March 2006

Dear Delegate,

I am writing to introduce myself, explain why I am running for Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and ask for your support.

I first became active in Massachusetts Democratic Party politics as the scheduler for United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy's re-election campaign in 1988. After graduating from Harvard Law School, I served as the staff attorney for the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, DC for two years until moving back to Boston to start the National Voting Rights Institute (NVRI) in 1994. My wife, Lissa Pierce Bonifaz, and I live in Jamaica Plain. Lissa holds a doctorate in bilingual education and works as a professor in the Language and Literacy Division of Lesley University's School of Education.

For the past twelve years, as the founder of the National Voting Rights Institute, I have been at the forefront of many of the key voting rights struggles facing the nation today. In the wake of Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004, it is clear that we must remain vigilant in the ongoing struggle to protect and preserve our right to vote and to safeguard the integrity of our elections.

I stood up against Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell in 2004 when reports emerged throughout Ohio of faulty election equipment and votes not being properly counted.

I led the fight in the courts, on behalf of candidates and voters, for a full recount in Ohio of all of the votes cast for President in the 2004 general election. That case remains pending in federal court in Toledo on our claims that the recount was not conducted in accordance with uniform standards across the state, as is required by the US Constitution. The Kerry-Edwards 2004 campaign joined our case near its inception and remains in the litigation to this day.

And I took the Massachusetts State Legislature to court when it turned its back on the voters it represents and refused to fund the Massachusetts Clean Elections Law.

I led the effort to challenge the legislature's refusal to fund the law – which Massachusetts voters passed overwhelmingly via a ballot initiative in 1998 - and NVRI won a landmark ruling from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, forcing the state to provide the necessary funds to all qualified candidates running in the 2002 state elections.

I believe that, in a democracy, powerful interests must be held accountable to the people.

I represented a coalition of US soldiers, parents of US soldiers, and Members of Congress (led by Representative John Conyers, Jr.) arguing that the president's planned first-strike invasion of Iraq violated the War Powers Clause of the US Constitution.

Alongside my father, Cristóbal Bonifaz (a delegate from Conway), I am defending residents of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon in an ongoing case against the Texaco oil company for the company's environmental destruction of their homeland. I also helped launch a landmark case against the Unocal oil and gas company for human rights abuses connected with the company's construction of a major gas pipeline in Burma, including the forced labor of thousands of Burmese villagers.

I will champion a Voters' Bill of Rights.

Our campaign is advancing a Voters' Bill of Rights, ten new proposed guarantees to strengthen our democracy. I want to ensure that all citizens have the right to vote and to participate in the electoral process on an equal and meaningful basis. We are distributing our Voters' Bill of Rights (visit www.johnbonifaz.com for more information) across the state. Just recently, we held a Town Hall Meeting in Roxbury with Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., who has endorsed my candidacy, to discuss the state of our democracy here in Massachusetts and around the nation.

My campaign is about a different kind of politics, fighting to return voters to power.

Massachusetts is second to last in the nation with respect to electoral competition in state races. As the state's chief elections officer, I will fight to protect and preserve the right to vote and to strengthen our democracy, bringing more voices into the political process and ending the big money dominance of our elections. In overseeing the corporations division, I will press for corporate accountability and will work to make it easier for small businesses to register and operate in our state.

And now, we move forward towards the Democratic Party convention in June.

As you know, I need 15% of delegates to support my candidacy in order to be placed on the primary ballot in September. I ask for your support. Avote for me at the convention says that you believe, as I do, that elections are not coronations. Elections should be about a contest of ideas; a healthy democracy provides voters a choice.

If I can count on your delegate vote on June 3rd, please fill out and return the enclosed pledge card in the return envelope provided.

I look forward to exchanging ideas over the next few months as we campaign around the state. If you would like to schedule an opportunity for me to speak to delegates in your area, please contact my campaign office at 617-524-5151 or email us at info@johnbonifaz.com.

Thank you for your active participation in this important process.

Sincerely,

John Bonifaz