Blue Mass Group

Thank You for your thorough and ongoing investigation into the unreasonable distribution charges imposed by National Grid.  It is very hard to be a consumer advocate in such a hostile corporate environment.  Corporations have an unreasonable amount of control in the creation and implementation of regulations, and they seem to have infiltrated every government agency, both state and federal. I am not at all surprised by the findings: National Grid recently agreed to cut $1.5 million from the rate proposal after Coakley found what she called “inappropriate expenses” the utility planned to pass on to customers, including the cost of shipping a utility executive’s wine collection from great Britain to the US, money spent to send executives to the Presidential inauguration, and the tuition paid by a National Grid executive to send his children to an exclusive private school in the UK. What surprises me as that there is an elected official who has the guts to take them on. Thank You so much for that. Please continue to investigate National Grid, and the other energy providers across our state.  Please revisit National Grid’s recent electricity distribution rate hikes in Western MA as well as the unreasonable rate for Cape [...]

Today at the WGBH radio studio, I had the wonderful good fortune to hear an interview with new MA-10 GOP nominee Jeff Perry. As we know, Perry is a strident conservative who wants to repeal Obamacare, is a “hardliner on immigration”, has a shady past in his police career, etc. At some length, Jeff Perry vowed he would make hay by tying his Dem opponent to Nancy Pelosi. And gosh, maybe he'll succeed.  But, uh, Jeff, have you really thought this through? For whom, exactly, should we assume you'll vote for as the next Speaker of the House? The orange guy, right? The guy who said the financial regulation bill was “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon”? “A G.O.P. Leader Tightly Bound to Lobbyists“? This guy? “Not the hardest worker in the world … by 5 or 6 o'clock at night, you can see him at bars.” (Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind. The less he does, the better.) et ce ter a. How about it, Jeff? How about we have good ol' Next-Speaker Boehner here in MA for a big fundraiser, a few rallies, a nice fat photo op? How about a hug? Whaddya say, Jeff?

I’m overwhelmed with gratitude today, and I wanted to take a moment to thank the BMG Community for everything you’ve done for me and for my campaign over the past few months. Your support — the time you spent volunteering for this campaign, the money you contributed, and of course the BMG Kiss of Death (!) — has been nothing short of incredible. Although we didn’t reach the result we were hoping for last night, we have much to be proud of. In just five months, we went from zero — no name recognition, no money, just a few hardy volunteers — to 36% percent of the vote, against an incumbent who began this campaign with over $1 million in the bank. That’s a serious accomplishment, and it could not have been done without you. The fact is, we sent a message. Voters registered their dissatisfaction with the job that Congressman Lynch has been doing — and although, in a low-turnout election, it wasn’t enough to put us over the edge, I know he heard the message. In my work over the years, I’ve learned that one of the most important ways of building power and influence for the progressive [...]

I’ll be on Emily Rooney’s show to talk primaries.

Appears an attorney named Jim McKenna got enough write-ins on the ballots to take on martha Coakley for AG on Nov. 2…info on McKenna from his website: About Jim McKenna  - Worked as Assistant District Attorney for Suffolk and Worcester County Jim worked as a prosecutor for 10 years, gaining perspective and experience by serving in three different offices. He prosecuted public corruption and organized crime in Boston for three years while serving as an Assistant District Attorney in the Organized Crime Division of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office. Jim also served for six years as an Assistant District Attorney in the Worcester County District Attorney’s office, which work included two years as supervisor of the Grand Jury Unit. He began his work as a prosecutor by serving in the Civil Division of the Franklin County [Ohio] Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. In 1998, Jim moved to private practice, but also served as a Special Assistant District Attorney concerning a case on which he had worked while a full-time prosecutor. Specifically, he represented the Commonwealth before the Supreme Judicial Court in support of the first-degree murder conviction of the murderer of Paxton Police Chief Robert Mortell. That conviction was affirmed, as [...]

Biggest upset last night was professional right-wing activist Christine O'Donnell beating career pol and relative moderate Mike Castle. This is a mystery to many people: She's a very, very flawed candidate.  I'd like to suggest that Democrats should not count their chickens about this or any other seat.  Try to watch without judging substance here: O'Donnell may be flaky, and even dishonest. But she's an effective speaker: She seems to mean what she says; she's urgent; she talks about kitchen-table issues; and that she's an attractive female doesn't hurt. (Sound like anyone?) I don't want to overstate the magnitude here: O'Donnell won with 30,000-some votes. Tea Party activists raised a $216,000 for her — nice, but not a gigantic money-bomb. But I'm interested in learning the reason for Tea Party/Glenn Beck-style energy — again, without the interference of judging the substance. (Yes, I agree, it's hideous.) What they're creating, using, and directing here is a sense of community, of holding together. That they've identified an enemy in the personage of Obama is part and parcel of that — an enemy can help define a commonality. I want to riff off of something that O'Donnell alludes to: The paleo-conservative idea that [...]

Russell Holmes won over Karen Payne and Darrin Howell; He is a candidate that will not support the values that we fought for. Russell Holmes Supporters played dirty at the polls, as I feel Mister Holmes will do in the state house. Mister Holmes is a person that has no idea of the issues that the 6th Suffolk district is facing. People need to watch this man! As a society we need to move forward and win for Russell Holmes is a huge step back for equality and women’s Right!

Well, by now all of you have heard the bad news that Mac D’Alessandro has fallen to Incumbent slime ball Stephen Lynch.

As I drove around the district today with my local “political posse,” I could not help but notice Mac’s supporters, including myself, were only able to hold signs in a select few locations. I even had to share signs with one man in Dedham, MA, who was using the only available one.

While I was not terribly connected with the campaign, I noticed there was a lot money spent on Mac’s part. He sent out a blizzard of negative Lynch mail, which we all agree with and appreciate. However, it might have irritated only those die-hard Lynch supporters just enough to out-vote Mac supporters, since it was a low-turnout primary.

A tough day for the G.O.P. After their historic rout in 2008, followed by an impressive recovery, and just when it seemed that they had actually recaptured nationwide momentum, the surreality-based Tea Party has knocked several races into the never-never land of birthers, deathers, and Saudi-funded Fox. “Tea Party victory” appears to be the corporate media’s narrative for today’s balloting — and that story line is likely to stick as tightly as the cloak of Nessus. As Karl Rove said of Delaware Senate Republican nominee Christine O’Donnell (NYT): There’s just a lot of nutty things she’s been saying that just simply don’t add up,” Karl Rove, the Republican strategist, said in a television interview on Fox. “I’m for the Republican, but I’ve got to tell you we were looking at 8 to 9 seats in the Senate we’re now looking at 7 to 8. In my opinion, this is not a race we’re going to be able to win.” He’s right on the money. Scott Brown’s genius, among his many other impressive attributes, is that he clothes his extremism in a barn coat and a friendly smile. Tea Party candidates like Jeff “Columbia State University” Perry and Bill “Is Bill [...]