John Donahue, of Highland Road, is running for a fourth term as Town Moderator. He grew up in Wareham and Brockton and has lived in town with his wife Jane, a member of the Board of Selectmen, since soon after graduating from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in English and Journalism in 1978. He was a longtime assessor in town, and he runs his own real estate-appraisal firm, John T. Donahue and Associates. He has two daughters.

In 2001, Donahue fulfilled a lifelong goal by earning a Juris Doctorate from Southern New England School of Law. He is also involved in the Wareham Democratic Town Committee and campaigned for John Kerry in Ohio during the Senator's 2004 presidential run.

Donahue said he was inspired to run for Town Moderator after longtime moderator George Taber became ill, and the post was filled by moderators elected from the floor.
"I felt they had a very different style," Donahue said. "I believe you allow everybody to have a voice at Town Meeting, and it had the appearance to me that they used the "moving the question" as a discretionary issue [speechmaking than 'moving the question' to end debate] rather than a procedural issue. It didn't seem democratic."
Since his election in 2001, Donahue said he is proud that he has helped make Town Meeting more clear, efficient, and fair.

He has incorporated technology to Town Meeting. Power Point presentations project the warrant articles and motions. An electronic timer counts down a speaker's alloted time to keep comments concise as well as to demonstrate that each person is given an equal amount of time to speak.

He has instituted cards to ease vote tallying and collaborated with the High School to institute student tellers. Last year, he implemented a Consent Calendar to bundle multiple articles together to be voted on as group rather than having each article - including routine procedural articles - presented and voted on individually.

"I'm a 'seasoned' moderator," Donahue said. "It's important to have someone who is well versed in the law, the priority of motions on the floor, and the parliamentary rules of order."

For further improvements, Donahue said he would like to return Town Meeting to Town Hall to enable the Board of Selectmen, the Finance Committee and the School Committee to sit together in front. He said that the room's lighting and balcony - where nonvoters can sit apart from voters - would ease vote counting.

He said he would also like to incorporate more "teaching moments" where the motions, and the votes that impact those motions, are clearly explained to eliminate confusion - something that affects everybody at the meeting.

"There was a question of the tally at last Town Meeting: this was a learning and a teaching moment for me." Donahue said. "I will not allow anybody to make a motion to dissolve Town Meeting before any articles are addressed. You have to have the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon to be a moderator, which I have been told are qualities I embody. [These qualities] have come in very handy especially during our last several meetings, when a handful of Town Meeting members were deliberately disruptive."

Nevertheless, he is glad to perform the office.

"It's been an honor and a privilege to serve as Town Moderator," Donahue said.