Blue Mass Group

A tip o’ the hat to Lynne for noting this Herald article announcing that Ed Davis, currently the police chief of Lowell, will be Boston’s new police commissioner. I know exactly nothing about Mr. Davis or about the other candidates Menino was considering, but I like this from the article: Davis, 50, was selected because of his strength in community policing and building relationships in the neighborhoods, a source said. If that’s true, it bodes well.  That’s the stuff that worked in the 1990s, and it’s the stuff Boston desperately needs to get back to. Anybody know more about this guy?

Of course the mainstream press is ignoring this, but the biggest flip-flop of George Bush’s illustrious career just occured on ABC. 

Bush stated that “We’ve never been stay the course.”

Watch it here

HELLO? 

Well, I’m back from spending the last week in the Washington DC area. And you’d have to live under a rock to not know there’s a big election going on: Maryland has a gubernatorial race is electing a new Senator; Virginia’s got one of the closest Senatorial races in the country, with Bushbot George Allen vs. former Sec. of the Navy – turned pissed-off Dem Jim Webb (“Born Fighting — GRRRR!”). And gosh golly are there a lot of negative ads. In MD’s Senate race, Republican Michael Steele is running as hard as he can away from President Bush, trying to present himself as a maverick outsider, independent from standard-issue GOP nuttiness and bad old tax-n’-spend Democrats. And his ads are pretty good — he’s a good talker on his own behalf, and he slams his opponent Ben Cardin on having taken special interest bucks. Problem is … Cardin has him dead to rights on supporting Bush, and says so in his ads. So all in all, it’s a fair race: negative ads abound, but they seem to deal with a basic issue that’s pretty fair game: The candidates’ respective independence from special interests or the President. The Maryland governor’s [...]

In a move emblematic of her campaign Kerry Healey turned a net loss 200+ police on the street to a 2000+ gain in last weeks debate. Yes, the negative people in the Patrick campaign will and have accused Healey of telling half-truths, but that’s just plain factual. Healey used the 2000+ number because she is hard on crime. By saying there are 200+ less police officers on the street Deval Patrick is emboldening criminals. How can you be strong on crime if you embolden criminals? If Deval has his way the next thing you know there will be skinheads running wild on the streets of Abington. Kerry you’re so very… clever.

I attended the caucus as an observer, since I am registered as an independent and not a Democrat, although am a registered voter in the district. This is cross-posted at my blog, Planning Livable Communities, which usually doesn’t cover politics except relating to planning issues.

Pam Richardson has won the endorsement of the Framingham Democratic Town Committee’s caucus today in the contest to replace Rep. Deborah Blumer in the 6th Middlesex District.

Richardson defeated four other candidates seeking the party’s official nod: Audrey Hall, Katie Murphy, Wes Ritchie and Tom Hanson.

“I have a campaign ready to go,” she said after winning the nod on the caucus’s third ballot. She plans a mailing next Friday, she has fundraisers in the works and newspaper ads ready to go.

The endorsement came after five candidates made their pitch to the 182 registered Democrats who attended the hastily put together Sunday caucus at the Cameron Middle School. The caucus was called after Blumer’s unexpected death last week. (more below the fold)

Hmmm.  Barack Obama has backed off his earlier statements that he’d serve a full six-year term in the Senate, and is now saying that he’s considering a presidential run in 2008. I mean, I like Obama as much as the next guy, but does one good speech really make you presidential material?  What else has he really got on his resume?  Illinois state senate, and a gimme of a US Senate race because his first oppponent turned out to be a psycho and withdrew, and he ended up running against Alan Keyes?  Doesn’t exactly bowl me over… UPDATE: Bob Herbert weighs in on this topic in Monday’s NY Times: But the giddiness is crying out for a reality check. There’s a reason why so many Republicans are saying nice things about Mr. Obama, and urging him to run. They would like nothing more than for the Democrats to nominate a candidate in 2008 who has a very slender résumé, very little experience in national politics, hardly any in foreign policy — and who also happens to be black. The Republicans may be in deep trouble, but they believe they could pretty easily put together a ticket that would chew up [...]

No, I don’t particularly care to re-hash more Ben LaGuer stuff, but the Herald’s Dave Wedge does what should have been done by any number of media outlets weeks ago: Present the simple facts of the current status of LaGuer’s case: The controversial case is headed for a December hearing before the state Supreme Judicial Court, which will decide whether to toss LaGuer’s conviction based on a fingerprint report that was withheld from his lawyers for 20 years. The report, unearthed in 2001, shows that four fingerprints lifted from a phone in the victim’s room do not match LaGuer. The victim was bound with a phone cord. Many academics and journalists who had taken up LaGuer’s cause withdrew support in 2002 after DNA tests called for by LaGuer linked him to the rape. But he insists the tests were flawed, a claim bolstered by reports from several DNA experts who claim the samples tested may have been mishandled and tainted. Of course, none of that means that he’s innocent. But the question of whether he got a fair trial is most definitely in doubt. I’d love to hear some legal experts hold forth on his chances for a new trial. [...]

This spiffy new ad will begin running in Worcester-area markets later this week.  You saw it here first!

Announcing the BMG Air Force: make a 30-second spot that explains why the regressive Republicans have failed Massachusetts and why we need new leadership, and post it with a link. You can also use the “Air Force” link at right to make a secure donation to help us buy  airtime. David has already posted a few initial efforts in the “BMG-TV” box at left: check out Extreme and Record. The BMG community will review the submissions and select a winner. (The Editors have the final say: rank has its privileges!) We’ll buy time for the best spot to run next week on NewsNight With Jim Braude, NECN’s nightly in-depth news analysis program, or on NECN in general if NewsNight is sold out, and maintain an online gallery with all the submissions. Spots should be funny, if possible — there has been too little humor in this race so far — but hard-hitting: we’re up against a group that doesn’t condemn skin heads who stake out suburban homes and shout political epithets at 12-year olds getting ready for school, after all. To follow campaign finance law restrictions, please do not explicitly call for the election or defeat of a specific candidate. [...]

Massport board voted to allow the managers to participate in discussions of the policy, because, in the board’s view, the financial interests are not substantial enough to create a conflict of interest. “Not substantial?”  The key guy, director Tom Kinton, personally has $427,000 at stake!  How can he NOT recuse himself from a discussion on how to amend Massport’s insane “sick leave” giveaway?  Props to Globe’s Sean Murphy for nailing this.