Guest columnists Raymond Ahearn and Kerry Dumbaugh warn us that Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse’s primary challenge to Richard Neal will take away resources that will be required to defeat Trump and keep the U.S. House under Democratic Party control.
That’s an interesting argument given the immense resources that Neal avails himself of, not only to defend his “safe” seat, but also to seek guidance from private industry in how he votes.
Ahearn and Dumbaugh also suggest that Morse is too far to the left. How about letting the voters decide the matter? How about not choosing the path of the Republican Party, which recently decided to forgo a presidential primary in South Carolina? The GOP executive committee also made a monetary argument, stating that forgoing a primary will save voters $1.2 million.
I frankly despise the notion that we should discourage challengers because it is inconvenient to the candidate one faction supports. Women from Northampton visiting President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 were dismissed with similar arguments when they asked him to make good on his promise to support suffrage. It was not politically expedient, argued Wilson.
The Democratic Party can afford a primary. In fact, it cannot afford not to have a vigorous culture of political discourse, including challengers. Like the guest columnists, I too used to reside in Washington, D.C., and was there when the city finally achieved its titular congressional representation.
I enjoy residing here in the provinces where we still have an opportunity — at least on paper — to chose our party’s candidate, one that has full voting rights in Congress.
Sean Norton
Northampton