Some important, though largely below-radar, elections are happening on Tuesday. In East Boston, four candidates are competing in the Democratic primary for the 1st Suffolk state rep seat. (There are no Republicans running for the seat, though Basile comes close.) We’ve endorsed Gloribell Mota, and her campaign could really use your help on election day. Just call them up (617-567-9200), or head over to their election headquarters at 20 Meridian St., 4th floor, right near the Maverick T stop.
Also on Tuesday, there’s a preliminary election for the District 7 and District 9 seats on the Boston City Council (there is no at-large preliminary election this year). Tim Schofield is running for the District 9 seat, and we hope you’ll support him if you’re in his district. Tim’s an old friend on BMG — I believe he’s the first candidate we endorsed for anything, when he ran for the Allston-Brighton state rep seat now held by Mike Moran. He’s a solid progressive and would be an excellent addition to the City Council.
Anything else going on?
Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone (couldn’t find a campaign site) is being challenged by Suzanne Bremer and Rick Scirocco, neither of whom has a serious chance.
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Somerville Ward 6 Alderwoman Rebekah Gewirtz is being challenged by Charles Chisholm (again, couldn’t find a campaign site) and Bob Adams (also no campaign site), neither of whom stand a chance.
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Of course, that doesn’t mean that you can ignore these races. By all means, get out there and work for your candidates!
http://www.joecurtat…
are on Tuesday as well. Primary will select candidates for the first ever Mayoral and City Council seats.
I’m spending the day volunteering at the Tim Schofield office. Our morning super-flurry of activity just died down about 20 minutes go so I get a bit of relative rest, to go see what people are posting about this race around the net 🙂
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Most interesting factoid of the day is that apparently Mark Ciommo is paying a bunch of college students $100 to pollcheck for him today. Expensive. I wonder if that means they can’t get enough volunteers.
I was poll-checking for Scholfield’s campaign this morning (Ward 22-precinct 3, near Brighton Center) and turnout seemed pretty low.
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FWIW, the Ciommo poll-checker was a volunteer. Glennon also had a poll checker there while I was there.
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When I went to vote in a historically low-turnout precinct around 3 PM, the numbers were also low.
Having been at the Ciommo prep meeting this morning at 6 AM and worked the morning on his campaign, I have only met volunteers – including union members from the 10 unions that have endorsed Mark.
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Who do I ask for my $100?
The Phoenix Talking Politics notes that there’s been little coverage of any of these races in the newspapers. In fact, other then its endorsement of Tim Schofield last week, the Globe apparently hasn’t had any articles about the Allston-Brighton race at all. They did apparently run two articles about the East Boston race, “a lot better than the Herald has done”.
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Well, good thing we have blogs.
Big mayoral primary today. Lisa Wong, a progressive candidate for mayor, is expected to advance to November.
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For those who don’t know, Fitchburg is one of the most conservative cities in the state (remember Emile Goguen?). Thirty or forty years of “the good ol’ boy network” has left us in economic ruin, and four candidates with very different philosophies are competing for mayor.
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While news coverage will undoubtedly focus on the fact that Lisa is a young (under 30) Asian woman, the real story is that Fitchburg voters are finally starting to objectively consider qualifications for their elected officials. Lisa has a masters degree in economics from Boston University. She previously headed the Fitchburg Redevelopment Authority, as well as the Women’s Institute for Housing & Economic Development. She’s handled hundred million dollar budgets, created new jobs for the city through the FRA, and has written millions of dollars worth of grants.
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So it’s an exciting time for us here. Big celebrations after the polls close at 8pm.
Hey, what happened to that whole BMG Fellows thing?