by Wayne Klug
Jeromie Whalen is on a roll. The popular Northampton high school teacher, endorsed by MAPA and Progressive Democrats for the CD-1 seat, may need a longer leave of absence than school officials bargained for. The would-be freshman announced “I’m not a politician” – and immediately proceeded to demonstrate home-grown political skills.
Comprised of 83 municipalities, CD-1 is geographically the state’s largest, but Whalen is undeterred and well on his way to visiting all of them. He’s been to meet-and-greets and town halls in every county, had interviews on Springfield and Berkshire cable stations, and even – along with devoted campaign staffers – climbed a greased pole at the Italian-American club.
(They thought it a good metaphor for getting things done in Washington.)
He’s also shown old-fashioned political courage. At a summer program for kids at the SyriaLebanon border, he became friends with co-worker Mahmoud Khalil, later kidnapped by ICE and threatened with deportation as a “terrorist”. Without hesitating, Whalen published a Boston Globe op-ed, “My friend Mahmoud Khalil is no terrorist sympathizer”. For this he caught flack from MAGA sympathizers, but remained resolute and earned considerable respect from everyone else.
This courage may account for his success as a campaign fundraiser: more than $300,000 to date – 35,000 of it from a fancy soiree held in a horse barn. Evidently, people recognize what Whalen is about: “We have a choice before us: to continue with a political culture dominated by elitism, corporatism, and corrupruon, or to build a future rooted in fairness, community, and care for one another.”
Be sure to catch his August 26 debate with incumbent Richard Neal on WWLP, and read his solutions to 25 pressing national problems at https://www.whalenforcongressma.com/solutions.
Wayne Klug teaches at Berkshire Community College and lives in Lanesborough
Photo: Jeromie Whalen and team after greased pole climb. Credit: Whalen campaign