Well, this is just hard to explain, isn’t it?
Here’s an article on MA-05 fundraising; and as we might expect, Niki Tsongas is in the lead. Somewhat less expected is Barry Finegold’s strong showing. And as we’ve seen on BMG, in terms of 2nd Quarter receipts, Eileen Donoghue and Jamie El–
Wait, Jamie who?
The AP story makes no mention that one Jamie Eldridge is running for Congress in the Massachusetts 5th district. None.
That’s just inexplicable. I understand Eldridge isn’t the frontrunner, but come on, he’s not some fringe candidate. He’s an elected representative with six figures in cash on hand. If Republican Jim Oganowski (with $111,706.98 cash on hand) is newsworthy — and he emphatically is — then there can’t be any reason for not even mentioning Eldridge, other than plain old fergettin’.
AP reporter Steve LeBlanc better have a real good excuse for this one.
Update: It occurs to me that sometimes there is a real good excuse, like an overzealous local editor. Who knows?
In any event, I’ve got a call in to the AP office in Boston, so maybe we’ll hear back from Mr. LeBlanc.
Further update: This looks like an earlier version of the same story, and it does look like LeBlanc just goofed and forgot Eldridge was in the race:
Calls to the two other Democratic candidates in the race, state Rep. Barry Finegold, D-Andover, and Rep. James Miceli, D-Wilmington, were not returned Sunday.
Note to the Eldridge campaign: You might want to introduce yourselves to the AP reporter on your beat.
Note to AP: … and vice versa.
Still further update: Adam Reilly got this response from the AP bureau chief:
What happened was that we did call the Eldridge campaign asking for the information. They did not get back to us in time for the story. But we neglected to mention that they did not get back to us in the story. Since then, they’ve gotten back to us, and we are producing a short separate [article] with that information [i.e., Eldridge’s fundraising numbers]. We have covered the Eldridge camp in the past, and of course we will do so in the future.
Again, it’s also up to the Eldridge campaign to constantly be up in the faces of the media.
Yet another update: And here are the numbers:
BOSTON –State Rep. James Eldridge has raised $267,660 in his bid for the 5th Congressional District seat, placing him fourth in the five-way fundraising race in the Democratic primary.
Eldridge got contributions from more than 1,000 donors, which shows the grassroots nature of his campaign, Eldridge spokesman Greg LaManna said Tuesday. The Acton Democrat had $140,748 in available cash to spend.
Interesting … doesn’t totally square with EaBo’s numbers, below. I wonder what accounts (hah) for that.
That AP piece was really bad, especially if an intrepid journalist actually did their job and found that Jamie Eldridge has actually outraised Eileen Donoghue by over $20,000 over the course of the campaign. Sure, she has more money, because she lent herself $350K. I’m sure that if Jamie had that ability, he would’ve done the same. That isn’t a knock on Eileen, but, to second Charley’s point, Jamie Eldridge is no fringe candidate.
….HERE on red Mass Group.
<
p>
Since Oganowski couldn’t do any fundraising until his retirement from the military, it makes his funds even more impressive.
<
p>
Of course,you won’t read THAT in the Associated Press, either.
It would be great if the press actually did their jobs by gathering all the facts and then reported them.
The “journalist” took the Tsongas press release and rewrote it.
LeBlanc obviously just mistakenly used Finegold’s name in the above quote (since calls had obviously been returned, as he is mentioned heavily earlier in the article). Goof #1.
<
p>
The Globe, on the other hand, just cut the duplicated name instead of actually fixing it and mentioning Eldridge.
<
p>
It’s one thing to make a stupid mistake. It’s another to see that mistake and cover it up instead of correct it.
from the globe editors?
Will be all over this one, always ready as they are to level real criticism at the MSM and applaud blogs for setting the record straight. /snark. Well, time will tell …
That was one heck of a story. They mention Miceli and he didnt even raise over 25k for the whole campaign. I emailed the Eldridge campaign and apparently LeBlanc said “that he would get them next time” and he apparently called at 5 pm sunday and left a message. He also told them that his line about Eldridge not being available for comment was in the story but that the editor took it out. “it didnt make it in the story” Sounds really fishy to me. Charley, will you please fill us in on what you hear back? That article sounded like a Niki love fest, ohh and there are 2 republicans in the race if he cared to fact check. LOL Where has the quality writing gone in this country? Oh yea I know.. BLOGS!
Something like:
<
p>
<
p>
I guess Jamie’s got the first phase covered after this!