Last week marked the second anniversary of a long-standing, if one-sided, lunch date between U.S. Rep. Richie Neal and a group of his constituents.
On the third Wednesday of each month, Progressive Democrats of America holds a noontime “brown bag lunch vigil” outside Neal’s Springfield office at the federal building at 300 State St. Neal isn’t the only member of Congress to receive these monthly visits from PDA and its allies from the labor movement and social and economic justice organizations; the group targets a number of moderate Democrats to draw attention to its legislative agenda and try to nudge those officials to get on board with it.
This month, the brown baggers called on Neal and his colleagues to support a number of bills, including universal healthcare proposals from Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.); a proposal by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) for the withdrawal of troops and defense contractors from Afghanistan; and job creation bills filed by Conyers and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).
PDA also wants Neal to throw his support behind a proposed constitutional amendment filed by Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts’ 3rd District that would overturn the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision by making clear that corporations do not have the same rights as individuals.
“We the people who ordain and establish this Constitution intend the rights protected by this Constitution to be the rights of natural persons,” the proposed amendment reads. “The words people, person, or citizen as used in this Constitution do not include corporations, limited liability companies or other corporate entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state. …”
In a press release about the proposed amendment, McGovern said, “As any high school civics student knows, the first three words of the preamble to the Constitution are ‘We the People.’ Corporations are not people. They do not breathe. They do not have children. They do not die in war. They are artificial entities which we the people create and, as such, we govern them, not the other way around.
“The Citizens United ruling marks the most extreme extension of a corporate rights doctrine which has eroded our First Amendment and our Constitution,” McGovern continued. “Now is the time for a 28th Amendment that lifts up the promise of American self-government: of, for, and by the people.”
McGovern sits on Progressive Democrats of America’s advisory board, and has been endorsed for re-election by PDA.
Due to the recent Congressional redistricting,, McGovern, assuming he wins re-election, will represent a number of communities that have been in Neal’s 2nd District, perhaps most notably the generally progressive-minded city of Northampton.
Last fall, after it was announced that Northampton would no longer be in Neal’s district, Matt Barron, a Democratic political consultant based in Chesterfield, suggested that Neal must be very happy with that development. “Northampton is teeming with liberals and activists and pro-choice people,” Barron told the Advocate. “Northampton is the home of people who come down to Springfield and picket outside his office at the federal building: ‘Out of Iraq’; ‘We’re bombing poor innocents in Afghanistan.'”
Neal will now be running to represent the reconfigured 1st Congressional district. In the September Democratic primary he’ll face Pittsfield’s Andrea Nuciforo, a former state senator who now serves as register of deeds for the Berkshire Middle District, and Bill Shein, a writer and activist from Alford.
Last week, outgoing 1st District Rep. John Olver, who’s retiring after this term, endorsed Neal for that seat. Shein took exception to that endorsement, saying in a press release that he “politely but strongly disagree[s]” with Olver, whom Shein called “a true progressive in the Congress.” Shein went on to list significant differences between Olver’s and Neal’s progressive credentials: Olver, for example, supports single-payer healthcare and the Fair Elections Now bill, which aims to remove big money from elections through public financing; Neal is not a sponsor of either of those efforts. Olver also belongs to the Congressional Progressive Caucus; Neal does not.
