Political notebook: Candidate endorsements

Solomon Goldstein-Rose has secured two major climate change-related endorsements — one from the Massachusetts Sierra Club Political Action Committee and the other from Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash — in his quest to win the 3rd Hampshire District state representative seat being vacated by Ellen Story.

“Solomon has already spent much of his young life trying to get our community and our country to pay attention to climate change,” Lash said in a press release put out by the Goldstein-Rose campaign. “Action is urgent now to avert catastrophe.”

After serving as western Massachusetts coordinator for a statewide carbon pricing campaign in 2014, Goldstein-Rose founded and led Energize Rhode Island, a coalition of groups working for a carbon pricing bill in Rhode Island, during his time as a student at Brown University.

Earlier he spent a semester preparing environmental briefings at the Council on Environmental Quality in the Obama White House. In 2012 as a member of the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee he successfully wrote and passed a new policy on school bus idling to reduce fuel use.

Members of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the largest healthcare union in Massachusetts, is endorsing Adam Hinds, a Democratic candidate for state Senate in the Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden District.

More than 52,000 members of 1199SEIU work in hospitals, health centers, nursing homes and homecare programs across Massachusetts.

“I am proud to be supported by a strong organization with a history of standing up for quality healthcare and the healthcare workers who care for us all,” Hinds said. “I look forward to working on the front lines with them for good jobs and social justice.”

Former Congressman John Olver is supporting Solomon Goldstein-Rose for the 3rd Hampshire District State Representative seat, highlighting Goldstein-Rose’s youth and focus on climate change.

Olver, a resident of Amherst, began his 44 years of public service as state representative in the same seat in 1968, followed by two decades as state senator and two decades as representative in U.S. Congress.

“I’m investing in the future,” Olver said. “Solomon could give us 50 years of public service as an activist to reduce the persistent racial, ethnic, and gender bias that shatters the social fabric of our state and nation.”

He also believes millennials are grossly underrepresented. Goldstein-Rose is 22.

Citing attorney Jeff Morneau’s long record of fighting for the rights of workers, elderly, women, minorities and the economically disadvantaged, Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan has endorsed Jeff Morneau’s candidacy for Governor’s Council.

Sullivan cited Morneau’s strong stance in favor of drug courts and other efforts to combat the opioid crises as a reason for his endorsement.

“Jeff will be an outspoken advocate to make sure western Massachusetts has the best judges on the bench,” Sullivan said. “He will help select judges based upon their performance, not politics.”

The Berkshire County Building and Construction Trades Council and the Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists have endorsed Andrea Harrington, a Democrat running for state Senate for the Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden District soon to be vacated by Sen. Ben Downing.

The Berkshire County Building and Construction Trades Council is comprised of 15 local craft trade unions and represents over 7,500 members in western Massachusetts.

Harrington is a small business owner and local attorney. She grew up in Richmond where she currently lives. Harrington is an attorney and owns a small business in West Stockbridge.

Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan is supporting Adam Hinds for Democratic state Senate for the Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden district. 

“Adam has the knowledge and experience to confront the opiate epidemic in western Massachusetts,” Sullivan said.

Hinds said he will fully support crime prevention programs, community policing, and collaborative efforts to fight violence if elected to the senate.

Hinds grew up in Buckland. He worked Congressman John Olver’s campaign manager, and then on Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign. He also spent a decade at the United Nations before starting the Pittsfield Community Connection. Today he serves as the executive director of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition.