I was, and in a very different way still am, a supporter of Jim Marzilli (though I do think he should resign his seat.) No question that he was a progressive legislator. What has happened is terribly sad on many levels.
Why did Ken run against Jim?
Thanks to Massachusetts’s astounding ballot-access laws, by the time Jim’s current problems had come to light last spring it was too late for any of his supporters to file papers. But Ken had already filed. Is there a progressive rationale for that, or is it just about Ken?
Is here a progressive rational for Ken versus Jack Hurd, his opponent, or is that primarily about tribal loyalty?
Progressives don’t have to only support progressives, of course. The buzz with Ken, though, is that he’s one of us.
Only, what does that mean?
I sat at two of the candidates’ debates last year, and when there was a difference between Donnelly and Marzilli, Donnelly was staking out the more liberal position. He’s a strong supporter for single-payer health care. He is strong on marriage and civil rights. He has the endorsement of the MLEV, and some very thoughtful environmentalists who have always been with Marzilli. He has the endorsement of PDM (one of six statewide).
publuc employees who get to live through state wide sconomic turmoil without a bruise.
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p>He sold his soul to the teachers’ unions and far lefty’s in return for not giving an inch to anything not supported by the municipal and state government workers.
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p>Screw Him.
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p>Hurd is the real thing. He is gaining momentum at the right time and he has a solid Arlington core. He is more of a main stream free thinking progressive who is not willing to go to bed with the unions and Mass Alliance lefties.
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p>As a result he plays well in working class Woburn and Burlington too.
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p>I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you about Donnelly. The people behind Donnelly, the lefty wingnuts, aren’t as popular this year as they were just six months ago. And when the heating bills arrive and we see more stories of public employee abuse, demands, and obnoxiousness they will be less popular.
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p>BTW – Donnelly and some other lefty candidates, like BMGer Jim Carilis, are pissed at Carl Sciortino for hoarding all the young lefty naive volunteer types from Podunk who now live in Someville asnd Medford and were doing grassroots volunteer work. Carl put the word out and these cultist are abandoneing their teams and running to Carl’s.
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p>Where’s the loyalty?
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p>Because Carl fucked up these other campaigns are suffering.
…for being a premature candidate? Donnelly ran a strong race last year and he was the second choice candidate everywhere. In a one on one against anybody he looks (by the numbers)good. From hearing Donnelly speak and knowing what I do about him he will vote and act in the progressive tradition of this district.
but I want to know why Donnelly decided to run against Marzilli. Did he think he could do a better job, and if so how? Did he disagree with Marzilli in some significant way, and if so over what?
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p>Or did he just calculate–correctly as it turns out–that by running he might benefit?
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p>Re the rest of your post–I wasn’t asking about his chances, which I already know are pretty good. (Are you just saying, Vote for Ken because he’s going to win anyway?) I want to know about his politics and his ability. (Pablo speaks to that above, though it sounds thin to me.)
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p>My guess is that Ken’s chances would be a lot dicier were there a real progressive in the race in this district. I regret very much that there is not someone with Jim Marzilli’s politics (and without his problems) on the ballot this time around.
When Marzilli got into the first legal scrape, he took out papers. He didn’t decide to take a run at the seat, and mount a campaign, until after the Lowell incident. It was fortunate that we had someone good who had taken out papers at that point, as the Lowell incident happened beyond the deadline for pulling papers.
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p>I am sure that, if the deadline to run or the circumstances were different, we would have a wider choice of candidates. However, given Ken’s race last year, Ken would have been at or near the top of my list of people to support.
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p>I wrote, in a previous post, why I was enthusiastically behind Ken Donnelly. I think he will do a great job for the Fourth Middlesex district.
…Bobby Kennedy to run? Or a unicorn? Maybe Donnelly knew that Marzilli was a troubled man? It makes no difference. You deal with who you have as you can’t beat somebody with nobody. It is either Donnelly or Hurd…until the next time.
I’ve posted both candidates’ positions on my website, side by side. I stripped out the candidate’s names, so all you get is the issues.
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p>http://www.dandunn.org/blog/archives/403
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p>Can you tell which is “the progressive in the race?”
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p>The point I’m trying to make: There are people on BMG who are trying to tag their candidate as “the progressive one” so they can collect the progressive voter segment. It’s an attempt to hang a label (be it positive or negative) in order to change votes. I argue that the two candidates are pretty similar, position-wise. Neither of them is “the progressive.” The progressive was Jim Marzilli, and he’s not running anymore.
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p>I suggest we look beyond the progressive question. Look at experience, their past. And look at what they say they will, do, their future. I think that’s much more meaningful than trying to figure out which one is “the progressive one.”
The funny thing about Donnelly is that when he ran against Marzilli in the special election he was the anti-Marzilli and ran a campaign against Marzilli’s progressive views. Now that he wants Marzilli’s voters he is oddly progressive, but only in some communities. In Billerica where the community tends toward the more conservative side of liberalism Donnelly progressive message is nowhere to be seen. In Arlington, which is a very progressive community he is best buddies with mother earth.
On a side note. If you look at his resume of service there is not one instance where he has fought for any of the positions he espouses. Education? Where is the educational activism? You see it with Hurd, he has been working toward the issues he is discussing and has the resume to prove it. He has the experience and has proven he believes in what he says; even when the voters aren’t watching.