BMG News has learned that, at least as far as the organizers of the candidate forum in Medford on Wednesday night were concerned, Secretary of State Galvin was confirmed to attend.
John Bonifaz’s campaign manager, Juan Martinez, made the following email exchange available to us (the correspondent’s name has been deleted):
From: Juan Martinez, Bonifaz Committee
To: xxx
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 1:12 AM
Subject: RE: Medford Democratic Candidates’ Night Forum
Hi xxx,
Thanks so much for this detailed information. We’re looking forward to Wednesday night’s forum. I assume it is still on, correct? Has Secretary Galvin confirmed as well?
I’ve included a bio for John below. Please let me know if you need anything else.
Thanks very much!
Juan
************
[Bonifaz’s bio is omitted. –ed.]
________________________________________________
From: xxx
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 8:06 AM
To: juan@johnbonifaz.com
Subject: Re: Medford Democratic Candidates’ Night Forum
Hi, Juan:
The forum is still on and we are looking forward to Mr. Bonifaz’s attendance. Thank you for the bio. Mr. Galvin office has confirmed. I am hoping to see both of you on Wednesday night.
Sure looks to me like, as of Tuesday morning, the organizers of the event believed that Galvin was confirmed to attend the next day. Now, it may well be that, as Galvin’s campaign has claimed here at BMG, he never actually confirmed, and there was some kind of misunderstanding with the folks in Medford. I can’t speak to that possibility – I still have not been able to get much information from them, despite several phone calls and emails. But there seems to be no basis for accusing the Bonifaz campaign of “dishonesty” with respect to Galvin’s no-showing in Medford, since both Bonifaz and the event’s organizers apparently understood that Galvin was confirmed to attend.
I’d certainly be interested in hearing additional details from the Galvin campaign, or from the folks in Medford, as to what happened and whether there was a misunderstanding. But, as I posted earlier today, I’m frankly more interested in knowing whether there will in fact be some kind of public forum or debate with these two candidates between now and the primary (when people might actually be paying attention). Anyone? Bueller?
Just to confirm the matter further, can you try and verify that the person who sent that second email (whose email address you understandably censored) did in fact write that? I don’t doubt that the exchange you were provided is authentic (it would be bone-headed to risk making it up), but it’s always good to check on these things so the Galvin campaign can’t claim Bonifaz is just lying.
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I guess I’ll add my voice to the chorus of people who have been planning to vote for Galvin but are extremely disappointed by his behavior during this campaign. I still don’t necessarily see myself going for Bonifaz, so at this point I just don’t know what I’m going to do. If I pull the leaver for Galvin, I’ll be holding my nose.