Democrats to hold caucus to fill Blumer seat

By Rob Haneisen/ Daily News Staff

Thursday, October 19, 2006

FRAMINGHAM -- In the scramble to fill the seat left open by the death of state Rep. Deborah Blumer, town Democrats will hold a caucus Sunday afternoon to ultimately support one candidate.

There are already at least two candidates vying for the seat. School Committee Vice Chairman Pam Richardson, and Town Meeting member Wes Ritchie have committed to running and a handful of other Democrats are rumored to be considering the job.

Registration for the caucus at Cameron Middle School on Elm Street will begin at 4:30 p.m. with the event beginning at 5 p.m. Each candidate will fill out an issues questionnaire before Sunday which will be distributed to attendees.

At the caucus, Moderator Gerry Desilets will ask each candidate questions and each candidate will be allowed to give opening and closing statements. Desilets does not live in the district, which includes Framingham precincts 1-7, 9, 13, 14 and 17.

The caucus is open to the public but only registered Democrats who have lived in the 6th Middlesex District for at least one year will be allowed to participate. Ultimately, a vote will be taken by attendees and the winner will get the support of the town committee, said spokeswoman Cheryl Tully Stoll.

"We're trying to make this as democratic as possible," said Stoll. "We could have just selected a candidate ourselves, but we feel it would be much more appropriate for voters to make that decision."

At Tuesday's night's Democratic Town Committee meeting, a motion to support a straw candidate who would resign after winning the election, thus triggering a special election early next year for the seat, was defeated, according to Stoll.

State Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, and state Rep. Tom Sannicandro, D-Ashland, are planning to file legislation that would change the election rules to help force a special election but the prospects for the legislation passing before the Nov. 7 election are slim. Current state law does not count votes for a candidate on the ballot who has died. Nearly all other states allow votes for deceased candidates on a ballot to count and if that candidate receives the most votes a special election is scheduled.

Blumer, 64, died of a heart attack while driving Friday morning. She was running unopposed for her fourth term.

Stoll said a special election is still the town committee's first choice but some, including Spilka, believe the chance of a revised statute passing before the Nov. 7 election are unlikely.

Though the caucus will result in one candidate emerging with the support of the Democratic Town Committee, it doesn't mean there will be only one Democrat actively campaigning for the seat. The town committee has asked all Democrats who do not win the support of the caucus on Sunday to step aside, but they don't have to, Stoll said.

Stoll said the compacted campaign is not fair to voters and as of yet there are no other forums for any public debate between candidates. The Republicans will likely field a candidate as well, according to Republican Town Committee chairman Ed McGrath.

"This is unprecedented and hopefully will never be repeated," Stoll said. "It's really very tragic because Debby Blumer did so much for the community and...whoever is elected has quite a legacy to live up to."

Candidates interested in participating in the caucus should contact Democratic Town Committee chairman Parwez Wahid at 508-561-1975.

Ritchie, who also works as Sannicandro's legislative aid, said the time crunch for candidates is "definitely a challenge."

He also has high hopes for Sunday.

"I will say I hope it's not an anointment. I hope it's a about real issues and not about who is next in line," he said. "I'm hoping Democrats show up in droves and listen to what we all have to say."

Richardson agreed with Ritchie that it will be a challenge to reach voters in such a short time but she thinks she has a lot of name recognition in town. Sunday's caucus has a lot of possibilities as well.

"I have absolutely no idea what to expect," she said.