By: Mark Campaign On: 09:26AM / Tuesday August 03, 2010
DALTON, Mass. — Paul Mark, Democratic candidate for state representative in the Second Berkshire district, has received the endorsement of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization for Women.
Mass. NOW, founded in 1966, is the only multi-issue feminist organization in the state, which advocates for the rights of women and girls in Massachusetts. Their legislative priorities include ending violence against women, moving women out of poverty, reproductive freedom, civil rights for all people, and support for an adequate supply of affordable housing.
“The Mass NOW PAC is thrilled to endorse Paul Mark for State Representative,” said Christina Knowles, State Director for the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women. “As an advocate for labor and civil rights, Paul has shown his commitment to the issues that Mass NOW cares about and works on. Paul has the leadership and experience needed to be an effective legislator, and we look forward to electing him to the State House.”
“A NOW endorsement signals that I’m the most ardent defender of issues of concern for women,” said Mark upon receiving the NOW endorsement. “Ensuring parity in pay, supporting reproductive health and freedom, and combating human trafficking— these are all real concerns in women’s
lives which I will immediately tackle in the legislature.”
Mass. NOW is a member group in the progressive coalition MassAlliance, which has also endorsed Mark and trained his campaign staff. Other supporting MassAlliance groups include the Mass Teachers Association, the UAW and the Service Employees International Union locals 509 and 1199, which represent human service providers, health care workers, and college staff.
In all, Mark has received endorsements from 23 diverse political and trade groups including nurses, police officers, ambulance workers, truck drivers and a variety of building trades. He has earned more political endorsements than all his opponents combined. A full list of Mark’s endorsements is at www.votepaulmark.com.
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.
Interesting that Mr. Mark has put forth no ideas, no platform, no agenda other than to tell 23 special interest groups what they want to hear on their questionnaires so he can pander for their endorsement. If Sen. Tsongas were still around he would call Mark a Pander Bear.
If you check out his website, www.votepaulmark.com, you can clearly see his platform and ideas on many issues. If you check out his opponents' websites, and the democrats also sought out these endorsements, you will find absolutely nothing.
I checked the links to the candidates websites and "website" is right. The links are on the right side of this page. Only Paul Mark and Stefan Racz even have an issues page.
Senator Tsongas was also endorsed by many advocacy groups and labor unions. His widow, Niki Tsongas, who currently serves as a Congresswoman in the 5th District, is currently endorsed by many of these advocacy groups and labor unions. I think if the good Senator were still around he would be excited by a candidate like Paul Mark.
Mark supports the casino gaming bill because his union bosses told him to. All of the Berkshire legislative delegation voted against this bill.
Mark supports the wind siting bill that takes away local control and which also died last week on Beacon Hill. Mark is out of touch with the district he seeks to represent. He is an empty suit.
Mark said in the news release. "Ensuring parity in pay, supporting reproductive health and freedom and combating human trafficking -- these are all real concerns in womens lives which I will immediately tackle in the Legislature."
Not quite what the Commonwealth needs immediate attention on!
Mr. Mark there are bigger fish to fry in Boston for our county! This isn't one of them! Not to belittle your endorsement or the 'NOW's concerns, but saying you will tackle woman's concern's immediately raises BIG CONCERNS about your priority list as the best candidate for the 2nd Berkshire District State Representative. I am now convinced you will not have my vote!
Why wouldn't our representative worry about women's concerns? More than half of the people in the district are women. It figures someone who hates women would vote for a sleaze like Szepaniak
Human trafficking is a modern form of enslavement using violence or coercion to force someone into labor or sexual exploitation against their will. There have been dozens of cases in Massachusetts in recent years. To say that this--and ensuring women receive the same pay as men for doing the same job--are not priorities for a lawmaker is out of touch with problems facing real people right now. It takes understanding and willingness to tackle a lot of different problems as a legislator, and the fact that two dozen widely varied groups have endorsed Paul Mark, means he's dedicated to broader public interests.
The person who called Paul a "greenhorn" sounds a lot like Tom Szczepaniak, who in his kickoff press release called the other Democratic opponent the same thing. This term has too often been employed as a racist, anti-immigrant epithet that he shouldn't be using. I hope the Szczepaniak camp will think twice about calling someone a "greenhorn" in the future.
Question, if NOW is your top priority can I ask you if you have a personal issue with this? Maybe a family member? It seems to me you are being endorsed by many, and this is your first priority. I know you have made other promises to your endorses, but why is this one on the top of your list?
Please take the time to answer that one yourself with out the help from your campaign advisers/members. I look forward to hearing from you.
if anyone paid attention to the race at all Paul makes very clear that his number one concern is jobs. i live in the first berkshire district but one look at his website answers any questions anyone in his district, or anywhere, should have about his priorities. how out of touch is the second berkshire district to create such controversy over someone who is just saying he respects women as equals to men and will not forget so when he is in office?
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