I had a reaction to something as I was watching the early jockeying for the Congressional seat serving Newton. Please feel free to tell me if you think I’m off base or if you agree in whole or in part.
I understand that incumbent elected officials are expected to stay in their jobs as they run for re-election. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t even have a problem when a state official, like the Attorney General, stays in their job while they run for Governor. At least the territory they hope to serve stays the same, and so they end up campaigning throughout their current jurisdiction and maintaining close contact with their constituents.
But it feels different to me when a state elected official stays in their job when they choose to run for a federal job, crossing jurisdictions, as it were. The first time I felt this way was when Mike Dukakis was governor and ran for president. I thought he should resign his state job and devote his energy to the campaign. I believed it would be better for the Commonwealth, in that he wouldn’t be torn between his duty of loyalty and care to the state job and the pressures of the presidential campaign.
Which brings us to the 2020 federal elections. The state treasurer, Deb Goldberg, has all but announced that she is running for the Congressional seat being vacated by Joseph Kennedy, III as he tries to win a US Senate seat. Goldberg’s term as state treasurer runs through early 2023, and I’m guessing that she will choose to stay in that job while she runs for Congress.
I don’t see how a person can run for Congress–raising at least $2 million in campaign funds, focusing intensely on grass roots events across a very spread-out Congressional district (see map), and engaging in debates—and still deliver on their duty of loyalty and care to the full-time job they were elected to by the entire Commonwealth.
Her website outlines those responsibilities:
Treasurer Deb Goldberg is responsible for running a large organization with approximately 800 employees, overseeing fourteen diverse departments and agencies within Massachusetts state government.
As Treasurer, Deb’s goal is to ensure economic stability, economic security, and economic opportunity for every Massachusetts resident.
The Treasurer’s office maintains the state’s daily cash flows, manages bonding and debt, regulates the sale and use of alcoholic beverages, provides funding to improve water quality and infrastructure, protects and returns unclaimed property to Massachusetts citizens, provides financial literacy education and veterans benefits, while also helping Massachusetts employees save for a secure retirement.
The Treasurer is also responsible for overseeing the Massachusetts State Lottery, and chairing both the Massachusetts School Building Authority and the Pension Reserves Investment Trust Fund, which represents the $72 billion pension fund for state employees, teachers and retirees.
Look, I know the Treasurer doesn’t do all that stuff herself. She has staff to whom most of the work is delegated. But she does have ultimate authority and responsibility for this work for all 6 million people in the state. Can she do that job thoroughly while she’s focused over the next year on the 700 thousand folks in the 4th Congressional District? Maybe some reporter can ask her that question when she does formally announce her candidacy.
[By the way, I also think it hurts someone’s candidacy in voters’ eyes when they renege on their promise of four years in office to fulfill their ambition of “moving up.” (Remember Setti?) But my comments today aren’t directed at the impact on their electability.]
I welcome your thoughts.
Great point Paul. But also, I don’t see how U.S. Senators can run for President but still fulfill their legislative duties. They’re absentee Senators. Even worse, they vote and make laws to win over voters nationwide instead of representing their constituents.
Right, @Michael. Few Senators who run for President give up their seats while doing so.
@Paul I ask this in all honesty, but do you feel the same way about city council seats? Becky Grossman has already announced and Auchincloss seems likely to be the next local name on the list. Should they give up their seats to run? Does the part-time nature of their role (as opposed to the full-time nature of the a role like State Treasurer) play a part in your thinking?
Good question, @Chuck. The Council is a part-time job (unlike the Treasurer’s job), and the members are not chief executives. Plus, there are two other ward Councillors who can cover constituents’ issues. So the formal and informal business of the Council will go on even if these two folks miss meetings or are otherwise occupied, and so I have I no concern about the functioning of that body.
[I do wonder, though, about how Becky and Jake can run a grass roots campaign across the district for a full year and serve their constituents with the depth they’ve demonstrated in the past. Maybe they can, and maybe they can’t. We’ll see in two years whether the voters feel any sense of betrayal.]
@Paul – I find your position oddly inconsistent. The same arguments hold whether the person is running in the same jurisdiction or a different one. For example, I don’t see any difference between my representatives in the State House running for a different state office or running for Congress. Either way, they are taking time away from their current job to chase another.
I’ll admit my own inconsistency here – if I like the rep, I want them to keep their current job in case they lose. If I don’t like them, I wish they’d quit and then end up out of a job. But that holds true whether or not it changes jurisdiction.
I admit to some inconsistency here, too, @Meredith! I was trying to draw on a distinct case, but maybe the point should be the more general one you make. Thanks for commenting.
Paul, I’d just like to make a side note here that I really admire how you don’t shy away from making a point that you know may be controversial and then engaging in respectful discussion – and even conceding a point here and there. It helps remind me to keep myself open and in check as well. Much appreciated.
Deb Goldberg announced today that she wasn’t going to run for Congress.
That’s a surprise, for sure.
Thanks so much, @Casey! I try to write as if I were in someone’s living room, talking with them. I don’t always succeed, but that’s the hope. We’re all neighbors here, after all.
I would think that this post would be about JKIII instead. He at least has announced that he’s running for another seat, so the point made here seems to apply to him.