You can read the full transcript of this episode here.
Hi, this is Anna Callahan and you’re listening to Incorruptible Massachusetts. Our goal is to help people understand state politics: we’re investigating why it’s so broken, imagining what we could have here in MA if we fixed it, and reporting on how you can get involved.
Today I’m interviewing Erika Uyterhoeven and Matt Miller from Act on Mass.
Act on Mass enables grassroots groups and activists to effectively advocate for progressive legislation at the state level and to hold State Representatives publicly accountable. We do this through a combination of political education, reporting, and campaign-style organizing and voter mobilization. Check out their amazing Transparency pledge at www.ActOnMass.org/pledge.
Erika Uyterhoeven was a National Organizing Director for Bernie 2016 and was Head of Digital and Data for Momentum, supporting the 2017 UK snap election for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn. Most recently, she worked with Marshall Ganz on narrative and organizing trainings.
Prior to his work at Act on Mass, Matt Miller has held positions as Field Director and Campaign manager on local electoral races (City Council & State Rep) in the Boston area.
Act on Mass is a relatively new organization, and they’re tackling something that I think is really smart strategy. For comparison, Mass Alliance builds the coalition that we need to work together for all the issues we care about. Progressive Mass (we’ll hear from them in a future episode) has an amazing scorecard that allows anyone in the state to see if their rep is really as progressive as they say they are. Act on Mass has honed in on one of the main ways that our state house is broken, and they’re providing all of us a way around it.
There are a lot of ways the establishment maintains power. Lack of transparency is a huge one, and another is to keep those few times that bills do become public as short as possible. This makes it almost impossible for us residents of Massachusetts to push our State Reps to do anything — by the time we find out that a bill is going to be voted on, they’ve already voted. Often there is less than 24 hours between when a bill comes out of committee and when the vote will be held, which can be barely enough time to read the bill.
Act on Mass tackles this issue in some really brilliant ways, and it was exciting to hear about their work and how they see change happening at the state level.
Without further ado, here is my interview with Act on Mass.