Hi!
For anyone returning to work or school after the summer (or just starting for the first time), welcome and welcome back, and best of luck with this coming year.
Though the temperatures have begun to cool down, the statewide primary struggle has reached a fever pitch: I write this part of the newsletter, we’re little more than 24 hours from knowing the results of a tremendously consequential set of primaries across the state. Polls for the primary elections will be open from 7am-8pm tomorrow, September 1st; if you are not enrolled with a political party, you are allowed to vote in the primary of your choice. As always, go to mass.gov/vote if you need help checking your voter registration or finding your polling place.
As a member of the Communist Party, I do not make personal endorsements, nor do we as a party endorse non-Communist candidates. We also do not abstain from elections or the political questions they pose. For instance, senator Ed Markey — a defender of transgender rights and co-sponsor of the PRO Act, who has opposed the genocide, terrorism and imperialist wars of the Trump administration — is faced with a flood of dark money on behalf of Seth Moulton, who stands on the opposite side of working-class issues. For us, the choice is clear.
The same goes for the other main contest on Northampton primary ballots this year: that of the Governor’s Council, where incumbent Tara Jacobs faces a challenge from Springfield city councilor Michael Fenton. Fenton is an ally of Rep. Richard Neal and Springfield’s landlords and developers, seeking to bring the seat into the hands of the most corrupt and conservative sections of the state Democratic machine. For her part, Jacobs has spoken quite plainly to corruption and patronage politics in the judicial nominations process — a rare and refreshing moment of political honesty in our state’s notoriously opaque politics.
Without weighing in extensively on other major primaries across the state (some of which I’ve discussed in previous newsletters), I found the WMP&I coverage of primary spending in MA-01 and the Senate primary to be exceptionally informative.
In more local news…
We’ve seen a late start for many disruptive infrastructure projects, most notably around NHS. The Elm St. intersection redesign has caused significant traffic disruptions and strained parking space in surrounding neighborhoods. The partially collapsed Federal St. culvert, which still has no timetable for repair despite the city’s substantial annual Chapter 90 allocation and $40M+ proposed FY27-31 CIP, is under additional strain due to traffic diversion onto Vernon St.
The state of the Elm St. project, among others across the city, underscores that the standard defense of our city’s unusual budgeting process — funding capital spending before voting on the annual operating budget — is politically and logistically faulty. In prior budgeting cycles, capital spending has been approved weeks or months in advance of review of operating budgets (tying up revenues that could otherwise fund services, before critical operational needs have been brought to the public eye). The timing of contract bidding has been cited as the primary reason for arranging the budget cycle in this way. So the story goes, if the vote doesn’t happen — whether the decision is being made in early January, as with the FY26 CIP, or in April, as was the case with the CIP this year — it will be too late to secure favorable contracts that can fit within construction season. Obviously, that’s not true!
Our mayor and certain department heads falsely attribute delays in construction to the political process, rather than to the system of outsourcing that requires bidding from private contractors who are accountable only to their own profits. Cities and towns are forced to compete against each other for private contracts to fulfill shared, public needs; meanwhile, relying largely on local funding through property taxes, municipal DPWs often lack the resources to even compete with the private sector for many infrastructure projects. The privatization of our infrastructure is to blame for these problems, not the already-limited powers of our local democracy — and what’s more, undermining local democratic process cannot fix that fundamental issue in the way that this mayoral administration and its allies would seem to hope.
These delays have drawn some withering comparisons with the Picture Main Street project, which has stalled at several points on similar lines. That said, with widespread, diffuse and disorganized opposition to the Main Street redesign stirring across town, there has also been a rise in scamming practices attempting to benefit from the confusion. The “Stop PMS” URL circulating on social media asks for sensitive information and solicits payment to a personal Venmo account. Only share personal information or send money to sources that you know and trust!
Recent council (and misc. city) business
- The BDS movement packed the Hampshire district court on August 26th to defend Northampton’s divestment from companies complicit in genocide of the Palestinian people. As covered in June, 30 Northampton residents are seeking to intervene in the legal process to ensure that it sets a strong precedent against the erosion of democratic rights.
- A ruling on the request to intervene was deferred at the August 26th date. I will share more information as we have it next month.
- Easthampton will consider a similar resolution urging divestment on Wednesday, September 2nd. Easthampton readers of this newsletter can sign on to the petition here.
- Continuing with the earlier discussion of construction woes, the city held a public meeting on August 3rd for a contract with Brightcore Energy Services, Inc. to oversee the NHS geothermal project. (Recall that funding was allocated in December of 2025, under the previous city council!)
- With Coca-Cola ending its operations in Northampton, the city is under renewed pressure to commit to a ban on data center construction. A flurry of constituent organizing around the August 20th meeting of the city council led to an unstructured discussion around forming a joint mayor-council committee to “study zoning and regulations pertaining to data centers”.
- Councilors seemed to concur with the premise of a moratorium; a series of FOIA requests filed in the days leading up to the August 20th meeting should soon clarify if any city official or department has been in contact with companies involved in data center construction.
- As noted in last month’s edition, we are contending with a perverse incentive of our regressive tax structure, particularly with the upcoming override proposal. There is no way out of this crisis except to change how we fund our public services!
- Drawing from the tactics of both the BDS movement and anti-data center organizing, the peace movement has taken significant strides toward securing a local ban on weapons manufacturing. I’m not able to share details just yet, but keep an eye out in coming weeks!
Recent labor news
- Workers at the Eric Carle museum in Amherst won their union election! The 36 full- and part-time staff have joined workers at the Emily Dickinson museum and Mass MoCA in UAW Local 2110, expanding the collective power of museum workers in Western Massachusetts. Congratulations!
- The Springfield Education Association (SEA) is fighting back against attempts to implement AI teaching in Springfield’s public schools. Springfield’s district is working with an organization called “Alpha Schools” to impose an AI-based curriculum which would not involve educator instruction. The company is closely tied to MAGA’s patronage networks, and the struggle to stop this curriculum will have wide-ranging effects for public education across the state.
- More upcoming than recent, but the WMALF is hosting a Labor Day picnic on September 6th, 1-4:30pm at Nonotuck Park in Easthampton. Expect games, good food and solidarity! You can find the full list of sponsoring unions and organizations here.
- To reiterate, you can find WMALF endorsements for tomorrow’s primary elections here.
As always, please feel free to reach me at lukerotello@gmail.com or by phone at (413) 404-0405. (Note that I will be out of town for the first two weeks of September, and may be slow to reply. I also apologize if next month’s newsletter is abridged for that reason!) Stay safe, stay healthy and stay in the struggle!
-Luke
Rotello for Ward 5 City Council 
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