6% of Voters Pick Senator in Special Election, Republican and Green Party Voters Disenfranchised.

Yesterday Massachusetts Representative William Brownsberger won the special election for Senator to replace Democrat Stephen Tolman who had vacated the seat to become president of the AFL-CIO of Massachusetts. The district, Second Suffolk and Middlesex is made up of the towns of Belmont and Watertown and parts of the cities of Cambridge and Boston.

Final official results are not yet available, but thanks to two local news outlets (the Watertown TAB and the Boston Herald) which obtained unofficial results from the election officials in the four communities we can do some preliminary analysis.

Representative (soon to be Senator) Brownsberger won with about one-third of the total votes in the four-man race. Since turnout, overall, was about 18 percent, that means that about 6 percent, a little under 5,000 of the approximately 84,000 registered voters in the district voted for the man who will be their senator. Given the history in Massachusetts, where incumbent senators almost never are defeated for re-election, it is safe to say that the man that 6% voted for yesterday will be senator for as long as he wants. Yesterday's election was a Democratic Party primary and under Massachusetts law no one can vote in a party primary if registered as a member of another party. That means yesterday's decision regarding who will represent all voters in the district was restricted to voters who were Democrats or not enrolled in any party.

Republicans were effectively disenfranchised when the Republican Party failed to run any candidate. Green Party voters, likewise, were excluded due to that party's failure to run a candidate. The final election will be in January, but, by law, Mr. Brownsberger's name is the only one permitted on the ballot.

Congratulations to Mr. Brownsberger. You won in a hotly contested race and my analysis is not intended to in any way diminish the significance of your victory.

However, an election in which 5,000 voters decide for 84,000 who will be the senator and in which several thousand registered Republican or Green Party member had, effectively, no vote, points to problems with the system here in Massachusetts.

First SHAME on the Republican Party (and the Green Party) for failing to run any candidate. Why should any voter in this district choose to register in your party when you can't be bothered to run local candidates, leaving your party members with no one to vote for in the primary and the Democratic Party nominee as the only name on the ballot in the general election.

Secondly, this is not an unusual outcome in Massachusetts. The incumbent resigns, there is a special election with multiple candidates in a one party primary resulting in a winner who got a third of the vote in a contest with 20% turnout and voters of the other parties not even having a vote. This is not new in American politics. Back in the days of the "solid South" one party Democratic states of the old confederacy also had multi-candidate Democratic primaries that too frequently yielded winners who got less than half of the vote. In some cases -- I believe Georgia is one of them -- the law was changed so that if the winner got less than 50% there was a mandated run-off election between the top two vote getters. The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts for municipal office uses a system called "single transferable preference voting" which is a mouthful of a phrase that describes a type of automatic run-off. I'm not advocating any particular reform, but, when 6% of the registered voters decide, in a special election, who will likely be the senator for the next decade or more, I think we ought to start at least talking about possible reforms.

Collects for the Ember Days

Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday following St. Lucy's day (December 13th) are the traditional winter Ember Days.
I. For those to be ordained

Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts, who of thy divine providence hast appointed various orders in thy Church: Give thy grace, we humbly beseech thee, to all who are [now] called to any office and ministry for thy people; and so fill them with the truth of thy doctrine and clothe them with holiness of life, that they may faithfully serve before thee, to the glory of thy great Name and for the benefit of thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

II. For the choice of fit persons for the ministry

O God, who didst lead thy holy apostles to ordain ministers in every place: Grant that thy Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, may choose suitable persons for the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and may uphold them in their work for the extension of thy kingdom; through him who is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

III. For all Christians in their vocation

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of thy faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all members of thy holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve thee; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Collect for the Third Sunday of Advent

Stir up thy power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let thy bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honor and glory, world without end. Amen. -- from the Anglican Use Roman Catholic Book of Divine Worship

Collect for the First Sunday of Advent

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Home for the Holidays

In our home—perhaps in yours too—Thanksgiving Day festivities begin with tuning the television set to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which we half watch and half just have in the background while preparing dinner. Macy’s—at least since the 1947 motion picture Miracle on 34th Street—has come to be more than just another vendor for holiday gifts, but itself a part of America’s Thanksgiving through Christmas holiday season. Yes, for many of us the Macy parade marks the beginning of the holidays.

Nevertheless, I miss the older television practice of showing not just Macy’s but bits of several department store Thanksgiving Day Santa parades. I liked when they would switch to the J.L. Hudson’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit and the Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia. Hudson’s Department Store in Detroit is gone, but the parade—which like the Macy’s parade started in 1924—continues as America's Thanksgiving Parade. The Gimbels parade, now called the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade is the oldest of America’s Thankgiving Day Santa parades, having started in 1920.

Locally, from the 1940s until 1972—and again in the early 1990s—a visit to the Enchanted Village in the Jordan Marsh department store in Downtown Crossing was how Bostonians inaugurated the Christmas shopping season. Remember how, up to just a few years ago, Jordan Marsh, and its rival Filene’s put up competing Christmas displays in their windows that faced each other on Summer Street?

I have nothing against R.H. Macy’s Department Store—I wish it a profitable Christmas selling season. If Americans choose for our Thanksgiving Day morning entertainment a televised, extended-length, open-air advertisement for that retailer, who am I to object? But more and more local shops are giving way to national brands and “big-box” retailers. Local events (such as the Enchanted Village) give way to a few huge national spectacles. Likewise, our political discussions are focused much more on what is happening in Washington, rather than Boston.

The problem with looking to the national scene rather than locally is that nationally most of us have little opportunity to be anything more than observers. Locally we have power to change things. As the Democrats and liberals in Washington consolidate more and more power in the hands of a few remote unelected bureaucrats in Washington, let’s be thankful this year that we still have locally elected representatives and senators in the General Court. Next year all 200 members of that body will be up for election. Have you thought of running? Surely no one is so happy with the current crop of state legislators that you can’t think of a few you’d like to see replaced. If you think it’s time for a change and you believe you have what it takes, change can begin with you!

November 9th, Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo

"These moderns, forever prattling about culture and civilization, are undermining the Church's doctrine, laws, and practices. They are not concerned very much about culture and civilization. By using such high-sounding words they think they can conceal the wickedness of their schemes." --Pope Pius X, Encyclical on St. Charles Borromeo, May 26, 1910.

Harvard Latin Mass-Save the Date

Please save the date for the two Extraordinary Form Masses of this semester from the Harvard Latin Mass Society in conjunction with the Harvard Knights of Columbus Council 14188. We would appreciate your help passing this along to anyone who may be interested.

1) Friday, October 21st 7:00pm

2) Wednesday, November 30th 6:00pm

The Masses will be held at the high altar of Saint Paul Parish in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Contact harvardlatinmass [at] gmail.com with any questions.