Baker and Coakley Win Primaries – Election Day Just 8 Weeks Away
With Primary Day behind us, the arts and cultural community is ready to join together and work hard to make sure that arts and culture are part of the conversation leading up to the November 4th Election for the gubernatorial and legislative candidates.
In eight weeks, the Commonwealth will elect a new governor and the new senators and representatives for the next two years. Primary winners Charlie Baker and Martha Coakley will be joined on the statewide ballot by Independent candidates Evan Falchuk and Jeff McCormick on Election Day. Congratulations to the candidates, and we look forward to discussing and analyzing their arts and cultural platforms.
The Create the Vote coalition has reached out to Baker and Coakley to invite them to separate Town Hall meetings to meet and have a conversation with the community. In the meantime, make sure you look for candidates' visits to your community so you can ask them a question about the arts.
With the primaries over, the Create the Vote Coalition issued its questionnaire to the candidates running for Massachusetts House and Senate seats. We are looking for arts leaders and supporters to follow up with their local candidates on their questionnaires and to hold sit-down meetings with them to discuss their priorities for the arts and cultural sector.
Let us know if you want to follow up with your local candidates for state representative or state senator.
As you know, our state senators and representatives make decisions that effect the creative community, from passing the Massachusetts Cultural Council budget, to passing policy that keep arts education in schools and supports working artists. It’s up to the creative community to show that arts matter to voters and should matter in this election.
As we receive responses to the questionnaire from candidates, we’ll post them to our website and promote these responses in a nonpartisan manner to inform you about the candidates’ stances on arts, culture, and the creative community. If you’re interested in sitting down with candidates to chat about their answers to the questionnaire, share information and discuss the opportunities and challenges of the sector, please sign up here to work with others in your community.
Congrats to Rep. Angelo J. Puppolo Jr. – the first legislative candidate to answer our questionnaire. Check out a segment highlighting the impact that local cultural institutions have in his district:
"As you know, Springfield is a Gateway City, and I am very supportive of local venues including Symphony Hall and City Stage, the East Longmeadow Summer Concert Series, The Wilbraham Summer Concert Series and the Wilbraham United Players to name a few - these are great local venues that provide top notch performances but also have a great impact on the local economy in terms of economic spin off and enriching the quality of life of our residents."
