kids, your the kid who lives the dream of what you wished through your dad. Your dad was a great commissioner for the time and believe me he didn’t need your input of you trying to be a political maker which in the end caused trouble for him and yourself.
(2) I don’t think Jon at the time understood the true nature of politics and especially locally where few control the many and how down and dirty it becomes when you challenge the powers that be. The debate over whether or not to abolish county government was a very hot and emotional issue with millions of dollars at stake for GOB/SICs. Jon’s dad fought hard to retain county government and that put him at odds with the powers that be (Including Andy Nuciforo, who championed the abolishment) and put a target on his back (Politically). And it became nasty, which Jon had to witness, as his dad was beaten down. But no one ever lost respect for the man and it was never personal…Just politics. But the ordeal was a traumatic one that has forever tainted Jon’s behavior and view of Berkshire county.
My response to you, blogger Dan Valenti, which I understand I am not allowed to post on your awesome blog is:
Andrea F. Nuciforo's, Jr. systematic, conspiratorially having other people bully and threaten me without "Luciforo" leaving behind his own fingerprints/DNA since the day I first met him when I was all of 20 years old during the Spring of 1996, mean-spirited and vicious rumors, blacklisting me from employment when I lived in the Berkshires as a young man, secretive and false allegations against me that I was making "veiled threats" against him to the Pittsfield Police Department when I was a graduate student at UMass Amherst during the Spring of 1998 when I was 22 years old, and his multiple state "ethics" complaints against my dad to multiple Massachusetts state government agencies when he was a Berkshire County Commissioner (1997 - mid-2000) from the Fall of 1997 - Spring of 1998 to try to get my dad fired from his then state government job in the Pittsfield District Court Probation Office and force his resignation from his elected position on the Berkshire County Commission all felt personal to me. To be clear, I hate "Luciforo"! To be honest, I see "Luciforo" as the inbred, dark political Prince of Pittsfield politics whose late father was a Pittsfield State Senator, too, and then a Pittsfield Probate and Family Court Judge, his late Aunt was Pittsfield's first woman Mayor and a career Professor at Berkshire Community College, and his Uncle was a career Pittsfield State Representative. "Luciforo" had to step down from the Massachusetts State Senate in 2006 because he was illegally in bed with Boston's big banks and insurance companies. "Luciforo" used his political connections in Pittsfield and Boston to be one of the first owners of his predatory marijuana business named Berkshire Roots.
I have two blog pages where I write about my negative experiences and feelings about "Luciforo":
Jonathan Melle on Politics: Andrea Nuciforo & Jonathan Melle & the month of May: Two Terrible Anniversaries!
https://jonathanmelleonpolitics.blogspot.com/2008/05/andrea-nuciforo-jonathan-melle-month-of.html
-and-
Andrea F Nuciforo Jr aka Luciforo!: Jonathan Melle's stand against Luciforo!
Andrea F Nuciforo Jr aka Luciforo!: Jonathan Melle's stand against Luciforo!
https://luciforo.blogspot.com/2009/07/jonathan-melles-stand-against-luciforo.html
In closing, I may be a disabled Veteran, but I am not stupid! I know what "Luciforo" did to hurt my dad, and why he hurt me over many years of my adult life. I feel like it was not just dirty politics, but it was also personal!
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
Additional comments:
* Good post. The politicians and power people went hard after the commissioner. I believe it did go beyond politics with the personal attacks on the man. Just think about what we ended up with. The power brokers wanted to control government for themselves along with the power and money that goes with it. The commissioner fought against exactly what is going on today.
* Rightly so, it is abuse. Because he is a human being it is personal.
* What is the common thread here…..all…..Democrats & Keep voting that way, what did Einstein say?
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May 20, 2021
Re: Nuciforo tried to jail me 23 years ago today
On May 20th, 1998, then Pittsfield (Massachusetts) State Senator Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior (aka Luciforo) set up secretive plans with the Pittsfield Police Department to have me arrested if I stopped by his state legislative district office on North Street to protest his role in abolishing Berkshire County Government. Nuciforo falsely alleged to the police that I was making veiled threats against him and that I was agitated and upset with him for opposing my dad, who was a Berkshire County Commissioner, on county government. Prior to Nuciforo's plans to jail me, Nuciforo filed multiple state "ethics" complaints against my dad, Bob Melle, to multiple Massachusetts state agencies. Nuciforo tried to get my dad fired from his state government job as an Assistant Chief Probation Officer in the Pittsfield District Court and force my dad to resign his elected position as a Berkshire County Commissioner. Fortunately, Nuciforo did not succeed in putting me in jail. Fortunately, Nuciforo did not succeed in getting my dad fired and forcing him to resign.
Since I first met Nuciforo in the Spring of 1996 - when I was only 20 years old - at a political candidate forum in Dalton (Massachusetts) where both he and my dad spoke as political candidates, Nuciforo conspiratorially had many people associated with his political network bully and threaten me on his behalf for many years of my young adult life without Nuciforo leaving behind his own proverbial fingerprints/DNA. Nuciforo had his network of political operatives spread false and vicious rumors against me throughout the years in the Pittsfield area. Nuciforo blacklisted me from receiving employment in the Pittsfield area when I was a young man. I find it interesting that Nuciforo used to brag about filing state "ethics" complaints against people he didn't like when Nuciforo himself had to step down from the Massachusetts State Senate because he was illegally double dipping as Chair of the State Senate Finance Committee in Boston and also working as a corporate Attorney for Boston's big banks and insurance companies for the Boston law firm Berman and Dowell. After Nuciforo had to leave his decade-long post in the Massachusetts State Senate, he anointed himself to the 6-year-long sinecure as Pittsfield's Registrar of Deeds by strong arming two women candidates named Sharon Henault and former Pittsfield Mayor Sara Hathaway out the 2006 state government "election". In early-2007, the Boston Globe reported that Nuciforo wanted the then newly elected Governor of Massachusetts named Deval Patrick to appoint him to the post of Commissioner of Insurance, despite his illegal double dipping with Boston's insurance companies. Nuciforo was passed over for that post. Nuciforo used his anointed sinecure at the Pittsfield Registry of Deeds to plot a failed run for U.S. Congress in 2012 against "PAC Man" Richie Neal. Nuciforo lost that election by 40 points.
Nuciforo comes from a political family who goes back many years in Pittsfield politics. Nuciforo's late father was a Pittsfield State Senator and then a Pittsfield Probate Court Judge. Nuciforo's late aunt was the first woman Mayor of Pittsfield and a longtime career professor at Berkshire Community College. Nuciforo uncle was a career Pittsfield State Representative on Beacon Hill. Nuciforo now owns Berkshire Roots, which is marijuana business in Pittsfield with an outlet in East Boston. Nuciforo still practices law in both Pittsfield and Boston. In closing, Nuciforo is a mean-spirited and vindictive little man who used his political connections to hurt people, such as my father and myself, while being a corrupt political insider who unethically enriched himself in government and practicing law.
In Truth!
Jonathan A. Melle
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Hello Patrick Fennell,
Sara Hathaway started her political career working as a legislative aide for Pittsfield State Senator Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior in 1997. In 2001, Sara Hathaway ran for Mayor of Pittsfield with Nuciforo's blessing, and she served in that elected position for only one two year term before she was ousted by Jimmy Ruberto in 2003. In the Fall of 1997, I was watching the Fall Foliage Parade in North Adams, and Nuciforo, with Sara Hathaway at his side, darted towards me from his parade route like he wanted to hit or physically assault me. Sara Hathaway just stood there and watched Nuciforo bully me and she said nothing. My Uncle from Saratoga Springs, New York and my cousin from North Adams stepped in front of me to protect me from Nuciforo, and then Nuciforo became scared because he was outnumbered and then he and Sara Hathaway walked away from me back to there parade route. My dad, who was a Berkshire County Commissioner, would call Nuciforo's legislative district office in 1997, and Sara Hathaway would answer the telephone and say to my dad, "What do you want now?" The two (Nuciforo and Sara Hathaway) were a pair of unprofessional brats who believed they could bully and intimidate anyone and everyone in Pittsfield who dared to question them. From the Fall of 1997 through the Spring of 1998, Nuciforo filed multiple state "ethics" complaints against my dad in Pittsfield and in Boston to try to get my dad fired from his state job in the Pittsfield District Court Probation Office and his elected position as a Berkshire County Commissioner. Fortunately, Nuciforo's state "ethics" complaints didn't do in my dad's appointed and elected government careers. In the Spring of 1998, Nuciforo made false allegations to the Pittsfield Police Department that I was making "veiled threats" against him, and that if I showed up at his legislative district office I would be agitated by his work on Beacon Hill to abolish Berkshire County government and that I was to be immediately arrested. My dad found out about Nuciforo's secretive plans to put me in then Sheriff Carmen Massimiano's Pittsfield jail, and my dad told me to stay away from Nuciforo. Fortunately for me, Nuciforo's plot to jail me did not work. The irony of Nuciforo's false allegations against me to the police was that he was the one harassing my dad and I with his conspiratorial bullying and legal shell games. The other irony about Nuciforo filing state "ethics" complaints against my dad was that Nuciforo had to step down from the Massachusetts State Senate in 2006 because he was in bed with Boston's big banks and insurance companies from 1999 - 2006. Nuciforo used to brag about how he liked to file state "ethics" complaints against state and local government workers in Massachusetts, but he was as corrupt as they come in Massachusetts politics. Also, I first met Nuciforo in the Spring of 1996 when I was over 20.5 years old during a Democratic Party candidate platform in Dalton, Massachusetts where both he and my dad spoke as political candidates, along with Congressman John W. Olver. Ever since that day over 25 years ago now, Nuciforo conspiratorially had people associated with his incestuous political network bully, harass and/or threaten me without Nuciforo leaving behind his own proverbial fingerprints and/or proverbial DNA. Nuciforo comes from a very political Pittsfield family. Nuciforo's late-father was a Pittsfield State Senator and then a Pittsfield Probate and Family Court Judge. Nuciforo's late-aunt, Anne Everest Wojtkowski, was Pittsfield's first woman Mayor and a career Professor at Berkshire Community College. Nuciforo's Uncle, Tom Wojtkowski, was a Pittsfield State Representative. For years on end, Nuciforo went around the beautiful Berkshires telling everyone he was going to oust Congressman John W. Olver from his elected seat on Capitol Hill. After stepping down from the State Senate in 2006 due to his unethical ties to Boston's financial district, Nuciforo strong-armed two women named Sara Hathaway, who was a former Pittsfield Mayor by then, and Sharon Henault, who worked in the Pittsfield Registry of Deeds Office, out of the 2006 state "election" for Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds. Nuciforo used his "no show" plum job to plot his run against Congressman John W. Olver in the 2012 federal election, but Congressional redistricting dropped Olver's legislative district, and then Olver retired from Congress in 2012. Nuciforo then faced "PAC Man" Richie Neal from Springfield, and Nuciforo lost to Congressman Richie Neal by 40 percentage points in the 2012 primary federal election. Nuciforo went from a corrupt State Senator in Boston to a "no show" sinecure in Pittsfield to a fringe Congressional candidate, and he knew his political career was over in 2012. Then, in the late-winter of 2017, Nuciforo was back in Pittsfield to open one of the first marijuana dispensaries in Berkshire County. Nuciforo, among other politically-connected Massachusetts politicians, wanted to cash in on the new billion dollar marijuana market with their big money political and business backers in Boston. Nuciforo, in the Summer of 2021 or today (18-July-2021), runs the largest marijuana business in Western Massachusetts and he has a marijuana dispensary in East Boston. I told my mom that Nuciforo named his marijuana dispensaries "Berkshire Roots", and my mom wasn't surprised by Nuciforo's unscrupulous ways in politics and business. What Nuciforo could not accomplish in politics, he was able to accomplish in business with his marijuana business via his entrenched political family and political connections in Pittsfield and also on Beacon Hill where he was an illegal double dipper as Chairman of the State Senate Finance Committee and a corporate Attorney for Boston's big banks and insurance companies. To this day, over for over 24 years now, Sara Hathaway has not denounced Nuciforo for his political corruption and strong arm tactics that led to Nuciforo's downfall in Massachusetts politics back in 2012. Because of Nuciforo's network in Pittsfield politics, I have been the victim of hurtful and vicious rumors, blacklisted from employment, and threatened by his henchmen and even the Devil himself: LUCIFORO!
In Truth!
Jonathan A. Melle
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August 14, 2021
Hello, again, blogger Dan Valenti,
I am thankful that someone posted to me on your awesome blog "Planet Valenti" the following message:
Jonathan – just so you know, we heard you. We understand what you say. You & your fam were done wrong & it harmed you. Yes. Sorry that happened.
My response is that when Nuciforo started his conspiratorial political persecution, bullying and threats against me without Nuciforo leaving behind his own proverbial fingerprints/DNA when I first met Nuciforo in the Spring of 1996, I was only over 20.5-years-old, and my dad was campaigning for the elected position of Berkshire County Commissioner as a new resident of Becket, Massachusetts. My dad and Nuciforo, who ran for Pittsfield State Senator back then, both won their respective elections in November of 1996. I did not understand what I was facing or up against when I was in my early-20s in the mid-1990s. People say my behavior was socially inappropriate and that I was an immature young man for my age. What people do NOT say is that I was living in a decade-plus episode(s) in the proverbial "Twilight Zone" due to that 4 foot tall piece of shit named "Andy" Nuciforo that came from Pittsfield politics' royalty. It is now the Summer of 2021, and I am 46 years old now, which means I have over 25 years of hindsight about Nuciforo's mean-spirited provincial Pittsfield political network that spans all the way to Boston. Nuciforo filed multiple state "ethics" complaints against my dad from the Fall of 1997 to the Spring of 1998 to try to ruin both his state government career in the Pittsfield District Court and his elected post on the Berkshire County Commission. Nuciforo also made false accusations to the Pittsfield Police Department in the Spring of 1998 that I made "veiled threats" against him. Fortunately, my dad wasn't fired and forced to resign, and I wasn't jailed back in 1998. Nuciforo blacklisted me from employment in the Pittsfield area. Nuciforo had his bullying network spread vicious rumors against me all over Pittsfield in the Summer of 2005 when I turned 30 years old back then. I was told that when people mentioned my name around Nuciforo, he would mockingly laugh. Nuciforo had to step down from the Massachusetts State Senate in 2006 because he was in bed with Boston's big banks and insurance companies as a corporate Attorney at a Boston Law Firm from 1999-2006, according to the Boston Globe, while at the same time, Nuciforo chaired the State Senate Finance Committee in Boston's historic Statehouse. Nuciforo never faced state charges for his illegal double dipping, but he had to step down from the Massachusetts State Senate in 2006. Nuciforo strong-armed 2 women candidates (Sara Hathaway - a former Pittsfield Mayor - and also Sharon Henault - a Pittsfield Registry of Deeds worker/administrator) from the 2006 state government so-called election to Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds, where he spent 6 years at his "no show" sinecure plotting a 2012 campaign for U.S. House of Representatives against then Congressman John W. Olver, but due to redistricting Nuciforo ultimately faced PAC Man Richie Neal, and Nuciforo lost to Congressman Richard E. Neal by 40 percentage points. The Berkshire Eagle wrote in 2012 that Nuciforo became a fringe politician. In early-March of 2017, Nuciforo cofounded his Marijuana company by unethically using his political connections in both Pittsfield and Boston, which the Boston Globe published news articles and editorials about over the past couple of years. Nuciforo is now making millions of dollars off of his Marijuana company named "Berkshire Roots", which is unfairly stinking up working class residential neighborhoods behind Dalton Avenue in Pittsfield with marijuana "skunk odors". Nuciforo still practices law, focusing on Boston's financial district, in Boston, as well as his Pittsfield law firm where he focuses on the state's new marijuana industry laws. How Nuciforo has gotten away with being so corrupt in Pittsfield politics and in Beacon Hill's State Senate is beyond me, but I understand all to well that Nuciforo is well protected by his powerful political and legal networks. In closing, I have dealt with many hurtful enemies in my life, but Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior takes the cake! I hope that Nuciforo is NOT proud of himself.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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August 22, 2021
Hello Berkshire Eagle,
What about me? I understand that the Boston state Democratic Party Officials hurt Alex Morse with conspiratorial, homophobic, sleazy, and the like, attacks when he challenged PAC Man Richie Neal a year ago in 2020, and that the Boston state Dems are all still in power a year later in 2021. For years and decades, I have written to the Berkshire Eagle and other news outlets throughout Massachusetts about how Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior used similar attacks against me and my family, specifically my dad, Bob, who was a Berkshire County Commissioner from 1997 - mid-2000, since the Spring of 1996 (or for over 25 years now). The Nuciforo network attacked me for many years after my dad was no longer a politician, and even after I moved away from the beautiful Berkshires to live with my relocated family in southern New Hampshire during the early-Spring of 2004 where I still live in 2021.
I feel that Nuciforo gets away with everything under the Sun in Pittsfield politics and also in Boston. Nuciforo hurt me and my family - specifically my dad, Bob - for many years; when he was in the Massachusetts State Senator from 1997 - 2006, the Boston Globe reported that Nuciforo was in bed with Boston's big banks and insurance companies from 1999 - 2006 with his illegal double dipping for which Nuciforo was never charged, but it was the reason why Nuciforo had to step down from the State Senate in 2006; Nuciforo strong-armed 2 women candidates - former Pittsfield Mayor Sara Hathaway and Registry of Deeds administrative worker Sharon Henault out of the 2006 to anoint himself to the "elected" position for 6 years as Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds while he plotted a 2012 run for U.S. House of Representatives against then Congressman John W. Olver, who was redistricted out of office in 2012, and then Nuciforo lost to PAC Man Richie Neal in 2012 by a whopping 40 point margin; and lastly, the Boston Globe reported and wrote editorials about how Nuciforo used his political connections and deep pockets in both Pittsfield politics and Boston to open up his multimillion dollar marijuana business in early-March 2017, which is causing skunk-like odors in working class Pittsfield neighborhoods behind his Dalton Avenue growing building, while Pittsfield City Hall does nothing about it because they all still fear Nuciforo's political power.
It amazes me how the Berkshire Eagle writes news articles and editorials against the Boston state Democratic Party Officials who engaged in dirty politics against Alex Morse, but Nuciforo is and always will be the Eagle's "Golden Boy" who is predicted to run for PAC Man Richie Neal's Western Massachusetts Congressional seat in the future when PAC Man Richie Neal retires or dies in office. I wish to let the Berkshire Eagle know that I feel that I went through far worse political abuse than Alex Morse at the hands of Nuciforo. I request that the Berkshire Eagle and/or any other news media outlet to publish my email letter(s) about Nuciforo's dirty politics against me and my family - specifically my dad, Bob, but I know that I don't count in the Eagle's biased newspaper reporting.
In Truth!
Jonathan A. Melle
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"Nearly a year on, Berkshire Democrats continue push for Massachusetts Democratic Party to address complaints"
By Danny Jin, The Berkshire Eagle, August 21, 2021
Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman Gus Bickford has apologized for the “pain” his actions caused “to many members of the LGBTQI+ community” but has disputed a finding from an independent investigator that he violated a party bylaw by becoming involved in a contested primary. Some Berkshire County Democrats who made complaints about Bickford say they feel their concerns have yet to be adequately addressed.
Nearly a year ago, hundreds of Democrats lodged complaints against state party leaders for their involvement in the 2020 Democratic primary between U.S. Rep. Richard Neal and then-Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse.
After the party’s rules committee dismissed those complaints, several Berkshire County Democrats have continued to call for Massachusetts Democratic Party leaders to apologize for actions that a party-ordered investigation found violated one of its bylaws.
The steering committee of the Berkshire Democratic Brigades, the county’s official branch of the state party, sent a letter to Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman Gus Bickford in May requesting that party leaders send Morse, who lost the primary by a 59-41 percent margin, “a formal, written apology.” And members of the People for Democratic Party Reform coalition plan to demonstrate during the party’s Sept. 25 platform convention and call for Bickford’s removal.
'The damage was already done': Some LGBTQ advocates say misconduct claims doomed Morse's bid to upset Neal
NORTH ADAMS — Although a group that accused Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse of inappropriate behavior with college students later apologized for their role in aiding "homophobic attacks," for some …
Shortly before the Sept. 1 primary, a group of students with the University of Massachusetts Amherst College Democrats circulated a letter raising concerns about Morse, who previously served as an adjunct instructor at the university. Subsequent reports from The Intercept suggested that political motivations played a role for some students involved and showed that state party members provided advice to the students.
Attorney and former state Sen. Cheryl Jacques concluded in an independent investigation, sent to party members on Nov. 5, that Bickford violated a party bylaw when he provided advice to students on their communications with a political reporter. Party bylaws say that staff members cannot “endorse or participate in any contested Democratic Primary campaign.”
Jacques found that while the party “did not initiate or plant” the idea for the college Democrats to send a letter, Bickford admitted that he told students that Politico reporter Alex Thompson was “a trusted source” and that “if you don’t go on the record with him, he won’t write the story.” Those statements, Jacques concludes, show that Bickford “was encouraging the students to talk to the reporter on the record and to do so prior to the election.”
Bickford previously had discouraged Morse from running in an early 2019 meeting and “may very well have violated the spirit” of a bylaw at that time, Jacques said, but did not violate the bylaw itself because Morse had not yet declared his candidacy.
“Regardless of their motives, Democratic Party officials should have pulled back as soon as it became clear that the students were seeking advice about their relationship with a primary candidate in the upcoming election,” the Berkshire Democratic Brigades said in the letter sent to party leaders on May 12.
“Whether or not they suggested the eventual leak, by continuing these conversations the officials broke an important MDP bylaw that proscribes their interference in a contested primary.”
Without a written apology to Morse and a reply to party members who lodged complaints, the letter says, the committee “would support the official censure” of Bickford, Executive Director Veronica Martinez and Jim Roosevelt, a longtime party member who also serves as its volunteer attorney.
Bickford, who was reelected in November by 63 percent of state party members who voted, has apologized for “the pain caused to many members of the LGBTQI+ community” but has disputed Jacques’ finding that his advice violated the bylaw.
“I was just stating something that I have been taught and learned from 30 years of being in politics,” Bickford wrote to Berkshire Democratic Brigades steering committee members in a May 3 response to the Brigades’ draft letter. He reiterated that his intention was to “provide assistance” to the students as best he could.
“Attorney Jacques felt as though my answer inserted myself into the primary race by taking sides, however, I know I was not trying to do that and the Rules Committee agreed with me,” Bickford wrote.
The party’s rules committee considered the complaints in two meetings after Jacques completed her investigation, Allison Mitchell, the party’s communications director, told The Eagle.
“In consultation with the deputy legal counsel, the Rules Committee found that the complaints did not have merit, or were ‘frivolous’ as defined in the process outlined in the Charter,” Mitchell said in an email. “ ‘Frivolous’ in no way reflects the sentiment in which the complaints were handled.”
Sonya Bykofsky, who last September sent the party complaints signed by more than 500 members, said she did not receive a response regarding the outcome of the complaints. Bykofsky, who recently became state director of People for Democratic Party Reform, said the planned demonstration during the September party convention is “an action in need of taking at this point because everything we’ve attempted to this point has been ignored.”
“It is completely appropriate to ask why a person in a leadership position violated our own bylaws,” said Bykofsky, who also chairs the Lenox town Democratic committee and sits on the steering committee of the Berkshire Democratic Brigades. “Ignoring your own party’s corruption is condoning it, and many of us are not OK with that.”
For Democrats in Massachusetts, voting breakdown shows gap among party members
In the aftermath of the Massachusetts state Democratic Committee’s election for its leader, a breakdown of how members voted suggests that ass…
Bickford, in his reply to the Brigades, said he has conducted listening sessions and has worked with the party’s LGBTQ+ and Affirmative Action Outreach committees, in addition to “launching a vigorous Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training series.” During Bickford’s 2020 reelection campaign, two challengers had said they would do more than Bickford has done to diversify the party.
But, Cheryl Rose of Dalton, another steering committee member, said the issue the Brigades raised was a matter of party rules rather than of prejudice. And the party has not acknowledged that its actions, she said, “clearly helped Neal.”
Addressing the fallout from the primary, the letter from the Brigades says, is a necessary step for the party to rebuild trust as it pursues its goals, such as unseating Republican Gov. Charlie Baker in 2022.
“We need unity, and the party needs the energy and commitment of those who have disengaged as a result of these events,” the letter states. “To win them back, we need State Party leaders to conduct themselves in a transparent manner, embodying integrity.”
Morse said Friday that he has not received an apology from Bickford.
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August 28, 2021
For years of my adult life, I tried to work, but I faced so many unfair obstacles. When I was in my early-20s (1996) to mid-20s (2000), my dad was a Pittsfield area politician who, along with myself, was conspiratorially politically persecuted by a four foot tall Pittsfield State Senator [Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior] I am not allowed to name on the Planet Valenti blog. I chose to exercise my free speech, and defend my good name, and all I received in return was retribution for a decade (1996 - 2005) and beyond of my life. If I didn't receive VA disability benefits, I would be at risk of homelessness and a financial burden on my family; my parents are now in their mid-70s now in 2021. I don't ever want to go back on square one and live my life in a state of mental illness like I did many years ago. I want peace of mind for me and my elderly parents. Lastly, I must ask, "What the Hell do you want me - Jon Melle - to do about it all?" I did not choose to come from Pittsfield!!!!
Jonathan A. Melle
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September 25, 2021
On the Planet Valenti blog, posters blamed me and my mental health and related behavioral issues for Nuciforo's many years of conspiratorial bullying of me and my dad since the Spring of 1996 when I was only 20 years old back then. I responded that what happened to my dad and I was not the fault of my mental health and behavioral issues.
The following are the blog comment postings:
A blog commenter posted: I’m starting to believe you twisted out of context what you say certain politicians and others did to you and about you when you were here [Berkshire County, Massachusetts]. Like your doing now with your rant.
I (Jonathan Melle) responded in the blog commenting feed: My dad was a politician [Berkshire County Commissioner] and I was a target of retribution in Pittsfield politics for many years of my then young adult life. You and others can believe whatever the hell you want to think about it all. “All in the Family” incestuous Pittsfield politics stinks more that the dead skunk odor plaguing the working class neighborhood behind the Dalton Avenue Pittsfield marijuana cultivation buildings. So take your views about my negative experiences with Pittsfield politics decades ago and stuff it!
The same blog commenter then posted again: It wasn’t retribution, It was an intervention of sorts because of the concerns they had with your behavior you were displaying which became even more of a concern for them, when the situation escalated to where some felt it was growing more into a threatening level in your behavior towards certain people. Some were in fear for your well being and themselves.
I (Jonathan Melle) responded in the blog commenting feed: The mental health and behavioral concerns do NOT explain everything that happened to me and my dad back then.
For many years now, I have written political emails and posted on my blog my negative experiences and reactions to the abuse from the Nuciforo network of conspiratorial bullies. Nuciforo conspiratorially had people associated with his Pittsfield politics network bully and threaten me without Nuciforo leaving behind his own proverbial fingerprints/DNA since my dad campaigned for (and then won) the elected office of Berkshire County Commissioner starting in the Spring of 1996 when I was only 20 years old. Nuciforo's conspiratorial bullying of me went on for well over one decade - or through most of my 20s and then some of my 30s when I no longer lived in the beautiful Berkshires and relocated with my family to southern New Hampshire. When my dad was a Berkshire County Commissioner decades ago now, Nuciforo filed multiple state "ethics" complaints against my dad to multiple Massachusetts state agencies to try to get my dad fired from his then state government job in the Pittsfield District Court Probation Office and force my dad to resign his elected seat on the Berkshire County Commission. This occurred from the Fall of 1997 - Spring of 1998 Fortunately, Nuciforo's state "ethics" complaints against my dad didn't ruin my dad's career and end him serving in his elected seat. During the Spring of 1998, Nuciforo made secretive and false allegations to the Pittsfield Police Department that I was making "veiled threats" against him and that if I stopped by his legislative district office on North Street the police would be immediately called and I was to be arrested. My dad found out about it, and my dad told me to stay away from Nuciforo. The irony of Nuciforo's actions against me is that in the Summer of 1997 at a promotion for Judge Francis Spina I attended with my dad, Nuciforo gave me a very threatening stare, and a few months later when I watched in Fall Foliage Parade in North Adams in 1997, Nuciforo broke from his parade route with Sara Hathaway at his side to threaten to assault me, but my Uncle from Saratoga Springs NY and my cousin from North Adams stepped in, which scared Nuciforo and made him walk away back to his parade route with Sara Hathaway. Nuciforo blacklisted me from employment in Berkshire County, and he had his network of conspiratorial bullies spread mean-spirited and vicious rumors against me all over Pittsfield Massachusetts. In 2006, Nuciforo had to step down from the Massachusetts State Senate because he was illegally double dipping as Chairman of the State Senate Finance Committee while at the same time he was working for a Boston Law Firm named "Berman & Dowell" as a corporate Attorney for Boston's big banks and insurance companies from 1999 - 2006, according to the Boston Globe. Nuciforo is well protected through his political connections in Pittsfield and Boston alike, and he never faced any state charges for his unethical conflict of interests between state government and Boston's financial district. Nuciforo went after someone like my dad with state "ethics" complaints, and Nuciforo tried to jail me when I was 22 years old, yet Nuciforo was always the unethical bully all along, despite him being only "4 feet tall". After having to step down from the State Senate in 2006, Nuciforo strong-armed two women (Sharon Henault and Sara Hathaway) out of the 2006 Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds state government "election" to anoint himself to a 6 year term, which many saw as his sinecure. In early-2007, the Boston Globe reported that Nuciforo lobbied the new Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, to be named Commissioner of Insurance, despite Nuciforo's years of illegal double dipping with Boston's big banks and insurance companies. Nuciforo was not appointed to the office of Commissioner of Insurance by Governor Deval Patrick, and Nuciforo remained at the Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds until 2012, when he launched his long predicted campaign for U.S. Congress against Congressman John W. Olver. After being redistricted out of his Congressional seat, Olver retired, which left Nuciforo to face Congressman Richie Neal in the Democratic Party primary election in 2012. "PAC Man" Richie Neal soundly defeated Nuciforo by a net 40 percentage points, and Nuciforo was proven to be a fringe politician whose political career was over. Then in March of 2017, Nuciforo started his now multimillion dollar marijuana business by using his political connections in both Pittsfield and Boston. Nuciforo's marijuana business is named "Berkshire Roots" and it is the largest marijuana cultivation business in Western Massachusetts with stores on Dalton Avenue in Pittsfield and East Boston. Nuciforo's law firm uses his political connections to serve unethical bankers and insurance salesmen who screw little old ladies out of their life savings. Nuciforo is a predatory politician, lawyer and marijuana businessman. It is predicted that Nuciforo is going to use his multimillion dollar fortune to launch a future campaign for U.S. Congress after Richie Neal retires from his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Nuciforo and then billionaire U.S. Senator John Kerry once cohosted a fancy fundraiser many years ago now with Boston's big banks and insurance company executives with John Kerry and Nuciforo wore matching tuxedoes to impress their financial elite donors. Nuciforo wins at any cost and his predatory politics only worships the Almighty Dollar.
This is what I have had to figure out and deal with since I was only 20 years old - or for 25.5 years now in 2021. I faced many other difficult problems in my life over that time period, but Nuciforo takes the proverbial cake as the biggest bully so far in my life of 46 years and counting up. I do NOT believe it is fair or even reasonable for someone to say that everything that Nuciforo did was out of concern for my mental health and behavioral issues since the Spring of 1996 - early-Fall of 2021. In fact, Nuciforo's years of abuse against me most likely made my mental health and behavioral issues worse. In closing, my mental health and behavioral issue, which I take seriously, do NOT explain everything that happened to me and my dad back then.
Jonathan A. Melle
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September 26, 2021
Re: Additional blog postings about Nuciforo's history of persecuting me in Pittsfield politics
A blog commenter posted [on the Planet Valenti blog]: So move on already. It happened to you and your dad decades ago Jon. Reread that, decades ago. That means more than twenty years ago. People have had children who are now of legal drinking age when all of that happened.
Not to say anything mean about your family, but you really should have been treated medically a long time ago.
Your harboring hatred this long, is frankly scary. Your like the guy who still wants revenge on his high school girlfriend who broke up with him 25+ years ago.
Move on.
I (Jonathan Melle) responded in the blog commenting feed: I will move on from it when everyone else stops being mean to me about it. It is hard to break abusive cycles, including in Pittsfield politics.
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June 15, 2023
Hello Charles Ivar Kronick,
I read your post about Sara Hathaway's comments to the City Council that opposed your proposal to institute an age requirement for the School Committee in Pittsfield politics. From what you wrote, she came across as negative of you and your idea.
The Sara Hathaway Hack over the years...
Sara Hathaway is not from the Pittsfield area, but she moved to Pittsfield after she was hired as a planner with the useless Berkshire Regional Planning Commission in the mid-1990s. In 1997, Sara Hathaway went to work for the then new "Democrat" "Pittsfield" State Senator (who really lived in Boston) Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior, whose late-father was also a Pittsfield State Senator many years ago.
When my dad, Bob, was a Berkshire County Commissioner, he called "Luciforo's" Pittsfield district office, and Sara Hathaway rudely said to my dad, Bob, "What do you want?" During the Spring of 1998, Nuciforo tried to jail me by telling the Pittsfield Police Department that if I entered his Onota building North Street district office, his staff were to call the police and I would be arrested on the spot. My dad found out about this not from Nuciforo, but at his work in the Pittsfield courthouse.
In 2001, Sara Hathaway ran for Mayor of Pittsfield and she won her first and only term as Mayor. Of course, we all know all too well that Pittsfield is a distressed postindustrial city that is always in the top 10 cities in Massachusetts for violent crime. Mayor Sara Hathaway called violent crime in Pittsfield an "aberration". Other Sara Hathaway statements include that "Pittsfield is a junky for state aid". To her credit in 2003, Sara Hathaway correctly warned us about Jimmy Ruberto's false political ambitions to oust her as Mayor of Pittsfield, which Mayor James Ruberto served in from 2004 - 2011.
Sara Hathaway is a member of the Pittsfield Democratic City Committee. Sara Hathaway went on to be a middle school teacher at Reid Middle School in Pittsfield. In 2006, Sara Hathaway took out nomination papers to be the Pittsfield Registrar of Deeds. But also in 2006, "Luciforo" had to step down from his elected position as "Pittsfield" State Senator because he was allegedly illegally double dipping as the Chairman of the State Senate Finance Committee while also serving as an Attorney for Boston's Financial District's big banks and insurance companies for the Boston law firm "Berman and Dowell". "Luciforo" strong-armed Sara Hathaway, along with Sharon Henault, out of the 2006 state government "election" to anoint himself to the no show plum 6-year sinecure.
As the years passed, the Pittsfield Public School district tried to fire Sara Hathaway from her teaching position, along with several other middle-aged women teachers. Sara Hathaway and the other teachers filed various complaints. Sara Hathaway was ordered to be reinstated to her teaching position. Sara Hathaway also received an undisclosed financial settlement from the city during the Dan Bianchi administration.
In recent years, Sara Hathaway is a member of the Pittsfield School Committee. Sara Hathaway is politically active in Pittsfield politics. For years, Pittsfield's public schools have received the worst rating from the state, which is Level 5. It is fitting that Sara Hathaway is a middle school teacher and a member of the Pittsfield School Committee because in my book, she rates as a Level 5 person, teacher and politician!
Jonathan A. Melle
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July 10, 2023
Sarcasm: I received the original copies of:
The Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal, but most of the Founding Fathers and original U.S. Presidents were Slave Owners".
Andrew Jackson: "The Trail of Tears was a Nazi Germany-like genocide of the Native American Peoples one hundred years prior to Adolf Hitler's Holocaust"
Abraham Lincoln: "Slavery must be abolished, but I proposed the mandatory removal of all black U.S. Citizens from the U.S.A. after the end of the Civil War. I also signed off on the mass hangings of many Native American Peoples in the then Minnesota Territory, but I did pardon some of them for good measure"
The Communist Manifesto: "The workers of the world must unite to overthrow the owners of capital, but Karl Marx never lived in a Socialist or Communist Country"
The Red Scare: "Communists are evil, but when Karl Marx wrote his books on his vision of Communist Utopian Communities, Slavery was still legal and in practice in the U.S.A."
FDR's New Deal: "The Government must spend public money on the Have Nots to lift the nation out of the Great Depression, but FDR refused to sign a federal law outlawing the lynching of black U.S. Citizens, he interned Japanese Americans against their U.S. Constitutional Rights, and he was in the Oval Office when a ship full of persecuted Jewish Peoples trying to flee the tragic Holocaust in Europe was turned away from entering the U.S.A."
Post WW2: "The U.S. Military Industrial Complex will fight in endless military conflicts around the world resulting in the deaths of countless millions of innocent foreign people, the U.S. Government will make Wall Street trillions of dollars by always growing the U.S.A.'s #1 export: arms sales, the U.S. Government will go around the world preaching climate change despite the fact that the U.S. Government is the single largest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, as well as the number two polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world second only to China"
Blogger Dan Valenti: "Philosophers of old wrote that the government is evil and that it is futile to fight the system, but the real bad guy is the former Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington, who was in elected office for only 4 years from 2019 to 2023"
Jonathan A. Melle
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July 16, 2023
Hello Erin Leahy at Act on Mass,
Thank you for your weekly political email about Beacon Hill corrupt and secretive politics. The Massachusetts State House of "Sellouts and Shakedown corrupt career politicians" (Representatives) finally met in formal session for the first time in over 11 weeks on Thursday, July 13th, 2023. The fiscal year 2024 Massachusetts State Budget is now over 2 weeks late. Despite Beacon Hill lawmakers still sitting on their historically huge Slush Fund of over $7.22 billion, they still have not passed so-called "tax relief" legislation. The road and bridge repair legislation, the joint rules legislation, the omnibus gun legislation, and so on, are all still doing nothing in the darkness of secrecy.
The House passed a supplemental spending bill on Thursday, July 13th, 2023. But the dictatorial-like State House Speaker Ronny Mariano “consolidated away” amendments that were filed by several members of the Western Mass delegation requesting emergency funds to respond to the catastrophic flooding in the region earlier this week. Unfortunately, these amendments never even got a vote.
My response to Speaker Ronny Mariano not allowing legislation filed by Western Massachusetts State Representatives to be voted on during the formal session on Thursday, July 13th, 2023, is that is exactly what they did to by dad, Berkshire County Commissioner Bob Melle (1997 - mid-July 2000), when he went to Beacon Hill committees to testify to state lawmakers about their legislation to abolish Berkshire County Government and the state's takeover of county functions in Boston. Back then, Boston's "Big Dig" had recurring multibillion dollar cost overruns, but then Pittsfield State Senator Andrea Francesco Nuciforo Junior and North Adams State Representative Dan Bosley had the nerve to say Berkshire County Government was "inefficient" - what a double standard! For two years, from mid-2000 to mid-2002, Pontoosuc Lake, which sits in both Pittsfield and Lanesborough, was put in a state accounting agency instead of a state environmental agency. During the Spring of 1999, I told Beacon Hill lawmakers that it was "bureaucracy at its worst!"
The State House passed legislation lifting the HDIP's funding cap. HDIP is not really about funding affordable housing. Rather, HDIP is about the gentrification of low to moderate income housing that displace low to moderate income renters and homeowners. There are more property owners than renters in the Massachusetts State Legislature. Over the years, I have read that Beacon Hill lawmakers are only in elected office for the public pay plus perks, that some of them earn (way) more money elsewhere, and that their respective parking space in Boston is like gold to the corrupt career politicians.
To illustrate, if a "Have Not" such as myself - Jon Melle - would ask my fictional Massachusetts State Representative Sellout Shakedown for help finding and retaining a living wage job, he would tell me that if I need additional income, then go play the inequitable lottery SCAM and hope to hit the jackpot.
Beacon Hill lawmakers have been systemically underfunding higher education for several decades. In my higher education studies of old, I learned that for hundreds of years now, the path to wealth is (elite) education and (wealthy) families, not hard work in a blue-collar job, a successful professional career, or saving and/or investing money over several decades of one's income earning years. The top one percent of wealthy families have gone to elite educational institutions and their families have rolled over their assets over many generations. The (shrinking) middle-class families compete and struggle to earn a living in relatively short-term careers compared to the aforementioned intergenerational wealth of compounding gains in income and assets. The biggest growing demographic in the U.S.A. is our nation's huge underclass population, whereby the "Rags to Riches" myth is illustrated by the multibillion-dollar Massachusetts State Lottery (voluntary) regressive taxation SCAM!
Bill Weld is a former Governor of Massachusetts. He inherited an $80 million trust fund from his blue blood Boston Brahmin family. Bill Weld's family has over 20 generations who attended Harvard University. Bill Weld's first wife, Susan Roosevelt, is the granddaughter of U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt.
John Forbes Kerry is a former Massachusetts U.S. Senator. He inherited a trust fund that almost doubled Bill Weld's trust fund from his mother's side of the family. John Kerry attended Yale University. When John Kerry ran against George W. Bush in 2004, it was called the "Skulls and Bones" presidential election. John Kerry went on to be Barack Obama's Secretary of State, and he is currently Joe Biden's Climate Czar (of HOT AIR!). John Kerry's second wife is Theresa Heinz Kerry, who is the billionaire heiress of the Heinz family fortune.
Jon Melle is a Have Not who was born in and grew up in the distressed and economically unequal small city of Pittsfield, Massachusetts that is known for its Level 5 public schools, always being in the top 10 cities in Massachusetts for violent crime year-in and year-out, being GE's toxic waste dump full of capped industrial chemicals called PCBs, its downtown called "Social Services Alley" instead of a business district, and so on and so forth.
Jon Melle has a Master of Public Administration degree (May 1999) from UMass Amherst. Jon Melle is a 100 percent service-connected disabled Veteran who served honorably in the U.S. Army (July 2001). Jon Melle was persecuted by Nuciforo because he had a mean-spirited, vindictive vendetta against my father, Bob, and I since the Spring of 1996 (over 27 years now) when I was only 20 years old back then. Jon Melle was wrongfully indicted on two felony indictments that I was found not guilty of in Manchester, New Hampshire, because a combative cop allegedly illegally used force against me, told two witnesses that he didn't care that I am disabled, and then lied about it all to a New Hampshire Judge and Jury, but Jon Melle was found guilty of two misdemeanors that the State of NH annulled 4 years ago during the Summer of 2019.
Jon Melle turns 48 years old next week, and last week, Jon Melle spent over $3,000.00 on my emotional support dog Chocolate's veterinary care and surgery, but fortunately Jon Melle has pet insurance.
Bill Weld and John Kerry are in the top 1 percent of wealthy families. Jon Melle is a Have Not who has dealt with abusive politicians such as and especially "Luciforo", an abusive police officer, and endless costs that I pay over and over again just to keep my head above water so Jon Melle can sleep at night. To the financial, ruling and corporate elites, Bill Weld and John Kerry are important, while Jon Melle is invisible. Beacon Hill lawmakers and Pittsfield politics used "Perverse Incentives" against Jon Melle when Jon Melle was a young adult to economically exploit Jon Melle to enrich themselves and Bill Weld and John Kerry at the public trough. The more Jon Melle pays for endless costs, the more money the elites make in our era of 100 year high economic inequality.
I believe that sex education in public education is important. I also believe that financial literacy is important. There are many young adults who do not understand their sexuality, and they also do not understand how financial literacy will help them achieve social mobility and live their adult lives in a middle-class lifestyle. I envision a government that uses its limited financial resources to invest in people and the communities they live in so that our nation will rebuild its middle-class in the 21st Century.
"Email your State Legislators NOW and urge them to reject permanent tax breaks for the ultra-rich and large multinational corporations and, instead, use tax dollars to help make Massachusetts more affordable, equitable, and competitive." My response is that some of the thousands of registered lobbyist greed-balls on Beacon Hill earn 7-figure per year salaries by legally bribing Beacon Hill lawmakers to pass huge state tax breaks for the ultra-rich and large multinational corporations. I hope that all of the corrupt career politicians will be voted out of elected office in 2024 so that our state tax dollars will be used for equitable public policies and programs. It would be too good to be true, of course.
I support the Sunlight Agenda! The best thing to do in mid-2023 would be to have a full independent audit of the State House of Representatives and State Senate Chambers on Beacon Hill. I support Rules reforms that always get voted down, especially be Lenox State Representative William "Smitty" Pignatelli over the past two decades (since early-January 2003) and counting forward in time, that would allow for transparency in the secretive state government in Boston.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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Saturday, July 15, 2023
Re: Saturday Scoop: I’m here for the t-shirt
I’m just here for the t-shirt, Jonathan.
or so Ways & Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz quipped at an event on Monday when he was asked by a reporter what the House would be voting on during the formal session three days later.
You heard right – the House finally held their first formal session in over 11 weeks on Thursday. So, what did they rouse the state reps back from their summer doldrums to vote on? Surely it must be the budget, which is already two weeks late. No? Oh, well, then it must be the big tax cut bill that has been in closed-door conference committee negotiations for weeks. Not that either? Nor the road and bridge repair bill that’s been hung up in conference committee, nor the joint rules, nor omnibus gun legislation that the Speaker has promised?
Nope. The House passed a supplemental spending bill on Thursday.
This spending bill was crafted, you guessed it, entirely behind closed doors. And as Rep. Michlewitz helped ensure by dodging reporter questions, the public (and rank and file state reps) only learned what was coming to a vote about 24 hours before the vote took place.
We at Act on Mass have advocated for years to require that bills be made public 72 hours before they come to a vote. This amendment died in 2019 with 103 voting against, 55 in favor. See how your rep voted here. A similar amendment in 2021 to require 48 hours to review a bill also died, this time 119 to just 39. See how your rep voted on that amendment here.
Why doesn’t legislative leadership want to give the public, activists, and even their fellow lawmakers more time to read bills and draft amendments? Because that’s exactly what they don’t want – amendments, debate, scrutiny. You know, democracy.
State House Scoop
House nixes disaster relief for Western Mass, includes funding for harmful housing incentive
The House passed a $693 million supplemental budget bill on Thursday including, among other line items, funding for strained hospitals and recent public employee collective bargaining agreements. Crafted largely by Speaker Mariano and Ways and Means chair Rep. Michlewitz, the bill was revealed to legislators and the public less than 24 hours before the formal session was scheduled to begin.
Despite the tight turnaround, a handful of reps were able to file amendments. Namely, several members of the Western Mass delegation requested emergency funds to respond to the catastrophic flooding in the region earlier this week. Unfortunately, these amendments never even got a vote; they were “consolidated away” by House leadership during private meetings in the Speaker’s lounge. (See a full explanation of the consolidated amendment process here.) Worse, the consolidated amendment they drafted mysteriously included a brand new provision. This provision lifted the cap on HDIP funding – a market-friendly housing program that has been shown to incentivize gentrification more than affordable housing (read more about that here). Only two Democrats had the courage to vote against this consolidated amendment: Reps. Erika Uyterhoeven and Mike Connolly.
It bears repeating: at every turn, House leadership made it intentionally difficult to give input or dissent. For one, this bill didn’t have a hearing. In addition to giving less than 24 hour notice before the vote, the Speaker gave the reps just 17 minutes to read the new consolidated amendment before voting on it. We, as Massachusetts residents, each have one representative in the House tasked with representing our interests. How are they supposed to advocate for us in a piece of legislation they did not get to participate in crafting? Hell, that they hardly got to read?
Bill highlight: The CHERISH Act
In 2014, the Higher Education Finance Commission released a bombshell report showing that public higher education in Massachusetts has been critically underfunded, and is actively being defunded; funding had dropped an astounding 30% since 2001 even as enrollment was rising. This has resulted in higher tuition, staff layoffs, increased “adjunctification” of staff, and a backlog of needed building repairs.
Enter: The CHERISH Act (or, An Act committing to higher education the resources to insure a strong and healthy public higher education system) (H.1260/S.816). This bill, which has been filed in the Legislature in one form or another since 2019, would fully fund Massachusetts public higher education and ensure that public higher education is debt-free for all. Unless we pass CHERISH, higher education will become increasingly inaccessible, especially for people from middle and low-income communities; tuition and fees have risen 52% since 2000. The increase in median household income during that same time? 13%. You do the math.
Luckily, we have reason to be hopeful: the Massachusetts Teachers Association (“MTA”) is considering putting debt-free college on the ballot in 2024. Even more luckily, 81% of registered voters would vote “yes” on a ballot question of the CHERISH Act, according to a recent poll. This is extremely exciting – we may finally make high quality higher education accessible to everyone here in Massachusetts. But this also throws into stark relief the Legislature’s brokenness; we’ve defunded public higher education by 30% over the last two decades, and yet Beacon Hill’s top priority this session has been cutting taxes for the wealthy. 81% of voters support the CHERISH Act, but it died both sessions it was filed in the State House. It’s no wonder the MTA is considering taking matters into their own hands.
Missed a Scoop or two? You can find a full archive of all past Saturday Scoops on our blog.
THANK YOU! We reached our fundraising goal!
WE DID IT. We raised $5,249 from our end-of-fiscal year fundraiser throughout the month of June, meaning Act on Mass began our new fiscal year in the black. To everyone who contributed: thank you. You make our work possible. Because of grassroots donors like you, we’re able to not just sustain but build the movement to hold Beacon Hill accountable to the people. And lord knows we need it.
Take Action
Submit Public Comment for the Healthy Youth Act
24 years after the last time our sex ed curriculum was updated, and 11 years since the Healthy Youth Act, a commonsense bill that would require sex ed to be medically accurate, consent-based, and LGBTQ+ inclusive was introduced, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) has introduced a new draft sex ed curriculum that is largely in line with its provisions. BESE has now opened up a 60-day public comment period, which means we have until Monday, August 28th to submit comments for improvements to the draft and advocate for approval of the new framework.
READ THE PUBLIC COMMENT TOOLKIT >>
SUBMIT PUBLIC COMMENT >>
Email your electeds opposing ultra-rich tax breaks
Massachusetts needs to prioritize spending to ensure a labor force adequate to our economy’s needs, which requires that families have affordable housing, childcare, educational opportunities, and transportation to make it possible for them to earn a good living. Fill out the form to email your State Legislators NOW and urge them to reject permanent tax breaks for the ultra-rich and large multinational corporations and, instead, use tax dollars to help make Massachusetts more affordable, equitable, and competitive.
EMAIL YOUR STATE LEGISLATOR>>
Tell your electeds to cosponsor the Sunlight Agenda
The Sunlight Agenda is Act on Mass’s legislative agenda to restore democratic integrity on Beacon Hill. We have compiled a package of four bills put forward this session that would address our democracy crisis and improve transparency, accountability, and fairness in the State House. Read more about the four bills of the Sunlight Agenda.
ASK YOUR REP TO CO-SPONSOR THE AGENDA >>
Tuesday 7/25[/2023] @7pm: A Panel Discussion with author David Pepper
We at Act on Mass are thrilled to cosponsor an event held by our friends at Indivisible Mass Coalition where author of Laboratories of Democracy and Saving Democracy David Pepper will be joined by panelists to discuss how to make Massachusetts a more robust democracy. RSVP HERE to Join this event:
RSVP FOR THE EVENT >>
That's all for now! I'll be back in your inbox next week.
Until then, stay cool out there.
Erin Leahy
Executive Director, Act on Mass
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