If you're not reading the new PolitickerMA site, you're just not paying attention to Mass. politics. It's a great resource that is adding a lot of coverage to the state rep/Senate primary races — which desperately need media oxygen. Anyway …
- 34th Middlesex (Somerville/Medford): Unsurprisingly, Rep. Carl Sciortino has a lot more money than his challenger, Somerville Alderman Bob Trane. (Time to spend that, I would guess.) Of course, Carl's got a bigger battle than expected, waging a sticker campaign because of allegedly stolen signatures, but I hear he's got quite the volunteer army … he's gonna need it. Carl's one of the best, most progressive, most responsive reps out there — go get your sticker!
- Next door in the 35th Middlesex (my district), progressives Patrick McCabe and Jim Caralis are taking on the relatively-conservative Paul Donato. McCabe seems to have more institutional support and energy from folks like MassEquality and the Teamsters; Jim sent out a mailer focused on tax issues and missing out on school revenues. Medford is changing. We'll have more on this later. (Disclosure: I've been volunteering for Patrick, but obviously I think Jim is a good guy.)
- 29th Middlesex (Watertown/Cambridge): Gov. Patrick endorses his college buddy Jon Hecht against SEIU lawyer Julia Fahey and two others. I'd like to hear more about this race … Any partisans want to jump in and educate us?(Globe article, via Politicker.)
- Worcester and Middlesex Senate: Check out SaveFitchburg's liveblog of yesterday's debate between Senate candidates Jen Flanagan and Brian Knuutila. I was intrigued by the exchange regarding the fair share assessment for uninsuring employers: From what I can tell, Knuutila seems to want to shield employers from their responsibilities; Flanagan wants them to pay their share. Big issue, and it jumped out at me as the thing with statewide consequences.
- Sue Chalifoux Zephir writes in pumping her campaign in the 4th Worcester House race to succeed Flanagan; she's up against longtime Leominster city councilor Dennis Rosa. She claims to be more progressive than he; he claims to be a fiscal hawk. Both websites emphasize bringing home the bacon, but lack specifics on the issues, so it's difficult to assess. How exactly would they contain health care costs? How would they deal with the MBTA debt, especially vis-a-vis expansion? How do they propose to deal with our infrastructure-funding backlog, and Turnpike debt? Etc.
I have to say that it's a bit dizzying trying to keep up with all these races. If anyone's got some on-the-ground info or opinions on these or any other primary, speak now or forever hold your peace.
Please share widely!
somertricky says
Trane’s negative and largely substance-free campaign against Sciortino may finally be catching up to him; several posters on the Somerville Journal, Somerville News, Inside Medford and the Davis Square Live Journal all seem to have decided against Bob this week.
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p>Despite all of Bob’s railing about Sciortino and his out-of-district support, Trane raised at least 60% of his contributions (if you discount his 16k contribution to himself) outside of the 34th. He also has accepted $4500 in funds which can be tied back to his brother’s telecommunication consulting firm, and there’s a story there as well.
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p>I’m not sure how to address the almost $2800 worth of “Unitemized Receipts” Trane’s report lists, either.
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p>- – –
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p>What may be more intriguing, given the nomination papers missing from Sciortino’s office: Trane accepted $300 in total from a mail clerk. For the House of Representatives. In the State House.
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p>If this doesn’t sound remotely intriguing, maybe you should go back to reading the Herald. Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe it’s something else: I spoke with someone who works in the State House this morning, and although he said mail is typically delivered to pool secretaries, “it would not be unusual to see a mail clerk in a legislator’s office.”
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p>- – –
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p>Fundraising aside, Trane may have problems on the other side of the ledger as well: he’s listed over $3400 in expenditures than were incurred before he pulled papers to run for the seat. I don’t know if this is standard operating procedure or not, but whoever is moderating comments at the Somerville News website has quashed two of comments of my regarding this, so I’m under the suspiscion that, as Miss Clavel would say, something is not right.
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p>- – –
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p>The funny thing is, given Trane’s ballot status, he probably could have won this in a cakewalk if he played nice from the start, answered the PDS and STMP questionnaires, established a stand on the issues. Instead he breaks out of the gates calling Sciortino “elitist” and “out of touch” and campaigns almost entirely on Sciortino’s funding and supposed “insider” status. I’m hoping the Scorched Earth approach backfires on Mr. Trane; we’ll see Tuesday night.
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p>
gray-sky says
I’m sorry I don’t understand the relationship between Trane and the mail clerk. Please fill me in.
somertricky says
Right now, nothing more than a monetary relationship. The mail clerk does appear to give out an inordinate amount of money to candidates for state office (over $2k in 2005, almost $3k in 2006, $1250 so far in 2008) for someone on such a modest salary. I don’t know what the guy’s rationale for contributing to Trane is (he’s not in Bob’s district).
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p>I’ve also thrown out some other dots for people to connect in various ways. My picture doesn’t look very pretty, though. Your mileage may vary.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
The mail clerk has no more relationship to the nomination papers then anyone else working in the building.
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p>Are you saying the mail clerk may have stole the nomination papers?
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p>Are you saying the the mail clerk shouldn’t donate money to political candidates?
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p>Are you a schmuck?
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p>You sound like a schmuck.
somertricky says
I am saying what I’ve said; readers may form their own conclusions. You’ve got some interesting ideas there, amigo.
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p>Your statement about the clerk’s relationship to the nomination papers is true; however, it appears to be more likely that the mail clerk has more of a reason to randomly be in Sciortino’s office space than, say, Mitt Romney’s press secretary, for example.
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p>I will also say that if the shoe were on the other foot, if papers had gone missing from Trane’s office, and Sciortino had received the donation, the Trane campaign would have gone ballistic; at the very least, the Somerville News website would have crashed from the Trane supporters the site attracts all trying to post lengthy invectives at the same time.
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p>- – –
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p>As far as the donations from the clerk, I can’t discern a pattern: I would recommend searching the EFS site by contributor, Ern. He’s managed to give money to both Paul Casey and Pat Jehlen, for example.
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p>I’m not saying he shouldn’t give money, I’m pointing out that level of dedication from someone at a ~$30k salary is a bit, um, uncommon. It’s political tithing, but I’m not sure which denomination. And now Trane’s a benefactor.
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p>Readers can form their own conclusions on my degree of schmuckitude as well (I do not not believe this can be determined with a yes-or-no answer). However, if schmuckness is a relative rather than isolated quality, you may wish to consider stepping outside of the glass house before hurling stones.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
as for a pattern the guy probbaly knows them both. there is a cross over in their districts.
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p>putz
somertricky says
Great observation, Einstein. Your use of Yiddish vernacular notwithstanding, there is indeed a cross over in Casey and Jehlen’s districts; trouble is our friendly clerk resides in Paul Donato’s district, not Casey’s. But maybe the guy’s confused about where he lives: he’s given to nine different people running for representative and five for senator – three of whom (Donato, Shannon and Jehlen) have actually represented the chap.
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p>I thought you’d pick up on the fact Casey and Jehlen faced off against one another in a senatorial primary back in 2005. What I’d forgotten was that there were two other candidates in the race, both of whom were also favored with the largesse of our man in Medford: Joe Mackey and Michael Callahan. This is not necessarily hedging your bets, but perhaps more indicative of how all this money was distributed.
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p>There have also been donations to almost every elective office in Middlesex County (sheriff, probate, deeds, DA), plus various sundry state offices (auditor, governor’s council, treasurer).
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p>Ernie – I thought you’d be against the display of such blatant hackage – i.e. $350 to Buonomo, $500 to DiMasi, $850 to Callahan (I don’t have time to Google the moral rectitude of all the others).
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p>What gives, monsignor?
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
Just do what the voices in your head tell you do somertricky.
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p>you lack intelligence.
billxi says
Between Belanger and Moore. I would like to know who to vote for? Give me reasons to pick one over the other. My vote is up for grabs.
davesoko says
has been endorsed by MassAlliance, the statewide coalition of progressive organizations. That’s usually good enough for me.
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p>http://www.belangerforsenate.c…
billxi says
resaons not endorsements from special interests. There is enough of that in government. Thank you for your time though.
christopher says
I can’t think of anybody who is not sympathetic to some represented interests. I would suggest going to MassAlliance’s website and see who its members are and what they advocate. Just because a group is organized and pays lobbyists doesn’t make them inherently bad.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
Mass Alliance demands candidates request their endorsement and share in “all their values”. The Democratic Socilaists of America is one of the 22 members of Mass Alliance.
No problem being a socilaist. Just admit it and defend it.
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p>Can Belanger do that? Or did he make a mistake by asking for Mass Alliance’s endorsment? Can he admit that?
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p>The voters deserve to know. They don’t want a Manchurian candidate. Like Belanger most likely,
johnt001 says
He’s a better candidate than Moore will ever be – Moore has dropped out of several debates recently, leaving Doug to face an empty chair. Couple that with Moore’s thuggish supporters – someone threw a brick through the window of Doug’s Worcester office, and Belanger lawn signs throughout the district are getting ripped up and shredded on the supporter’s lawns while Moore’s signs on neighboring properties are left alone – you begin to get a picture of the type of senator Moore would make.
billxi says
Belanger is endorsed by John Binienda. Binienda is the poster boy for whats wrong with our state legislature.
Socialism is not a bad thing. Of course Karl Marx never had a real job, and I believe in practical experience, not just observation as Marx did.
Of course being tied to Guy Glodis is no bonus either. But the sherriff’s office does good work.
Lesser of 2 evils, I guess.
laurel says
billxi says
I find Sherriff Glodis and his department much less offensive than John Binienda. I know the Sherriff from when he was in little league. He played, I coached. Guy once got the only hit in a game. But I digress. I stand by my statement on Binienda. Is there a 3rd candidate we don’t know about? I have never voted for a candidate because I was told to. I like to make up my own mind. Yes, I know you’re all thinking of rejoinders, go ahead, have fun.
smadin says
The Watertown TAB has endorsed Hecht as well. It’s an interesting race. I think Hecht is going to win; he’s definitely got the strongest organization. He and Fahey are both excellent candidates, I think; I wasn’t as impressed by Corbett or Josh Weisbuch. (I notice that Weisbuch still isn’t listed in BMG’s primary sidebar.) There have been three candidate forums, one in Cambridge and two in Watertown, though I didn’t make it to the third because it was at 11:30 AM on Tuesday. sco has been doing great work organizing things as chair of the town Democratic Committee, by the way.
afertig says
Big primary here in Stoneham and Winchester with Jason Lewis squaring off against Mike Rotondi.
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p>The big issue theres is bringing in more local aid, strengthening the schools, and of course working to reduce the cost of healthcare.
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p>Jason has been endorsed by many strong organizations which advocate for working families. We can always use help on election day turning out the vote!
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p>Obligatory full disclosure: I’m the Deputy Campaign Manager for Jason Lewis’s campaign
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
Isn’t the big issue Lewis’ ties to Mass Alliance and the Democratic Socialists of America and his refusal to discuss it when asked?
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p>I’ve been told that Lewis looked pretty lame by attacking Rotondi for mentioning it. As if it was dirty politics.
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p>I’ve been told Lewis looked very weak when challenged in the debate. Even if he was right.
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p>I’ve been told Lewis is lousy on his feet and will never hit a fastball.
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p>I’ve been told that lewis didn’t even attend the semi-annual town meeting when the committe he was on was expected to be there.
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p>I understand Lewis is a big fraud that either has an agenda or is too lame to see that he is a puppet of people that do.
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p>Either way he will be an awful rep.
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p>BTW. Can Lewis admit he is a Socialist or say he made a mistake?
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factcheck says
by whom? Maybe you should take your conversations with Rotondi with a small grain of salt.
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p>We might disagree about how good a Rep Lewis will be (I think he will be just fine…if not very good) but at least we agree he’s going to become one!
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
So Lewis did explain his relationship with Mass Alliance?
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p>I don ‘t think he did factcheck.
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p>I’m told they call him the Music Man in Winchester and Stoneham.
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p>He sounds pretty lame to me.
sabutai says
Aka Brockton is a turnout/ GOTV race. There is largely agreement on most issues, and it will come down to City Councillor Brady or Sullivan getting more union- and other group-allied supporters to the polls. Yunits has done a fair job as a candidate, but doesn’t have the institutional strength these two have.
pcsmith32 says
Rematch of Linda Dean Campell and Chris Dibella has been interesting to watch. I did not live in the district the first time around. Campell has almost all of the institutional support that comes with incumbancy but Dibella has been hammering her in the local media. Does Campell have any state wide reputation?