Diverting MAGA locally? Ballot recommendations are in; Drinks with Dems; Apple Festival, 5-Minute Midterms
Deprogramming MAGA
North Shore people and fellow New Englanders! It’s time to put down the lobster roll, and pick up the apple-cider donut!
We don’t make the rules.
We’re getting ready for Dems with Drinks on Thursday (4:30 p.m.)—no food served, so no lobster—and staffing our booth at the Boxford Apple Festival (10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.), which will have apples and donuts.
Boxford Republicans
But before we make it to Thursday, and Saturday we discovered by coincidence that our Boxford counterpart—the Boxford Republican Town Committee—has neglected to reserve, renew, or never purchased the domain names boxfordrepublicans.org and boxfordrtc.org.
Is it apathy? Forgetfulness, laziness, despair? Or are our local Republicans/MAGAs just inherently more comfortable swimming in their Facebook Boxford Politics cesspool?
Whatever the reason, we thought buying their domains was money well spent and a unique opportunity to reach the MAGA curious.
For now, we’re simply redirecting them to our website, but we can do better than that.
New contest
Our new contest therefore is this: Where should we send people who seek out the Boxford RTC? We are opening the lines for suggestions and putting it up to a vote!
Our suggestions thus far are:
Dept. of Justice, Epstein Library
Trump Family Digital Grift Wealth Tracker
People Leave Cults: Cult Deprogramming
Vote here and/or suggest your own URL!
BoxfordDems Ballot-Measure Series
FINAL TWO BALLOT QUESTIONS IN OUR SERIES
Christina Eckert and Julian Troake rounded off our BoxfordDems Ballot Series with their summaries and recommended votes on:
Question 5 (Should the Commonwealth change the limit on how much revenue the state may collect in a given year?) and
Our subscribers were unanimous: No on Question 5 and Yes on Question 9. Question 9 prompted a couple of our subscribers to submit comments. (Available in our Comments section.)
The BoxfordDems Ballot 2026 Series is our attempt at providing brief overviews of the various certified Massachusetts ballot initiatives as they pertain to our immediate region.
Overview of Ballot-Initiative Process (Christina Eckert)
Question 1 Expand Public Records Requirements for the Legislature and Governor’s Office? (Ellen Mandel)
Question 2 Permit Collective Bargaining for PCS Employees? (Christina Eckert)
Question 3 Adopt Top-Two State Primary Elections? (Terri Teleen)
Question 4 Permit Same-Day Voter Registration? (Eleanor Grigg Schoenberg)
Question 5 Change State Tax Revenue Limit Initiative? (Christina Eckert)
Question 6 Establish Nature-for-All Fund? (Jessica Grigg)
Question 7 Set Minimum Limit on Required Lot Size for Single-Family Homes? (Terri Teleen)
Question 8 Recriminalize Adult Recreational Use Marijuana? (Adam Steiner) (link)
Question 9 Uphold 2024 Act Modernizing Firearms Laws? (Julian Troake)
The graphic above represents our subscribers’ vote recommendations. The recommendations are also available as a PDF document, which is available for download here.
Opinions expressed in the series do not necessarily represent those of the Boxford Democratic Town Committee and should not be considered to be Committee endorsements of a particular policy or initiative. They are provided to promote healthy discussion and help voters make informed decisions at the ballot box
Drinks with Dems
Thursday’s Drinks with Dems at Alfalfa Farm Cellars will be our fourth. We’ll be there from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m.
It’s fun, very friendly, and not all politics—the last couple of times we’ve had a some candidates dropping in for (very) informal chats. This time, we’ll bring some more campaign buttons and perhaps a couple of our new branded bottle openers (thanks Bruce and Adam/Ellen!).
No need to sign up - show up as you are - no obligation!
Check out our Calendar page in the very unlikely case of last-minute updates. (Where is Alfalfa Farm Cellars? Directions.)
Come see us at the Boxford Apple Festival
Speaking of bottle openers… The purpose of our Sultans of Swag contest last week was to find a motto for a keyring or bottle opener for our Apple Festival booth on September 19. Again, Adam and Ellen, our North Andover friends, came through for us and touched a soft spot—a weakness—with the simple phrase: “OPEN MINDS, OPEN BOTTLES.”
We’ll have them for sale at our booth. In addition to offering apples, political leaflets, promote our Blue Rides program, Democratic trinkets and baubels, t-shirts, and harvesting souls, we might also have Ingaldsby cider donuts.
Dan Koh, our newly elected Sixth District U.S. House candidate, will stop by our booth to chat as will Connor Murray, our candidate for 18th Essex, ahead of the Nov. 3 General Election. And ice cream and donut enthusiasts from the BoxfordDems will be available all day to answer questions ahead of the election.
Zoë’s sharing
Zoe Finch-Totten suggested a very useful midterm tool thi sweek, “5-Minute Midterms,” which we highly recommend! A simple plan to ensure your vote is counted
From their website:
With recent unprecedented attempts to block eligible Americans from voting, the most important thing you can do leading up to November 3rd is take 5 minutes a week to protect your vote. That means making sure your ballot won’t get rejected due to small preventable errors or larger systemic attempts at election sabotage.
Every week, we’ll share a new 5-minute action that will protect you and your ballot. Once you’ve completed your weekly task, you’ll unlock sharable achievement graphics with state-specific voting information that can be shared on social media to inspire and encourage your friends to protect their votes, too.
Save the date: Boxford No Kings Rally
We decide who represents us. We decide what comes next.
For more than a year, millions of people have come together to reject the idea that power belongs to kings, billionaires, or politicians who believe they are above the people and the law.
Now, we are taking the next step, turning people power into voter power. Unlike previous No Kings actions, No Kings: Vote Early, is not purely a protest. Instead, on October 17, it's a day of nonpartisan voter participation: we are bringing our community together to make a plan to vote early and ensuring every eligible voter understands their options for how to vote and has the opportunity to make their voice heard.
Because no one person gets to decide our leaders before voters do. On October 17 from noon to 1:00 p.m., join us in Boxford as we get out the early vote and say it loud: no thrones, no crowns, no kings.
More details to come.
Have a great week and see you on Thursday and Saturday!
Christian Schoenberg, Chair
Boxford Democratic Town Committee
chair@boxforddems.org
P.S.: As always, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at christian@boxforddems.org or Terri at terri@boxforddems.org.
It’s… like… the worst newsletter ever, like whatever!
Send this link to your neighbors to register for our newsletter! Why should they suffer through it…? http://eepurl.com/iO4VC6
Democrats and democracy-leaning organizations sharing regional calendar
We’ve invited all the various Essex County Democratic city and town committees, local Democratic campaign teams, as well as local organizers (such as the Indivisible groups) to post events directly to our calendar. Learn how to use and embed our North Shore Calendar on your site…
Hitch a ride to the polls with the BoxfordDems’ Blue Rides
The BoxfordDems are offering rides to the polls to registered Democrats in Boxford. If you’re somehow prevented from getting to the polls at Boxford Town Hall, we’ll be happy to give you a ride. Let us know!
Join us for “Drinks with Dems” at Alfalfa Farm Cellars on Sept. 17
Every third week of each month we meet with area Democrats at Alfalfa Farm Cellars for beers at 4:30-6:00pm. No speakers. No agenda. Just having fun!
Join Team Koh to get the word out about Dan!
We're knocking doors, making calls, and talking with our friends all across the district. You can see all of our upcoming opportunities here.
Our Doorhanger Initiative is still going strong - distribute 47 doorhangers to your neighbors and get a BoxfordDems swag bag!
We’re always looking for neighbors willing to distribute door hangers in Boxford! We have no public sidewalks; residents don’t expect canvassers; Boxford has 2-acre zoning; houses can be hard to find—in other words, Boxford is notoriously difficult to canvass.
Other great opportunities to get involved - nationwide
Zoe Finch Totten and others have provided us with some useful links to some organizers whom you should consider joining. Click the images to go their websites and check them out!
This week’s issue
General
Deprogramming MAGA? Ballot recommendations are in; Drinks with Dems; Apple Festival, Midterm tool!
Ballot-measure series
Overview of Ballot-Initiative Process (Christina Eckert)
Question 1 Expand Public Records Requirements for the Legislature and Governor’s Office? (Ellen Mandel)
Question 2 Permit Collective Bargaining for PCS Employees? (Christina Eckert)
Question 3 Adopt Top-Two State Primary Elections? (Terri Teleen)
Question 4 Permit Same-Day Voter Registration? (Eleanor Grigg Schoenberg)
Question 5 Change State Tax Revenue Limit Initiative? (Christina Eckert)
Question 6 Establish Nature-for-All Fund? (Jessica Grigg)
Question 7 Set Minimum Limit on Required Lot Size for Single-Family Homes? (Terri Teleen)
Question 8 Recriminalize Adult Recreational Use Marijuana? (Adam Steiner)
Question 9 Uphold 2024 Act Modernizing Firearms Laws? (Julian Troake)
Get involved
Drinks with Dems: Meet fellow Tri-Town Dems at Alfalfa Farm Cellars
Distribute 47 doorhangers and get a BoxfordDems swag bag
We’re getting out the Boxford vote with Blue Rides
Democrats and democracy-leaning organizations sharing regional calendar
Other great opportunities to get involved - nationwide
Campaigns
Comment on this week’s newsletter or submit feedback here!
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