By Ainsley Jay
Wayland Post Contributor
The Wayland Democratic Town Committee hosted the annual Wayland DTC summer picnic on Sunday, July 12. The event featured remarks from seven midterm candidates at the state level that represent Wayland, and U.S. Congressman Seth Moulton, who is challenging longtime U.S. Sen. Ed Markey in the Democratic Primary.
Judy Ling, Wayland DTC co-chair, hosted the event at her house, while fellow co-chair Steve Garone was the MC.
“A lot of us feel angry about the current administration in Washington,” Ling said. “We really don’t think about our local politicians as much. We have state [representatives], we have state senators. It’s important for people to get to hear from them and get to know who they are.”
Garone reached out to all the candidates on the state and national levels representing Wayland and Massachusetts. Moulton’s campaign team was the only one to respond.
The Wayland Democratic Committee does not endorse Democratic candidates in the primaries. When the primaries are completed, they work to elect Democratic candidates through phone banking and fundraising.
State Sen. Jamie Eldridge delivered the first speech. His opponent is Republican Joseph Shea. Eldrige spoke about bills he supports that are the process of being passed, including the Student Opportunity Act, which increased $3 billion of funding to public schools, targeting lower-income districts.
“That [Student Opportunity Act] was an amazing effort, the formula was more focused on increasing education aid to poorer communities,” Eldrigde said. “We realize now that every community is really struggling financially and coming up against challenges around property taxes.”
State Rep. Carmine Gentile,13th Middlesex District, will step down and his aide, Ravi Simon, is running unopposed for the position. Simon chose to attend the picnic over watching the Spain vs. Belgium World Cup game.
He worked with Gentile on making community college free and instilling same day voter registration. One of the issues Simon is focusing on is lowering the cost of living, which he believes can be achieved through housing development.
“One great thing the state did was make accessory dwelling units permissible for people to build by right,” Simon said. “I think there is an expectation that we will create something like 40,000 housing units throughout the state.”
The 13th Middlesex district covers the northern half of Wayland, and State Rep. David Linsky represents the southern half. He attended the event, and will have a Republican challenger.
Margie Palladino and Mara Dolan, candidates for the Governor’s Council, which votes on judges the governor appoints, gave speeches.
Moulton is running against Markey, who has served as US Senator for 20 years. In his speech, Moulton emphasized the need for new leadership in Washington.
“MAGA, Trump, Republicans control everything in Washington. You just can’t look at that situation and say, ‘let’s continue with the status quo,’” Moulton said. “The old playbook is just not working.
In his speech, Moulton emphasized the need for Democrats to win the upcoming Midterms, and take back the House and Senate.
“[Sen. Markey] and I both agree on universal healthcare,” Moulton said. “But we are not even having a hearing for these ideas as Republicans are in charge, and they’re trying to take away healthcare for millions of Americans. I want people across the country to look at the Democratic party, and see people who are taking us forward.”
One of Moulton’s top priorities is to make Massachusetts more affordable. He believes faster transportation, through electrification of the commuter rail, will make life more affordable, by making it easier to get from an affordable place to live to work.
Moulton has also founded Serve America, dedicated to elected democrats who have served in the US military.
”When I support a candidate, I go out there and fight for them all across America, so we can actually win seats,” Moulton said. Because if we haven’t learned the lesson after the last two elections, winning does really matter. I’m not sure where we are.”
Voting for primaries will be on Sept. 1.
