I wasn’t there, but do check out the takes from Mike Ball (of Marry in Mass. and LeftAhead podcast fame), and Dick Howe. Interesting, and it sounds like a good field for progressives.
If you were there, hold forth in the comments. This is otherwise an MA-05 open thread.
Please share widely!
In the spirit of BMG, I will mention that I am a supporter of Jamie Eldridge for Congress. I have endorsed him and I am volunteering in his campaign. He and I worked together as Senate District Coordinators for Deval Patrick.
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I thought it was a very interesting format. Each candidate had a total of eight minutes to use. They could use up to three minutes in an opening statement. Then members of the audience asked questions. The question was asked to only one candidate, whoever was next. If a candidate was concise, that left more time that the candidate could use later. Dick did a great job as moderator and Lynne handled the complex timing job quite well.
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Every candidate had some strengths and weaknesses. We are fortunate to have a number of good candidates running.
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I am clearly biased, so I’ll just mention something that is quantitative. If you give points for brevity only, Jamie won the race hands down! With the stop watch running on the opening statements and two rounds of questioning, each candidate was able to use the remainder of his or her time as he or she chose. The candidate with the least amount of time had fifteen seconds left going into the final round. Jamie had several minutes left and was able to take another question from the audience, make a closing remark and still had a minute of time left the he didn’t use!
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I’ll echo what Dick said in his post that Charley linked. Please come to the various forums that will be held and listen to all the candidates. Then work to get that candidate elected.
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Kate