Sometimes you really have to wonder about these reporters. In a story in today’s Herald, which is mostly about Joe Kennedy II’s oil business (Joe II is the father of Joe III, who is running in the 4th congressional district), we get this bizarre passage:
Sean Bielat, Kennedy’s likely challenger in the general election for the 4th Congressional District seat long held by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, said …
Now, where in the world did this reporter, John Zaremba, get the idea that Bielat is the “likely challenger” in the MA-4 race? Has there been a poll of likely Republican primary voters showing that Bielat is way ahead of Elizabeth Childs? Not that I’ve seen. There was a poll last month that showed Joe III way ahead of Bielat in a general election match-up, but it did not poll the primary. That poll did find that 55% of respondents had never heard of Bielat, and 73% had never heard of Childs. Given that Bielat has already run once in the district, you’d think his “never heard of” number would be lower.
Maybe Zaremba looked at fundraising reports and concluded that Childs wasn’t really a viable candidate financially. Well, let’s head on over to the FEC and see what the year-end reports for 2011 have to tell us.
Sean Bielat | Elizabeth Childs | |
Cash on hand | $5,856 | $29,201 |
Individual donations (excluding self-funding) | $18,042 | $39,250 |
Debt | $32,464 | 0 |
Huh. Looks like, by every measure, Childs is the more financially viable candidate at the moment. (Just FYI, Childs has put in a bit under $4,000 of her own money; Bielat has not put in any of his.) And what about endorsements? Well, as we recently discussed, Childs was just endorsed by several reasonably heavy hitters in MA Republican politics; Bielat has been endorsed by Citizens United, which is surely one of the least popular groups in Massachusetts.
Honestly, I cannot imagine why, given the current state of the race, Bielat should be considered the “likely” Republican candidate in the 4th district. Perhaps even worse, the reporter apparently did not even try to get in touch with Childs for her reaction to the story, instead thinking that talking to Bielat was enough. This is exactly what people are talking about when they complain that the media sets the narrative: they make assumptions about who is going to win with absolutely nothing to back them up.
One note to the Childs campaign: you need to get on Twitter immediately, and you need to do better on Facebook. If there’s one place Bielat is kicking your ass, it’s in the social media realm. That is no longer something that candidates can ignore.