Kudos to reporter Bera Dunau for highlighting the lack of Democratic Party delegate caucuses in rural Hampshire County.

Let’s explore why this is. In January 2014, the chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party asked me to author a proposal to create a Rural Subcommittee for the state party, which was adopted in Lowell at the February 2014 meeting of the Democratic State Committee (DSC).

The panel was supposed to take the lead on working to organize Democratic Town Committees (DTC) in localities where they currently don’t exist. You need a functioning DTC in order to hold a delegate caucus. It was also hoped that the Rural Subcommittee could help the gubernatorial nominee that year (Martha Coakley) better compete for votes in the state’s small towns.

But Coakley never adopted any rural strategy. She didn’t campaign in rural towns nor did she address issues of concern to rural voters such as agriculture, lack of broadband or health care. She ran the same TV ads in the Springfield market as in Boston and never used radio spots or ads in rural weeklies to reach voters in the state’s hinterlands. Coakley vastly under performed in rural Massachusetts and could have made up the 40,000-vote deficit she lost the race by with an effort focused in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Dukes counties.

The DSC has seats for every minority and special interest group except geographic minorities (rural folks) and takes the votes and support of rural residents for granted. Sadly, the Rural Subcommittee has been chaired by lazy and inept DSC members and has never done anything beyond hold a few conference calls.

Sen. Adam Hinds represents the Senate district with the highest number of towns with no DTC, about a third of the 52 communities. With each town getting a minimum of two delegates, the failure of Hinds to organize DTCs last year means he could have had upward of 35 delegates committed to him in his own district.

Nationally, the Democratic brand has become toxic in rural America. Here in Massachusetts unenrolled voters continue to outpace Democrats in registration.

Matt L. Barron

Chesterfield