Saturday, March 27, 2010

Woburn's Campbell to run for Secretary of State

Woburn’s Campbell to run for Secretary of State

By GORDON VINCENT
Published: Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:17 AM EDT

http://www.homenewshere.com/articles/2010/03/26/middlesex_east/features/doc4bab6f4fbc744647088722.txt

WOBURN - Woburn City Clerk William Campbell is making a historic, and perhaps unprecedented, bid to become a Woburn resident elected to a state office.

Last month, Campbell officially announced his candidacy for Secretary of State, who among other duties serves as Massachusetts’ top election official, keeper of records and regulator of securities.

Campbell, 49, has been the Woburn City Clerk since 1997, and served two terms on the Woburn City Council from 1988-92. He was elected president of the council for his second term.

He also ran an unsuccessful bid for state representative from what was at the time the 33rd Middlesex district in 1990, and lost a mayoral race in 1993.

Thus far, Campbell is the only candidate from the Republican party to formally announce his candidacy for Secretary of State. The idea of running for the office was formed in February, when he attended a conference of the Mass. City Clerks Association, of which he is a past president and a current member of the executive board.

“My (colleagues in the clerks’ association) had been encouraging me to run for awhile, and then there was kind of a running dialog at the conference about me putting my name in,” said Campbell, during an interview at Woburn City Hall. “It had been on my mind, because I think we’ve needed a change in (the Secretary of State’s) office.”

The next step was bringing the idea to his wife, Joanne, and two children, Elizabeth, a senior at Nazareth Academy in Wakefield, and John, a junior at St. John’s Prep in Danvers.

“There was a lot of discussion, especially with Joanne, because it is a big commitment,” he said. “If my kids were younger, I wouldn’t do this. By far the most important thing is my family, and they’re excited about it. They want to take an active role.”

His daughter can do more than just campaign for her dad. She recently turned 18 and is eligible to vote.

“I’ve asked her to consider voting for me,” he dead-panned.

So far, most of the activity in the Campbell campaign has been geared toward collecting signatures, which must be garnered from 5,000 registered voters by May 4 in order to qualify for the ballot in the Republican primary in September.

Campbell is also required to get at least 15 percent of the delegates in the Republican state convention. One of the things he’d like to change is removing some of the obstacles that impede qualified candidates from running for state office.

“Five thousand signatures is a lot, and you need 10,000 signatures to run for governor,” said Campbell. “We’ve already had to disqualify some of the people who have signed our nomination papers because they’re not registered voters, or they’re Democrats. I can only accept signatures from Republicans or unenrolled voters who are registered.”

In the past, the ‘R’ designation on a ballot in Massachusetts almost always meant underdog status, but Sen. Scott Brown’s upset of Democrat Martha Coakley last year has given new hope to GOP candidates who are eying the state election this year.

The incumbent Secretary of State is William Galvin (no relation to Woburn Mayor Scott Galvin), who has not officially announced his candidacy but is reportedly collecting signatures in a bid for a fifth 4-year term.

“It (Brown’s victory) was definitely a factor for me,” said Campbell. “I’m challenging an incumbent who’s been in office for 16 years and has spent 40 years on Beacon Hill. It’s good to have a turnover in an elected office from time-to-time, and given the political climate that’s out there this may be the right time.”

That’s as critical of his opponent as Campbell will get, though. He prefers to accentuate the positive of his own campaign rather than denigrate Galvin, though it is clear he has some different ideas about how the office should be run.

“I want to open a dialog not only with the election community but with the general public about how we can serve them better,” said Campbell. “I see television commercials about your vote being important, but I think everyone knows that. We should be using those resources to tell people how to vote, to inform them of the process.

“The limited resources that we have should be used to educate the voters, not promote the office,” said Campbell.

He said he’d also like “to get rid of the intricacies” involved in the voting process along the guidelines of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

“The HAVA system is expensive, and it confuses people,” he said. “Look at something like same day registration. It adds another level of bureaucracy, and invites fraud.”

He’d also like to limit the number of special elections, which are costly to the communities that are required to hold them. In about a year, Woburn had to hold four special elections - two to replace state Sen. James Marzilli, who quit after charges that he sexually assaulted a woman in Lowell were brought, and two for U.S. Senator after the death of Edward Kennedy.

“What the secretary told the governor was that it only cost the state $5 million to conduct (the U.S. Senate) election, but it cost the cities and towns between $7 million and $10 million,” said Campbell. “The secretary should have been more open with the Legislature. We should know how much and where our money is being spent.”

Campbell would also like the Secretary of State’s office to provide more transparency when it comes to the disclosure of securities brokers, who must be registered.

“That information ought to be available more openly to the public,” he said. “You go to the website and there’s a section for security settlements, but when you click on it all you get are 62-page complaints that are difficult to understand for the reader.”

So far, he’s taken his message to city and town committee meetings in about a half-dozen communities, where he says he’s been well-received. His foray was in Brown’s hometown of Wrentham.

“I usually get about 5 to 10 minutes to state my case,” said Campbell.

He hopes to expand his speaking efforts to organizations like local business associations and Rotary Clubs. Campbell has also set up a fan page on Facebook, “so people can keep track of the campaign.”

“It’s all been very positive, especially here in Woburn,” said Campbell. “People who are just going to the post office or walking to their car say things like ‘Good luck with your campaign.’”

In addition to his duties as City Clerk, Campbell is also a renowned source and published author of Woburn history. A 1978 Woburn High graduate who earned his bachelor’s degree from Boston College, his law degree from the University of Bridgeport, and practiced law before being chosen City Clerk, he believes he will be the first Woburn resident to hold a state-wide office.

“I’ve talked to all the aldermen (on the City Council) and the mayor, and they’re all supportive of me,” he added. “They think it’s good for the city to have someone on the state ballot.”