Summer at the State House: Part II

Posted on March 5, 2013 by tdenson

By Sam Livingston ’14

This is the second installment of a two part piece on Sam’s summer internship.

Since the judicial nomination process is arduous, involving a mountain of paperwork for both the JNC and the applicants, a support staff is needed to coordinate the process.  The JNC has an executive director and an assistant executive director.  They are charged with presenting relevant information in a clear way to the JNC commissioners, who are unpaid volunteers with full time jobs.  I was one of two summer interns.

The first thing impressed upon me was the absolute need for confidentially.  All information about applicants and the content of the JNC meetings is highly sensitive.  I always kept this in mind.

I fielded questions from applicants over the phone, and read applications and entered selected information from them into the database.  I filed a constant stream of recommendation letters.  I worked with the governor’s legal counsel, attended and took notes at JNC meetings, sat in as an observer at the hearings of the Governor’s Council and ran errands in and around downtown and Back Bay.

The most interesting and rewarding part of the internship was attending the JNC meetings at Nelson, Mullins LLP, as I felt I was seeing the culmination of my contributions to the process.  I individually greeted the three or four judicial candidates at the door and showed them to a waiting room.  I spoke to them in a calm, friendly, and reassuring manner before they each went into an interview alone in front of all the JNC members.  They were men and women of accomplishment, much older than me and they were nervous. I observed the interviews and appreciated the importance of a successful interview. Fielding questions, good preparation and good presentation are considered indicative of how an applicant will perform on the bench. I met and spoke to all of the members of the JNC over the course of the summer.  I especially liked meeting Chairperson Macey Russell, who graduated from Trinity in 1980.

A challenge of the internship was attending the Governor’s Council meetings which, unlike meetings of the JNC, were open to the public. The Lt. Governor and the Governor both attended to chair the meeting from time to time. These meetings were raucous and political.  Sometimes they seemed out of control.  They truly tested my faith in the democratic process because I wondered if this fighting would lead to the best results. The chairman of the meeting frequently slammed the gavel on its stone base and accused another councilor of “being out of order” when the chair had heard enough.

In these hearings the councilors openly challenged the Governor’s choices, as their vote is required for approval of a judgeship.  There would always be a few councilors brutally listing every political donation a candidate had made in the last ten years. Then they would move on to the candidate’s spouse and list their contributions as evidence of an ideological bias within the household that would affect the independence of the candidate if he or she were a judge.

At one meeting, the councilor from my own district, Mary-Ellen Manning, refused to approve a treasury warrant that funds the state government, until Lt. Governor Tim Murray turned over his state-funded cell phone records. The records would show whether he was texting or who he was calling on the November morning he totaled his state Crown Vic at four in the morning going over 100 mph.

Despite the protections built into the process there is still a concern that that the selection of judges can be an inside job because judicial selection is completely within the power and domain of the executive branch in Massachusetts.  Until the process reaches the Governor’s Council, that is.

I learned to appreciate that the views of the councilors are a necessary part of the process, just like my work at the JNC.  They represent the people of their districts and do not hesitate to be adversarial to the Governor, whereas we support all the Governor’s initiatives.  For example, this summer Lt. Governor Tim Murray filed a disclosure of appearance of conflict of interest with the State Ethics Commission because he had a long-standing friendship with the family of a judicial nominee. The Governor’s Council criticized the Governor and the news made headlines.  The Boston Herald berated the Governor for a nominee so closely associated to his administration.  I appreciate this as I know all the work the JNC does to offer choices of qualified candidates.  It so happens that as part of my job I received and reviewed this very disclosure document and then delivered it in person to the State Ethics Commission.  I felt connected to this controversy and it helped me put all the perspectives together.

 

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Summer at the State House: Part I

Posted on March 4, 2013 by tdenson

By Sam Livingston ’14

This is the first installment of a two part piece on Sam’s summer internship.  Please check back tomorrow for Part II.

This past summer I interned in the Office of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, working with the Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) at the State House on Beacon Hill in Boston. While working in the executive branch of state government is less glamorous and more demanding than I first thought, I had a very rewarding experience and the internship complemented my Public Policy & Law major in both expected and unexpected ways.  The State House is a magnet for voters to express their wishes and every day something different happens. For instance, one morning there was a traffic jam caused by people who had chained their wheelchairs together across Beacon Street to protest a hike in subway and bus fares, another time I had to walk by a gauntlet of reporters videotaping everyone to find which legislators ands staff were coming to work on time, and I even had to try to ignore angry outbursts at the weekly Governor’s Council meeting debating the merits of judicial nominees.  I had a great opportunity to learn about the judicial selection process as well as State House politics.

I worked in the West Wing of the State House in the executive offices.  Not only is the Governor’s impressive suite located in the West Wing, but also the offices of legislative leaders. The JNC has a humble location in the basement, crowded with file cabinets. We appreciated being hard to find because of the sensitive nature of our work.

Massachusetts has a unique system for determining judgeships. Judges in all the state’s courts are appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Governor’s Council.  The Council dates back to colonial times and consists of eight elected representatives from the different districts of the state. It is independent and serves as a check on the Governor. Once appointed, judges serve “for life” with mandatory retirement at the age 70. This kind of lifetime appointment is extremely rare in judicial selection across all states.

The JNC assists the Governor by accepting and reviewing applications from lawyers wanting to be judges, as well as judges seeking appointment to a different court.  The JNC recommends to the governor applicants it believes would best serve the Commonwealth on the bench. The JNC consists of approximately 23 Massachusetts lawyers and some non-lawyers appointed by the governor. It meets once a week for several hours in the evening at a downtown law firm.

The entire process takes about seven to nine months and an applicant can be rejected at any time in the process. The members use a careful system ensuring full and fair consideration of each applicant.  First, they conduct a blind review of an applicant’s credentials, and then they will personally interview the best candidates to more fully understand their personality and motivation (Both judicial demeanor and a sense of fairness are important).  Finally, when a positive vote is taken to recommend an applicant, they will conduct lengthy due diligence.  They will not only call an applicant’s references but will also call other people associated with the applicant, such as co-workers or even opposing attorneys from an applicant’s cases from the applicant.  Tax records and criminal records are also checked. If an applicant makes it through this highly selective process, the JNC recommends the applicant to the Governor by putting their name on a slate with other applicants.  The Governor then chooses from the slate with advice from his chief legal counsel.

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Alumni Profile: Jared Pimm ’11

Posted on February 13, 2013 by tdenson

Hailing from Chelmsford, MA, Jared graduated from Trinity in 2011 with a double major in Public Policy & Law and Political Science.  He was four year letter winner for the Bantam basketball team, serving as captain his junior and senior years and winning the sportsmanship award both of those years.  He currently lives in the North End of Boston and works as an associate at Richards Barry Joyce & Partners, a full-service commercial real estate firm in downtown Boston.

Policy Voice: What drew you to the PBPL major and how did PBPL prepare you for your current position?

Jared: Originally, I was drawn to the Public Policy Department because I intended to go to law school.  I felt that this major – given its rigor and comprehensiveness – would best prepare me for the challenges and material encountered in law school.  That being said, I decided not to go to law school immediately following Trinity.  Instead, I decided to follow my interest in commercial real estate.  I use the skills that I was forced to hone while majoring in PBPL.  In particular, the ability to articulate thoughts/opinions in a sophisticated manner is something I forced to do every day with both colleagues and clients.  I work in a highly collaborative environment, which is much like the projects in the PBPL department.

PV: What was your favorite class in the major?

J: My favorite class was Law, Argument, and Public Policy.  Oral Argument is, to this day, by far the most challenging academic experience I have ever had.  That said, the skill set learned and honed while doing oral argument are the skills that I continue to carry with me even into my career outside of academia and law.

PV: What advice would you give future Trinity graduates looking for career opportunities?

J: Three pieces of advice: network, network, network.  Yes, your GPA and your ability to present yourself matters, but without networking you will never have an opportunity to present either of these things.

PV: How do you feel about the direction Trinity is taking with the new social policies adopted by the Board?

J: To be completely honest, I am somewhat disengaged from the new policy.  While I have heard murmurs from other alums, I have not taken the time to completely run through each new change and policy.  Although it will be different than the Trinity that I graduated from, I trust that the administration is doing what it thinks is best to create the best and most productive academic environment possible.

PV: Is there anything that you recommend Trinity students experience before they graduate?

J: I feel like this is a loaded question…

PV: Do you think young people are apathetic and/or misinformed about politics these days? If so, why and how might that change?

J: I think people are apathetic because they don’t know what sources of news to trust.  Unfortunately, we live in a world where news entities are owned or run by private enterprises.  Therefore, the news that is reported is likely slanted to appease those who are fronting the capital to keep the news sources afloat.  I don’t think this trend applies only to young people, I think this is uqiquitous across all age groups on both the right and left side of the aisle.  I think the only way to be informed in today’s world is to make sure that you read a variety of news sources.  That said, you must also be discerning in which pieces of news you take as fact and which you take as opinion.

PV: Where might we see you in five years?

J: I would love to continue what I am doing.  I am passionate about commercial real estate and I am lucky to be at a firm where I have mentors and colleagues who genuinely care about my development as a young professional.

PV: So…Fox, CNN or MSNBC?

J: I do not religiously subscribe to any particular news source.  In the morning, I begin reading the Wall Street Journal, I then move to Boston.com and I typically conclude my day with reading the Times and then MarketWatch.  I agree more with Fox News’ slant and take on politics, however, I find CNN’s coverage to be more comprehensive so I actually flipped back and forth during the election.

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Working the Election: A Student’s Experience

Posted on November 13, 2012 by tdenson

The following piece was written by Suzy Wang ’13, who took time off from Trinity in order to work as a field organizer in Colorado for President Obama’s reelection campaign.

I was frustrated. I was sweaty.  I was over-caffeinated and under-rested.

Early Voting began one week ago in Colorado, and this was my third visit back to El Sol Luxury Apartments in pursuit of Lee and Mikey.

A few days ago, I was ordered to export my capacity to Aurora, Colorado – the part of Arapahoe County that is typically responsible for turning the county blue.  To most, the name Aurora might ring a bell because it was home to a shaking tragedy in late July.  As I stood in a trailer park trying to find lots that did not exist, it was hardly conceivable that this was the same community that had undergone such heartbreak four months ago.

I had ten more people to reach on my list.  Around the corner was a run-down apartment building with the name “El Sol Luxury Apartments.”  Under the name was a large “NO TRESPASSING” sign.

I tugged at the handle of the black iron gate enclosing the building.  Locked.  I stood back and assessed my obstacle.  The gate was roughly six and a half feet tall.

There’s no way I can climb this, I decided.  There must be another way around.

I walked around the building and discovered a parking lot leading to back entrances.  Goldmine.  I waltzed into the building and knocked on my first door.

“Who’s that?”

“Hi, my name is Suzy. I’m with President Obama’s grassroots team and I wanted to make sure you had all your voting information.”

Immediately the door swung open.  It smelled like split pea soup.  An older Caucasian man wearing a stained white t-shirt stood in the doorway.

“Are you Michael?”

He grinned.  “No, I’m Lee.  Mikey’s in there.  What can I help you with?”

I took a minute to explain that Mikey had been marked off the voter rolls for a mail-in ballot so he should go to the polls during early voting to avoid lines.  I followed up with Lee, asking if the same had happened to him.

“I think I got my ballot in the mail.  Here, let me show you.”

A few minutes later, Lee came back holding a voter registration summary postcard addressed by the Arapahoe County Clerk.

“Is this it?”

Exasperated, I told him it was merely proof of his voter registration, and that he would still have to go into the polls to vote.  I walked him through his options.  When are you planning on going?  I don’t know.  Can you go during your lunch break, or before or after work?  That’s going to be hard.  What day do you think you’ll go?  Tuesday or Thursday, I think.

“Well, miss, I really thank you for coming here,” Lee said. “Mikey and I don’t have a car, you see.  And Mikey is on oxygen so we’ve been waiting for his Medicaid card to come through.”

Lee explained how he had been Mikey’s caretaker for the last five years, ever since Mikey’s job let him go.  When Mikey started getting sick, no insurance companies would pick him up, and since he was not well enough to stay in a job long-term, Mikey had been uninsured for the last five years.

For the next ten minutes, Lee and I exchanged information and planned when I would drive him and Mikey to the polls.  It took three different visits back to El Sol Luxury Apartments to track Lee and Mikey down, but on the third visit, the three of us drove to Centrepointe Plaza and I waited as they cast their ballots.

“I’m glad you care about my vote,” Mikey said as he got back in my car.  “This election matters to me.  It’s going to give me a chance again.”

Then, I finally understood.  Organizing is hard.  It’s mostly thankless.  The hours are insane and the day-by-day work feels like a slog.  Most everybody who does it complains about the endlessness and questions why they are so self-loathing as to go through the experience.

But progress is never easy.  The people I met over the last eleven months are a testament to that.  I think about the single mom working three jobs who was terrified of losing her Social Security because it meant she would no longer be able to feed her two kids.  I recall the man in a mostly Latino neighborhood who was shocked to see this young Asian girl trying to communicate to him about the issues in this election in broken Spanish because he’d never been asked what was important to him. I think about the gay soldier on the L train on his way to visit his boyfriend during his brief time off.  I think about the Republican I canvassed who insisted I accept some Gatorade on one of Denver’s many 100+ degree-days. Finally, I think about Mikey, for whom November 6th was not about politics or candidates, but rather about finally having a chance to succeed and to build a better future.

We do the work not for ourselves, nor for the glory of being a part of history and incredible pay. We do the work because we know that in this country our ideals are as fragile as they are bold. We know that when nobody stands up for progress, the opportunity this country provides is limited to the floor.

If the people I mentioned earlier are any indication, our work is not done. There are more people to employ, more rights to gain, more peace to make and more problems to tackle. But for now we can celebrate and be confident in the idea that we have done all we could to put ourselves in a position to move forward.

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Family Values

Posted on October 31, 2012 by tdenson

By Jack Nettleton ’13

We are fast approaching every political nerd’s favorite holiday, Election Day. I am one of those nerds – every major election I sit glued to the television.  Election Day is exciting, but not only because American democracy is hard at work. Election Day is exciting because every election could be historic; it is those historic elections that change the course of this great country.

This year, voters in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington have the chance to do something historic. Never has a state affirmed gay marriage by way of state wide popular vote. Each of the 32 times it has been on a statewide ballot in United States it has been turned down. As a Washington voter, I feel blessed to have an opportunity to make such history.

That is why I can say there was not one vote I was more proud to make this year than the one approving Referendum 74 in Washington state in support of marriage equality. The next question is obvious, “Jack, you are a straight college-age male, why does marriage equality matter to you?” Well, this summer I had the privilege to work on Derek Kilmer’s congressional campaign. When Derek would speak about his desire to protect Social Security and Medicare, he explained that for his family the debate is “not a theoretical policy discussion, it’s real”. For my family, marriage equality has real implications.

I hope my personal story shows the importance for young, straight men to support marriage equality and that approving marriage equality is an important step forward for civil rights in this country. Every study shows that personal stories and relationships help change people’s hearts and minds on marriage equality. The more humanized the debate becomes, the more likely people will change their minds and in time, voice their support.

The best persuasive writers do three things: hook you in the beginning, persuade you in the middle and bring you home at the end. The funny thing is that when you look at my personal journey to accepting marriage equality, my friends and family persuaded me in the same way.

I was hooked in the beginning, unsuspectingly and unwillingly, with the divorce of my two parents when I was in the 1st grade.  “Daddy just doesn’t love Mommy anymore” she said, to which I responded, “I am never smiling again”. The divorce hit me hard, however it ended up not being the hardest thing I had to deal with going forward.

By the time I was able to comprehend the concept of it, my father had moved in with his new partner, Bryan. Yes, my father is gay. From middle school until now I have struggled with that very fact, deliberately hiding my father’s sexuality from my friends and people around me. I’ve always loved my father dearly, but nothing scared me more than my friends, classmates and teammates thinking of me differently because of my father’s sexuality. To this day I still haven’t told many of my best friends, a fact I continuously feel guilty about.

Preserve Marriage Washington (the group opposed to Referendum 74) argues in its literature that traditional marriage matters because “Marriage is society’s mechanism of increasing the likelihood that children will be born and raised by the two people responsible for bringing them into the world – their mother and father“. These traditional “family values” are supposed to be what I missed out on growing up. My upbringing was different: divorce brought me four parents, three dads, two households and the single best family I have could ever asked for.

I am proof that it doesn’t matter if you are raised in a traditional family or a gay family, and why arguments by people who oppose marriage equality simply do not make sense. The most comprehensive study of parenting conducted by Judith Stacey and Tim Biblarz in 2010 found that the gender of the parents played no major role in a child’s upbringing. If it were true that based on my upbringing I was less likely to value the roll that marriage plays in society, I suspect my life goals would be much different. Instead my goals in life are simple; marry a woman I love, start a family, provide for that family, have two kids and live in a house with a view. Yes, my family is anything but “normal”, but when I think of a word to describe them, I can’t think of anything but “perfect”.

My upbringing has directly shaped who I am today. I relish the opportunity to share with my children how strong my amazing mother was raising three young boys before my incredibly loving stepfather came into our family. I try to replicate my mother’s strength and moral compass every day. She selflessly provides the opportunity for all of her children to go for their dreams. My stepfather is hilarious and my favorite golf partner, but it is the support of his stepchildren and love for every member of his family I admire the most.

My children will know exactly how much the gay members of my family have made me a better person.  My father is a model of humility and kindness; he shares my passion for good beer and still edits my papers even at late hours. He and his partner Bryan harp on my terrible table manners and educate me on what it means to be a gentleman. My brother courageously came out at a young age in high school and is now wildly successful in theatre. He is the funniest, most talented, most courageous person I know. I could go on for paragraphs about how much I admire my family. Every member, gay or straight, has convinced me that civil marriage should not be defined as one man, one woman, but rather as two people, love and commitment.

Which brings me home, literally. The setting was a beautiful, sunny Seattle summer evening at my Dad’s house with my two other brothers from my father along with my dad’s partner and his two kids. We all ate at the outside dinner table (I set it to my father’s strict regulations), as a family, and talked about marriage. First was my step-brother Grant, who was just about to propose to his long time girlfriend and my Dad and Bryan, who talked about getting married if Referendum 74 passes. It struck me during dinner how special marriage was to everyone, and how it wasn’t gender that mattered but rather their deep desire for society to recognize love and commitment regardless of who they loved and who they were. Marriage is a civil right, and it is time we stop treating our gay friends and family as second class citizens.  I am already going to one wedding soon, I urge the voters of Washington to make it two.

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Professor Mark Silk Featured in the Washington Post

Posted on May 8, 2012 by tdenson

Professor Mark Silk, the director of the Trinity College Program on Public Values who also teaches classes in the religion and public policy departments, was recently featured in an article in the Washington Post.  This spring semester, Professor Silk has been teaching a public policy senior seminar entitled “Journalism and the Public Good.”  Follow the link to read about Professor Silk:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/mark-silk-a-commentator-on-religion-and-politics-who-keeps-above-the-fray/2012/05/03/gIQAeb5pzT_story.html

Professor Silk came to Trinity in 1996 after spending nine years on the staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he worked as a reporter, editorial writer, and columnist.  He graduated from Harvard in 1972 and later earned his Ph.D. in medieval history from Harvard in 1982.  His blog, Spiritual Politics, can be found here.

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