Somerville Progressive Group Accused Of Snubbing Candidate

SOMERVILLE, MA — Four City Council hopefuls are calling on a local progressive group to re-examine its practices after a candidate was left out of the candidate forum and endorsement process.

Stephenson Aman, a candidate for City Council in Ward 2, was unable to participate in Our Revolution Somerville's June 18 forum. The organization said it denied him access because he failed to submit his questionnaire on time after receiving an extension.

Our Revolution said it has previously denied candidates who submitted questionnaires after the deadline, including Mayor Joseph Curtatone. The organization reached out to Aman four times between March and May and reminded all candidates of the deadline June 7, according to a statement from the group.

"On June 9th, Mr. Aman responded to our most recent email to ask if he could still participate in the endorsement process," the statement read in part. "ORS agreed to a June 11th extension for Mr. Aman's questionnaire. We did not receive a questionnaire on June 11th, nor did we receive a message requesting another extension or that the completed questionnaire would be forthcoming."

A questionnaire was submitted on Aman's behalf June 16, but Our Revolution said the sender did not clarify they were connected to his campaign.

On Sunday, first-time candidates Tracey Leah Pratt, Beatriz Gómez Mouakad and Judy Pineda Neufeld joined Aman in rebuking what they called a "pattern of disturbing actions taken by an organization which claims to be committed to diversity and inclusion, but which has fallen critically short of those values in recent days."

The candidates claimed Our Revolution has been flexible with its rules in the past and should have extended the same courtesy to Aman, who submitted his questionnaire in a "reasonable time frame."

"We live at a time where participation in our democracy is under attack across the nation," the statement read in part. "Somerville residents usually stand against institutional efforts to exclude people, so it is disheartening to see the leadership of ORS lack the understanding that if you want to promote inclusivity and participation, you cannot create arbitrary rules which lead to exclusion."

The statement called on the organization to suspend its political activities until it has overhauled its policies to "rectify the harm it has done in recent days."

"We know that ORS has a short but proud history as it works to become part of the fabric of our political community," the statement continued. "Our hope is that, with the following actions, it can become a leading voice for progressive change."

Our Revolution Somerville said it was "unfortunate" some candidates, including Aman, were excluded from the forum, and also issued an apology for the mispronunciation and partial omission of candidates' names during the event.

"During our Ward City Council forum, our volunteer moderator mispronounced and verbally omitted portions of the names of Judy Pineda Neufeld and Beatriz Gómez Mouakad," the organization said. "ORS acknowledges the harmful impact we caused, extends our sincere apology to the candidates, and will take concrete steps to address this issue."