ORGANIZING NOTES
June 9, 2026
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Campaign To Discourage Dark Money From Influencing Democratic Primaries Heats Up In Massachusetts.
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MassDems Convention Delegates Show Strong Support!
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By Rand Wilson, Somerville Ward 6 Democratic Committee member
Grassroots Democrats in Massachusetts are building a movement to persuade our party leaders to adopt new rules to discourage candidates from benefiting from the influence of Dark Money in our primary elections. At the Massachusetts Democrats’ annual convention on May 29 and 30, a hearty crew of whips and volunteers kicked off a petition campaign calling on State Committee leaders to take action.
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Elaine Almquist, Martha Karchere, and Michael Gilbreath spoke about the Dark Money campaign at the MassDems Convention on May 30.
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In the lead up to the convention, Somerville, Acton, Cambridge, Reading, Weymouth, and Wards 10, 11, and 19 in Boston, all passed resolutions at their city or town committee meetings urging candidates to take the “People’s Pledge.”[1] The Somerville Democratic City Committee went further. It got all of the candidates in the 26th, 27th, and 34th Middlesex state rep districts to voluntarily adopt the pledge. The Somerville party even created a special People’s Pledge logo for candidates to display on their campaign websites.
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Platform In Action,[2] drafted language to amend the Democratic Party’s Charter to incorporate the pledge concept into the party’s rules. The amendment, if implemented, would use the party’s authority over its internal affairs, including its nominating processes and primary elections, to create strong disincentives for Democratic candidates to benefit from outside, undisclosed campaign expenditures.
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After a hearing on April 30, the Charter Amendment Subcommittee declined to bring the proposal forward to the convention.[3] This year’s convention was a nominating convention. This meant that the convention rules must be suspended to consider a resolution. In a departure from previous conventions, the 2026Convention Rules raised the threshold for suspending the rules from 500 delegate signatures on Saturday by 10:00 AM to 750 signatures on Friday by 9:00 PM. Party leaders clearly wanted to make it much harder for anyone to offer a resolution for consideration by convention delegates. Recognizing the futility of attempting to bring forward a resolution on Dark Money, Platform In Action decided to undertake a campaign urging the State Committee to take action on Dark Money.[4]The groupset up a website,No Dark Money, and drafted apetition calling on theDemocratic State Committee to establish a “People’s Pledge” rule deterring billionaires and corporations from buying or unduly influencing Massachusetts Democratic Primaries.
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Whips and volunteers were recruited for 35 of the 40 State Senate districts to gather petition signatures. That effort resulted in 957 signatures on the petition — that’s support from nearly one quarter of the 4030 delegates! Photos from the MassDems Convention areposted here. In anticipation of the next State Committee meeting on September 19, Platform In Action will continue to gather petition signatures from delegates. State Committee members who are members and supporters of theNo Dark Money campaign are planning to present the petition to party chair Steve Kerrigan at the meeting. The campaign hopes to get the party to adopt the People’s Pledge rule in 2027, so that it could be implemented in time for the 2028 Massachusetts primaries. [1] The People’s Pledge is a campaign finance agreement between all candidates in a given election. It aims to reduce non-party group spending in an election by limiting expenditures to candidates’ campaigns and party committees. The Pledge requires candidates to pay a penalty if outside spending groups spend on behalf of their campaign. Outside spending is defined as anyindependent expenditure by a non-party group to benefit a candidate. [2] Platform In Action emerged from the 2025 Democratic Convention, where delegates rose to defeat the leadership’s draft Party Platform and instead restored the 2021 Platform affirming the party’s support for single payer health care reform, the right to form unions, housing and rent control, the rights of women, and LGBTQ+ people. [3] Wilson’s testimony to the subcommittee isposted online here. [4] Past convention rules set the threshold at 500 signatures by 10:00 AM on Saturday, more easily obtainable because of the much larger attendance on Saturdays.
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The War Against Iran is Unwinnable and Endangers the World
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The cost of war against Iran is close to $1 billion a day, according to multiple independent estimates ( MarketWatch, May 30, 2026; CBS NewsApril 30, 2026). And according to reputable military strategists, Trita Parsi and Professor Robert Pape, the war is not winnable. Iran has demonstrated that its geographic position on the Straits of Hormuz, combined with its large fleet of quickly replaceable military drones, which it can deploy against Israel and Israel’s Middle Eastern allies provide it with insurmountable advantages. Short of a US nuclear attack, Iran’s relatively inexpensive drone fleet can easily damage and destroy ships passing through the Straits as well as retaliate against Israeli and US allies’ military and industrial infrastructure, making every US strike extremely costly. The more bombs the US drops, the more Iran’s drones destroy refineries, military bases, and desalination plants of countries allied with the US. US supplied Patriot missiles are inadequate to defend these Middle Eastern targets and prohibitively expensive. Dr. Parsi and Professor Pape agree that the best course of action for our country is to extricate ourselves as quickly as possible from this expensive and cruel war and go home. There is more analysis and consensus needed about why so many Republicans and Democrats support, or at least remain passive, as President Trump puts our troops at risk and spends our dollars on bombing schools in Iran rather than providing healthcare, nutrition, safe jobs, and the policies needed to build an economy that preserves rather than destroys the planet. Many say that the curenty US industrial policy ito foster the military industrial complex. While much work still needs to be done to understand how to switch US policy from nurturing war industries to investing in the research necessary to shift to renewable sources of energy and non-extractive agriculture there is no doubt according to these well regarded experts that the US should extricate our country from the war in Iran as soon as possible. The war is triggering instability not only in the Middle East but throughout the world, eroding trust between countries and increasing the risk of nuclear war.. If you belong to an organization, you can voice your desire to end the war by signing a letter written by Massachusetts Peace Action, here. As an individual, you can write a Code Pink letter here. The Women’s March provides this letter to our Senators.
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Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviews filmmaker Julie Cohen and journalist Paul Barrett about the growing call for Citizens Bank to stop financing for-profit prison and ICE detention operators GEO Group and CoreCivic. Watch HERE. Learn More and Pledge HERE
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The gala of entertainers and speakers will take place in NYC, but activists everywhere will attend or host Rise Up, Sing Out watch parties. See the growing list of locations HERE, and check out this toolkit to host an in-person party to livestream the event.
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On Wednesday, the MA House passed a controversial bill (H.5469) that would limit the scope of the legislative audit that was overwhelmingly approved by MA voters in 2024. The bill also deals with access to public records, which is the subject of a potential ballot question this November. It subjects the governor’s office to the public records law but sets up a separate process for the Legislature. Three Democrats — Reps. Mike Connolly, Jim Hawkins and Alan Silvia — joined all House Republicans in voting no. If you’re unhappy about how your legislators voted on this bill and would like to contact them, Act on Mass has put together this toolkit that outlines some of the explanations you may hear from your representative and highlights the problems with them.
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Local Visibilities Schedule
Watch for weather and wind chill cancellations here! But another good way to keep up with day to day and weekly changes is to join a Signal Group
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Folks can sign up for De-ICE Hanscom’s contact list at this link.
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Massachusetts Citizens Data Privacy Act
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Last week MA House unanimously passed the Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act, establishing important new data privacy protections. This bill would do the following: ban the sale of exact geolocation data, require that personall data collection must be proportionate to providing requested services, establish rights for individuals over their online data, specify that sensitive data cannot be sold or shared withoutusers consent, prohibit targeted solicitation to minors and will enable the AG to enforce the law and also establishes a private right of action. If you contacted your state rep recently about taking action on data privacy, follow up and thank them for voting for the bill — and keep up the pressure until a strong bill gets signed into law. (Need their contact info? You can find it here.)
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Campaigns End, Movements Endure
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