1. He was the one Democrat out of 34 in the Mass. Senate to vote with Governor Mitt Romney for a fake and cynical bill that was a political straw-man meant to ‘out-Melanie’ Melanie’s law. (Mike Festa had been the real hero in the House when he insisted that the House leadership bring Melanie’s bill to a vote – just ask the family of the original Melanie). Barrios was apparently just trying again to toughen up his image now that he was running for D.A. The vote sickened his colleagues. But don’t take my word for it. Just ask them.
2. He ran as an anti-Finneran candidate for the House. It took him less than a day to make a deal with Finneran after being elected. Ask anyone who knows.
3. He ran as a civil libertarian for the Senate. Then he sponsored a gang bill that was seriously question by civil libertarians once elected – and once he had decided to run for D.A. Just ask the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.
4. He served four years in the House and has been endorsed by exactly zero of his House colleagues.
More to come…
You’re obviously not a Barrios fan – that’s fine with me, I’m uncommitted in this race and I want to learn as much as I can about all the candidates. But one of our “rules,” such as they are, is to link sources, and this post is woefully short on backup. You suggest that we “just ask” Melanie’s family, or “just ask” Barrios’s colleagues, or “just ask” the ACLU, to verify what you’re saying. Well, if you’re saying it, why don’t YOU ask them, and post attributed quotes here, or give us a link that we can check ourselves? That’s the way to advance the debate.
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Thanks!
Dermot – I appreciated the praise you offered re: my last post. However, I would appreciate nore if you had followed the request. I asked candidates and their supporters to provide certain facts regarding their candidate of choice. Your response can be boiled down to Barrios sucks. If that’s the way you feel, that’s fine, but I was hoping to get some concrete objective facts from supporters. Any chance you have the goods on Festa re: my last post?
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And can anyone else out there give some Barrios or Leone??
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Also, while not dispositive, we do need to be candid about the fundraising piece. Festa is not catching up in the fundraising as you suggested in an earlier post. He’s done about $27K this month. Barrios did $75K in the last two weeks of December. Assuming Festa hasn’t burned anything since December 31, he’s still not at $75K. That’s a tough margin to ignore. (And no dice on a comparison to Coakley – Remember she was riding a huge publicity wave off the Eappen case.)
I am new to this blog-land, and so I appreciate the information about links. I was unaware that anything we say has to be linked to sources. But actually – my suggestion stands. Ask them yourselves. Each of them. Each of you.
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As to ProgTruth’s comment, I was simply commending him for a constructive suggestion. This post, “Facts about Senator Jarrett Barrios” is a separate post and not a response.
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Very weird that no one seems to think that Barrios’s drunk driving Romney vote is revealing about his modus operandi. This is not a man of principle. This is a man of opportunity. How else to explain this vote?
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On money, they tell me that you should be looking for Festa’s end of January statement and the following one.
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Yeah, Jarrett Barrios has money. He always does. But he will not always win. He always has heretofore. This is one of his greatest problems, and one of the foundations of his Achilles heel: hubris.
If you want to make your arguments more convincing.
he outworks everybody else.