John Sears
Herbert Gleason
Peter Nessen
Herbert Weiss
Jack Curtin

Mondays, April 23 and May 14, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. plus 3 sessions in the fall, dates and times to be announced
Church of the Advent, Moseley Hall, 30 Brimmer Street

The course will consist of five sessions. Since the fall schedule is yet to be established, spring participants will be given priority for spaces in the fall. Any remaining spaces will be assigned during the fall registration period.

At each meeting, speaker(s) will be invited and audience participation will be encouraged.

At the first session on April 23, John Sears will give a history of presidential elections and ask seminar participants for their ideas on the mechanics of an election, including financing. They will be asked to consider what the election issues are before the next session.

In the second session, on May 14, Herbert Gleason will discuss the issues that have emerged from the state primaries. The participants will sit as a platform committee and hear testimony before adopting a platform.

Led by Peter Nessen in the fall before the general election, the third session will review the party platforms and how the candidates – congressional and presidential – are addressing them.

The fourth session, coordinated by Herbert Weiss, will review the polls and forecast the results of the Presidential election and the Senate race in Massachusetts.

After the election, Jack Curtin will lead an analysis of the results and its impact on the country.

John Sears

John Sears, Beacon Hill’s best-known historian, raconteur, and man about town, is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford and a lifelong civic leader. He was chairman of the Metropolitan District Commission from 1970 to 1975 and then chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party.

Herbert Gleason

Herbert Gleason has practiced law in Boston for almost 50 years. He has been involved in many civic controversies during that period. He was a founder of Citizens for the Boston Schools, chairman of the Ward 5 Democratic Committee, and Corporation Counsel for the City of Boston under mayor Kevin White.

Peter Nessen

Peter Nessen has served under three Massachusetts governors: under Michael Dukakis he was Assistant Secretary of Human Services and Social Services; under William Weld he was Secretary of Administration and Finance; and under Mitt Romney he was Governor’s Advisor on Education.

Herbert Weiss

Herbert Weiss is a practicing lawyer in Boston, a graduate of the Harvard Law School, and a member of the Massachusetts and federal bar associations. He practices at Burns & Levinson LLP, in Boston

Jack Curtin

Jack Curtin has lived on Beacon Hill for 21 years and has been working with Beacon Hill Seminars since the beginning, now eleven years. He has a BA from Yale and an MBA from Harvard, neither of which has been of any help in understanding politics as practiced in Massachusetts.