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James Bradley EldridgeJohns Hopkins University Commencement (Class of 1995)
/ref> (born August 11, 1973) is an American politician and lawyer. He serves as a Democratic member of the Massachusetts Senate from the Middlesex and Worcester District. Eldridge previously served three terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he sat on the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Business, the Joint Committee on Election Laws, and the Joint Committee on Public Service.
/ref> He was one of the original founders of the school's community service group, Acton Boxborough Community Outreach.Meet Jamie
/ref> He attended Johns Hopkins University in
/ref> and volunteered in the 1992 Presidential Election, and was elected student body president.Eldridge, Jamie
/ref> During his time at Johns Hopkins, he interned for Congressman Marty Meehan. He started studies at Boston College Law School in 1997 and graduated in 2000.Martindale-Hubbell Law Profile
/ref>
/ref> From 2001 to 2003 he served on the Acton Housing Authority and the Acton Planning Board. In the same year, he also became vice-president of the re-energized Acton Conservation Trust. He completed a summer internship as a student prosecutor for the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office. He worked as a prosecutor in the towns of Natick and Framingham, and assisted on the district attorney's community-based justice program in the City of Lowell. In his final year of law school, Eldridge was elected chair of the Acton Democratic Town Committee. Eldridge worked for Merrimack Valley Legal Services in Lowell, a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to the poor and the elderly. He worked as a public interest lawyer in the fields of housing, Social Security disability, and unemployment law.Massachusetts General Court – State Senator James B. Eldridge
/ref> He received the National Association for Public Interest Law Equal Justice Fellowship; a national two-year fellowship that allows recent law graduates to create their dream public interest project to help the less fortunate. The fellowship allowed him to create the Community Development Justice Project , which allowed him to practice
Eldridge was elected to Massachusetts House of Representatives on November 5, 2002. Upon his election, Eldridge became the first elected official in the history of Massachusetts to be elected as a Clean Elections candidate. To date, he remains the only such elected official, as the Massachusetts Clean Elections law was repealed a little over a year later. He was subsequently sworn in on January 1, 2003. The district included the towns of Boxborough,
/ref> (District of Middlesex and Worcester) on January 7, 2009. Eldrige won re-election to the state senate by 57% to 43% on November 2, 2010. Eldridge has proposed a variety of legislation on the environment, economic justice, and a variety of other issues in his legislative career. He was the lead sponsor of bullying-prevention legislation, a version of which was passed by the legislature and signed into law in 2010. In his current term in the state senate, Senator Eldridge has promised to fight for single-payer healthcare. On February 28, 2014, Eldridge endorsed Don Berwick for governor in the Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2014 In January 2016, Eldridge formally endorsedBernie Sanders campaign ramps up Massachusetts efforts ahead of Super Tuesday
/ref>
State Senator James Eldridge
– Official Website
James B. Eldridge bio - Telegram.com (2016)Massachusetts General Court – State Senator James B. Eldridge
– Official MA Senate Website
Project Vote Smart – Representative James B. Eldridge (MA)
– Profile *''Follow the Money'' – James B Eldridge
200620042002
campaign contributions {{DEFAULTSORT:Eldridge, Jamie 1973 births Living people Democratic Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Johns Hopkins University alumni Boston College Law School alumni Democratic Party Massachusetts state senators 21st-century American politicians People from Acton, Massachusetts 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers Massachusetts lawyers
/ref> (born August 11, 1973) is an American politician and lawyer. He serves as a Democratic member of the Massachusetts Senate from the Middlesex and Worcester District. Eldridge previously served three terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he sat on the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Business, the Joint Committee on Election Laws, and the Joint Committee on Public Service.
Education
Eldridge attended the Acton Public Schools and graduated from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in 1991.About Senator Eldridge/ref> He was one of the original founders of the school's community service group, Acton Boxborough Community Outreach.Meet Jamie
/ref> He attended Johns Hopkins University in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
, and majored in political science. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu,LinkedIn Profile/ref> and volunteered in the 1992 Presidential Election, and was elected student body president.Eldridge, Jamie
/ref> During his time at Johns Hopkins, he interned for Congressman Marty Meehan. He started studies at Boston College Law School in 1997 and graduated in 2000.Martindale-Hubbell Law Profile
/ref>
Career
In his second year of law school, Eldridge managed then-State Representative Pam Resor’s successful re-election campaign in 1998. During this campaign, he worked on the historic MassachusettsClean Elections
A publicly funded election is an election funded with money collected through income tax donations or taxes as opposed to private or corporate funded campaigns. It is a policy initially instituted after Nixon for candidates to opt into publicly f ...
bill, which provided public financing to political candidates willing to accept campaign spending limits and the prohibition of accepting of special interest and large financial contributions. After the bill passed by voter referendum, Jamie was appointed as the Middlesex and Worcester Senate District Coordinator. From 1995 to 1997 he was a paralegal litigation associate with Hale and Dorr (now WilmerHale
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, also known as Hale & Dorr and WilmerHale, is an international law firm with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. It is co-headquartered in Washington, D.C. and Boston. It was formed in 2004 thr ...
).James Eldridge's Biography/ref> From 2001 to 2003 he served on the Acton Housing Authority and the Acton Planning Board. In the same year, he also became vice-president of the re-energized Acton Conservation Trust. He completed a summer internship as a student prosecutor for the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office. He worked as a prosecutor in the towns of Natick and Framingham, and assisted on the district attorney's community-based justice program in the City of Lowell. In his final year of law school, Eldridge was elected chair of the Acton Democratic Town Committee. Eldridge worked for Merrimack Valley Legal Services in Lowell, a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to the poor and the elderly. He worked as a public interest lawyer in the fields of housing, Social Security disability, and unemployment law.Massachusetts General Court – State Senator James B. Eldridge
/ref> He received the National Association for Public Interest Law Equal Justice Fellowship; a national two-year fellowship that allows recent law graduates to create their dream public interest project to help the less fortunate. The fellowship allowed him to create the Community Development Justice Project , which allowed him to practice
community economic development Community economic development (CED) is a field of study that actively elicits community involvement when working with government, and private sectors to build strong communities, industries, and markets. It includes collaborative and participatory ...
law in Lowell, to help build affordable housing, start new businesses, and create non-profits to address local problems. Eldridge left his fellowship early to devote his full energies to running for the 37th Middlesex District open seat.
Eldridge was elected to Massachusetts House of Representatives on November 5, 2002. Upon his election, Eldridge became the first elected official in the history of Massachusetts to be elected as a Clean Elections candidate. To date, he remains the only such elected official, as the Massachusetts Clean Elections law was repealed a little over a year later. He was subsequently sworn in on January 1, 2003. The district included the towns of Boxborough, Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, Lunenburg, Shirley, and portions of Acton Acton may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Mount Acton
Australia
* Acton, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
* Acton, Tasmania, a suburb of Burnie
* Acton Park, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, formerly known as Acton
Canada ...
and Lancaster.
In 2007, Eldridge was a candidate in the Democratic primary for a special election to replace Marty Meehan as United States Congressman for Massachusetts's 5th congressional district. He lost the five-way Democratic primary to Niki Tsongas
Nicola Dickson "Niki" Sauvage Tsongas (; born April 26, 1946) is an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 2007 to 2019. She held the seat formerly held by her husband, the late Paul Tsongas, for the dis ...
, whom he then endorsed. The '' Lowell Sun'' called Eldridge's third-place finish a "sign of a bright future".
Eldridge had endorsed Barack Obama for president, and was elected to be a pledged delegate for Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention
The 2008 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party where it adopted its national platform and officially nominated its candidates for president and vice president. The conventi ...
.
Eldridge assumed the Massachusetts Senate seat formerly held by Pam ResorElection Stats/ref> (District of Middlesex and Worcester) on January 7, 2009. Eldrige won re-election to the state senate by 57% to 43% on November 2, 2010. Eldridge has proposed a variety of legislation on the environment, economic justice, and a variety of other issues in his legislative career. He was the lead sponsor of bullying-prevention legislation, a version of which was passed by the legislature and signed into law in 2010. In his current term in the state senate, Senator Eldridge has promised to fight for single-payer healthcare. On February 28, 2014, Eldridge endorsed Don Berwick for governor in the Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2014 In January 2016, Eldridge formally endorsed
Bernie Sanders
Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...
in the Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016
Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 4,051 delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for president in the 2016 United States presidential e ...
. He later served as a delegate for Sanders at the 2016 Democratic National Convention
The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majo ...
.
On August 9, 2017, Eldridge announced that he was considering running for congress in the 2018 election in Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district
Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district is located in northeastern and central Massachusetts.
Massachusetts congressional redistricting after the 2010 census has greatly changed the borders of this congressional district, largely dividing it ...
after Congresswoman Niki Tsongas
Nicola Dickson "Niki" Sauvage Tsongas (; born April 26, 1946) is an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 2007 to 2019. She held the seat formerly held by her husband, the late Paul Tsongas, for the dis ...
announced that she would retire at the end of her current term. He later decided not to run for congress and stay in the state senate.
He won re-election on November 6, 2018 defeating Republican challenger Margaret Busse and Independent challenger Terra Friedrichs.
In 2020, he endorsed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2020
Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 3,979 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention held on August 17–20 to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2020 Unit ...
and later served on his campaign as state co-chair./ref>
Personal life
Eldridge is an Acton, Massachusetts, native and the son of a public school kindergarten teacher and electrical engineer.See also
*2019–2020 Massachusetts legislature
The 191st Massachusetts General Court was the meeting of the legislative branch of the state government of Massachusetts, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It convened in Boston at the Massachusetts State House, on Januar ...
* 2021–2022 Massachusetts legislature
The 192nd Massachusetts General Court is the current meeting of the legislative branch of the state government of Massachusetts. It consists of elected members of the Senate and House of Representatives. It first convened in Boston at the Massachu ...
References
External links
State Senator James Eldridge
– Official Website
James B. Eldridge bio - Telegram.com (2016)
– Official MA Senate Website
Project Vote Smart – Representative James B. Eldridge (MA)
– Profile *''Follow the Money'' – James B Eldridge
2006
campaign contributions {{DEFAULTSORT:Eldridge, Jamie 1973 births Living people Democratic Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Johns Hopkins University alumni Boston College Law School alumni Democratic Party Massachusetts state senators 21st-century American politicians People from Acton, Massachusetts 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers Massachusetts lawyers