Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Healey’s campaign: the worst Massachusetts has ever seen

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Really, can there be any serious doubt about that?  If what you’ve seen before today wasn’t enough to convince you, today’s papers should do the trick.

  • Harassing families.  The upstanding citizens known as “Inmates for Deval,” depicted in the Herald photo at left, have decided it would be fun to frighten children.  So they staked out not only the home of Deval Patrick, but the home of Patrick’s campaign manager, John Walsh.  Reports the Globe:

    Walsh’s 12-year-old son, who was home alone preparing to catch his school bus, called his father, who had left for work. Walsh’s wife, Donna, who was also on her way to work, became concerned about her son and called Abington police to go the house. Police say the pair left by the time officers arrived.

    “It was certainly disruptive to the neighborhood,” said Chief Dave Majenski, who confirmed that a group “dressed in prison-type garb” were demonstrating in front of the Walsh house.

    Healey’s campaign was surprised to find that its supporters were harassing people’s families, immediately condemned the actions, and urged its volunteers to show respect for all participants in the political process didn’t give a crap.

    Yesterday, the Healey campaign refused to answer questions about the demonstrators.  “The Healey campaign has hundreds of volunteers doing standouts all over Massachusetts every day, and they aren’t centrally coordinated out of our office,” said Nate Little, a spokesman for her campaign.

    How utterly, completely pathetic is that?  They won’t even call on their supporters to stop frightening children?  Who are these people?

  • More than doubling the buy for the worst political ad in Massachusetts history.  The Globe says that “Healey’s media strategists decided yesterday to more than double the television airtime” for the now-infamous LaGuer/garage ad.  This ad, as BMG reported yesterday and as the Globe notes today, has been described by national observers as “as vicious as we’ve seen this cycle.”  That’s in the whole country, folks.  Kerry Healey is running the most vicious attack ad in the entire United States.  And in terms of the history, Willie Horton was bad too, but that was a presidential campaign.  This, AFAIK, is by far the most vicious ad ever run in a MA statewide race.

All of this from the woman who, when asked whether she’d say something about Mitt Romney disparaging the state she wants to govern, wouldn’t do it.  What’s the message there, folks?  She supposedly disagrees with Romney on choice, civil unions, and a few other issues, but she doesn’t disagree with him on making Massachusetts the butt of jokes designed to woo right-wing Republican primary voters?

Why on earth would anyone vote for this person for Governor?

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  1. The Thugs for Healy were out last night in my  suburban neighborhood.

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    My Patrick – Murray signs were stolen out of my yard last night.  I had 2 big ones firmly attached to my mailbox post with both staple gun staples and Duck tape on the edges. 

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    This is like 2004 all over again only worse. 

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    In 2004 I put some disagreeable mucky stuff around the edges of the Kerry-Edwards signs and blackberry stalks on the poles so they wouldn’t keep getting stolen

  2. You must have seen how out of control the union guys got.  Nothing beats that for being over the top.

    • Over-the-top, thuglike behavior is defined as “not harassing children.” Those union thugs weren’t harassing children, damn them, and Deval Patrick, the Thug King, has NEVER harassed a single child. Yeah, you read that right. He hasn’t even paid a mob to go to somenone’s neighborhood and do it, either. What can one say about such over-the-top behavior? Vote Healey! She stays up at night thinking of new ways to terrorize children.

  4. As Christy Mihos (who is looking pretty good by comparision) might say, They said my campaign was wacky.

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    Healy has not just jumped the shark, she has pole-vaulted over Shamu the Killer Whale while wearing a white Klan hood.

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    Here’s a GOTV idea for Healey: Go hire some thugs to burn crosses on people’s lawns.

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    This woman is no longer a serious contender for the corner office.

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    With her various stunts and sleeze-o-meters, Healey is trying to borrow from the organizational grammar of grass-roots advocacy groups.

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    What she fails to realize is that such groups are free from the constraint of needing to be liked. I know–I’ve done it. They are running against something–taxes, nukes, choice–not for elected office.

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    Serious Gubernatorial wannabees do not have this luxury.

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    This is just a stunning political miscalculation on Healey’s part, but an emblematic one.

    • All these so-called “respectable” Republicans, and their cousins the “reasonable” Republicans, who apparently ahve no qualms, moral or otherwise, about the Lester Maddox type campaign that Muffy is running.  Who are running around bragging about how she’s closing the gap and going to win.  Even smugly posting on this website, preening about how reasonable they are while supporting a campaign that would be denounced even in the south today (see: “macaca”).  Just disgusting, willing to sell out any speck of humanity for a 0.3% tax cut. 

    • This goes with the question at the end of the post: “Who would vote for this woman?”. My Dad’s voting for her. Why? Though I love my Dad and respect 90% of him, the 10% I don’t respect is that he’s a racist.

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      Nothing overt, mind you. But he’s the type that buys into the ‘scary black man is gonna rape your wife/daughter’ ads. He’s been sucking off the government teat for years, but votes to lower taxes–and when you call him on it, well, he deserves it and those other people don’t. Other meaning non-white, of course.

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      If you meet my Dad one-on-one, you’d never get this. He’s a friendly guy, deals wiht people one-on-one with none of this crap, and has personal friends of all races. But he’s completely bought into this ‘scary brownish people do all the bad things in this world and are sucking up all your hard-earned tax dollars’ meme. He’s a compelte sucker for the type of ads Healey is running.

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      Unfortunately, even in the supposedly Blue state of MA, he’s not alone. Not by a long shot. I just hope we outnumber him.

      • It’s not as overt as you see other places because we don’t have alot of African Americans here.  I cannot believe we do not have a paper in this state that is calling for Healey to pull those ad’s.  The subtext of her campaign is playing on that non-overt racism.  It’s disgusting. 

        • Oh,we got one of those this morning in JP, of all places.  Was holding a sign with a couple of other people when an older guy drove by in a big car and snarled “F’in N-word” (you get the picture).  My friend Rich said to me, “did he just say what I thought he said?” Yup, he did.

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          At least he’s truthful about how he feels.  Maybe he’ll be in the next Healey ad.

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          As for the “home” issue, totally with David on that 99% of the time.  Maybe if you had a slumlord with no discernable office who was putting people on the streets or shutting off heat, there’s a nexus, but on balance, no.

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          Anyway, the phones were all strong today for the good guys!

      • who still think a woman belongs in the home.  I think Kerry Healey would be doing better if she were a male (of any ethnic background) with the same credentials.  Don’t get me wrong, I have supported Deval Patrick for the past two years because I think he is going to be a great governor. I think he is doing so well in the polls, howver, in part because a large group of people in Massachusetts, men and women, just cannot bring themselves to vote for a woman for governor.  A union guy actually told me a few weeks ago that some of his buddies were in  a quandary over what to do: vote for the woman or vote for the black guy. 

        • I thought the same thing when the primaries were over. “The vote-white-males-only club will have a tsunami of head explosions on Election Day,” I told my husband.

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          Then again, they can always vote for Mihos, can’t they?

          • Then again, they can always vote for Mihos, can’t they?

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            This is part of why I’m surprised Mihos hasn’t been able to clear 7% in the polls.  I thought for sure that the ‘only votes for white males’ cohort (esp. older Tom Reilly supporters) would have gone to Mihos in droves in the weeks after the primary.  If not then, then after that first debate.  But no blip.

  5. My favorite part is how John Walsh and his wife had already left for, you know, WORK.  It must be nice to have nothing better to do than play dress up on a weekday morning.

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    The Herald photo is awesome.  It looks like a bunch of skinheads terrorizing normal, working folks.  How on earth can anyone condone these sorts of theatrics, particularly when it involves picking on an elementary/junior high school student (what grade is 12?  I don’t even know!)?

    • Oh yeah, and you didn’t quote the line from the Healey woman who claimed that she was beaten to the ground about how she’s “5’1″ with long blonde hair.”  What is this, a personal ad?  Oh noes, the Healey campaign is right!  Our white women really DO have to be afraid of Deval for governor!

      • See my comment above. I bet she acted up a storm when she saw the Herald reporters coming.

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        Maybe she was hoping someone would hire her for their latest cheesy movie of the week.

      • It wouldn’t do to say “I’m a white woman,” So Team Healey just makes sure we get the picture through hair color.

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        Also, has anyone else noted the “We’ll both make a little history as governor” line from Healey’s softer ad? This too, of course, is in there to remind voters that Deval is black. (Healey, as we know, is a criminologist, not a historian.)

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        The MSM has a bias toward “the election is tightening” story lines. It’s more fun to cover a tight election than a blow out, and it helps ratings and newspaper sales. But I worry that this bias toward maintaining the “close race” story line is causing many MSM members to refrain from pointing out the unusually venomous nature of the Healey campaign. They’re afraid that if they point out that Healey is “beyond the pale” (ouch!) that the Patrick lead will get even bigger and there’ll be no basis for hyping their election coverage down the stretch.

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        Oh, BTW. With the benefit of four weeks hindsight, Phil Johnston was right about race-baiting, wasn’t he?

        • is code.  When I read that quote, my first thought was okay, this chick’s a serious bigot.  Simply charming.

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          The cynical bigotry fear-mongering of the Healey campaign and its supporters really is a low-water mark in Massachusetts politics. 

        • Healy pulls thug stunt, supporters of both get in shoving match, spun by Healy campaign as Patrick supporters’ aggression, but just as likely staged by her campaign as not.  According to the Herald (arguably on the fringe of the MSM),

          The governor’s race plunged to a new low yesterday as charges flew

          i.e., score even.

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          The swiftboating and williehortonship only continues to work because of the cowardice of the media.  Their criteria for whether they’ve been fair is whether they’ve properly slagged both sides, regardless of the truth.

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          It’s mathematically simple:  If A and B disagree, they might both be lying, but they can’t both be telling the truth.  If either A or B is telling the truth, and the referee has already decided both are lying — because figuring out who’s telling the truth is too much work, apparently — then the advantage goes to the liar.

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          The “horse-race” reporting hurts in a couple of ways.  It’s safer than digging around on the issues, which gets them the obligatory “liberal media” whine.  And by reporting on the latest ad, the controversy over the latest ad, the reaction to the controversy over the latest ad, etc., etc., it allows the ideologically bankrupt campaign to dominate the coverage and prevent any serious examination of issues, policy proposals, or relative merits of the candidates.

    • Look, while I disagree with what these morons are doing, I absolutely hate the whole ‘don’t these people have jobs’ assumption.

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      Because I’ve gotten it.

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      Ever hear of working nights?????

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      Attack what they’re doing, fine, but leave your guesses about peoples’ work lives out of it. It’s insulting. Because I surely could be protesting somewhere in the morning, and I do have a job, thankyouverymuch.

    • A very impressionable age.  A kid in the Walsh family probably already has a lot of political experience, but I expect “home alone with nasty strangers on the lawn” will be a formative event in his attitudes toward politics and campaigns.  Young adolescents are very vulnerable, easily scared and confused.

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      John Walsh is a pretty good-natured guy, but I have seen other political figures who never forgive the opponent who campaigned in front of their house.  Just way too personal. 

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      Whether it was intentional or inadvertant, I’m sure I would never forget a campaign that menaced my child.  They have already gone after Deval’s brother-in-law.  Apolitical family members (especially children) are simply out of bounds.  Way, way over the line.

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      If the Republican ticket wants voters to think of their team as having values and morals and ethics, they are instead showing that they will stop at nothing to harass regular folks – those who don’t live in gated communities – who happen to disagree with their point of view.

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      New slogan suggestions:
      Kerry Healey – Putting Guantanamo tactics to work on Massachusetts residents.  Orange Shirts coming soon to a neighborhood near you!

    • are in 7th grade, with a few young ones in 8th and a few retentions in 6th.  I always had a few who were still twelve when they started with me in 8th grade, but never very many. 

  6. Look, I find the “inmates for Deval” bit to be manipulative, fear-mongering, and from a street-theater viewpoint, not great satire.  But I find the comments about the protest outside Walsh’s house to set a very disturbing precedent.

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    Are we now defining a picket or demonstration in a residential area as “terrorizing” people, to quote one of the comments?  THAT sounds Bush-esque.  Does this also mean that picketing outside an abusive CEO’s house is unacceptable?  Outside the house of a former dictator now living in the Boston area?  Outside Don Rumsfeld’s house?  All of these have happened in the past, and I’m frankly glad they have.

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    Of course, no protesters should harass kids.  But I know that MANY picket lines, protests, and demonstrations have been accused of scaring children.  I once saw a kid get scared by someone dressed in a big Tom Finneran puppet outside Park Street Station–should he not have been protesting Finneran in an area where many children travel with their parents?

    • I agree with you on the use of the word ‘terrorizing’.  I think it over the top.

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      However, I have to disagree with your assessment of demonstrating in residential neighborhoods. Picketting and demonstrating, by definition, are public activities and should be held in the public arena, not in residential neighborhoods. This is, indeed, not ‘terrorizing’, but it is behavior that is aggressive, meant to intimidate and that also crosses a line. 

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      And no, I would not even demonstrate outside of Don Rumsfelds house. I loathe him, but think that those who would demonstrate outside his house are also loathsome.

    • homes should be off limits.  Period.  I don’t care if you’re a Healey thug or an anti-globalization thug.  Keep away from people’s families.

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      So yes, I find the notion of picketing a CEO’s house to be unacceptable, and I’d happily denounce any lefty who does so.  Park Street station is a totally different story — that’s one of the most heavily trafficked public spaces in Boston.  Come on, fcg, you know those are two totally different things.

      • Has public discourse sunk so low that candidates will not condemn the utter breach of good manners shown not just to a candidate, but to his family and neighbors?

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        You want to conduct polictical “street theatre” at the Milton Town Dump or the Pride’s Crossing Train Station or Park Street? Be my guest — the people visiting those spots are choosing to come out of their homes and neighborhoods to do their business and they give up an expectation of privacy to do so. However, the Healey campaign — and everyone else — needs to think about this question:  would you condone a protest in front of your parents’ home should one of them run for office? Or do the ends justify the means — and the civilians on the side be damned?

    • Period. 

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      What’s the matter with this country?  Has politics become such a detestable gutter business that fanatical adults dressed in costumes picketing the private homes of candidates and politicos is defensible? 

      • if you’re a Republican. They will, in GHWBush’s words, do “whatever it takes” to get elected. And do whatever it takes to hold onto power at all costs.

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        I don’t think Muffy would know what to do with the Governor’s post even if she won, except maybe sneer at constituents and the legislature, depending upon whose turn it was.

  7. I have this idea that we should dress up in judges’ robes, carry a scale with a sign that says, “Justice Supports Deval.”

  8. talking about his plan to add 1000 new police officers to patrol communities, to end the traffickng of illegal guns from neighboring states into Massachusetts, to try suspects promptly, and to make Masschusetts a leader in crime prevention.  It should start with a woman (soccer-mom like) looking into the camera and saying how she wants to feel safe and she wants her daughter (children?) to feel safe in their home, in their neighborhood, and throughout the commonwealth.  That is why she is voting for Deval Patrick….etc.  They could change the woman speaking (morph) every few words to emphasize the diversity factor, i.e., how we all want to feel safer. 

  9. Nate Little is an embarrassment to family name (not that he’s any close relation that I know of). He could learn a thing or two about real Little family values and really should be ashamed to have anything to do with the Healey/Hillman campaign.

  10. And a good one at that. The Worcester T&G reported about a week ago on an 84 year old woman from Worcester who was “browbeat” about her support of Patrick in a phone call from the Healey campaign.

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    From the article-

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    Ms. Stone-Smith said the call was very upsetting and that the man on the other end of the phone argued with her when she objected to what he was saying. “He just kept talking right over me. I said I didn’t want to listen to it,” she said. “I finally hung up on him.”

    “She has money, but this gal has no class,” Ms. Stone-Smith said of the lieutenant governor.

    • I sincerely ask anyone making their first visit to BMG or anyone else who has been a supporter on the sidelines…If these tactics disgust you, please join our campaign and help us show her even more how positive people power can work in politics. Hold a sign, join a phone bank or a canvass, or just get a lawn sign or bumper sticker. Write a letter to the editor or a Kos or BMG post. I untertake volunteer activities almost every day and I enjoy most of the activities. The one thing I hate is phonebanking. I try to talk myself out of going every single time. But you know what? When I leave, I’m so glad I went.

    • I get programmed phone calls all the time trying to scare us into voting for Healey–I assume it is because my wife is an unenrolled voter.  I wonder if they target the most threatening calls to female unenrolled voters.  We get programmed calls so we can’t hang up.

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      They get the age off the call lists so this guy calling this old woman had to know how old she was. 

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      If these were isolated incidents it would be one thing.  From day one from Fear-laden TV ad #1 they have been trying to scare and intimidate. 

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      Thug do this and aggressively trying to scare people to make them do what they want is terrorizing them.

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      Overuse of fear is one of the most cynical and destructive tactics to hold onto power. 

    • I’d imagine that they must say…Someone grab one from the skinheads next time they encounter them.

        • And keep reading, below the video…it’s happening on both sides and it’s unfortunate. The difference is the Patrick camp denounces this type of action and the Healey camp doesn’t. In my opinion it is yet another example of a lack of leadership and principled decision-making from Kerry Healey and her people.

      • and the signs.  Is the Healey campaign still maintaining plausible deniability?

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        Whoever did probably paid cash.

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        What company makes the signs- I wonder? 

  12. to spend more time working for Deval.

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    Imagine if Healy got elected with type of campaign! What kind of governor would she be? shudder

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    Also will to travel to Worcester on Wednesday next week to support Deval when he & Murray have a rally with Bill Clinton.

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