Congratulations to MA-09 candidate Mac D’Alessandro for snagging the Boston Globe’s endorsement in next week’s primary!
Sometimes, lone-wolf stances can be admirable. But after nine years in Congress, there’s little evidence that Lynch’s independent path has led to much more than a string of frayed relationships….
While Lynch’s votes are individually defensible, collectively they provide a mirror into his politics. When others saw opportunity for historic reforms, he offered skepticism. When others stepped forward to shape legislation, he held back. D’Alessandro would be quite different: More cautious about military interventions, including Afghanistan; more willing to do the necessary work of reforming the economy, even when it involves unpopular fixes like bailing out the banking and housing industries; more eager to be a leader both in extending health coverage and in bringing research dollars to Massachusetts.
Coming into Congress as a freshman, D’Alessandro would be at square one, but ironically would have more favor with his party’s leaders than Lynch. For nine years, Lynch has honorably followed his own path. D’Alessandro is an articulate advocate for working people who deserves a chance to show what he, too, can do.
Things seem to be going well in the D’Alessandro campaign. They’ve raised a lot of money, outraising Lynch 3-1 in the last eight weeks (though Lynch still has a big cash-on-hand advantage). They have a vigorous volunteer operation going.
So now, with eight days to go, it’s crunch time. You know what to do.
Volunteer
Donate:
endorsement really means anything in today’s world. I can assure you that most working-class democrats do not follow that paper’s party line. Don’t get your hopes up too much; I’d hate to see you sad and grouchy next Tuesday night.
would say, “hey, great, Mac got the Globe’s endorsement. I guess our work is done.” But rest assured, no one is taking that approach.
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p>I find the concern for my well being expressed by you, JohnD, and other local eccentrics to be, well, touching. Surely, though, you all have more important things going on in your lives than to worry about the state of mind of a BMG editor. Or maybe you don’t…
the subscribers to local newspapers is down and on-line readers don’t read the “paper” start to finish…and respect for all institutions has plummeted (including journalism via TV, radio and print outlets)…so it is no wonder that an endorsement from a media outlet of any kind has far less weight than it would have 20 years ago. Maybe that’s a good thing. People will have to think for themselves and decide for themselves and often (as in the Brown election) make mistakes in judgement. I do not vote in the 10th District, but I would think that in this political anti-incumbent climate, any challenger would start off with a 25-30% base even if they were unknown. That would help Mac, the rest is up to him.
I’ve said it on BMG before, and I’ll say it again: Endorsements’ main value is in message reinforcement.
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p>Well, there are endorsements, and there are endorsements. Some endorsements bring volunteers and/or fundraising. For example, Cambridge-Somerville for Change has a minimum bar of IIRC 30 people pledging to volunteer for a campaign, before we’ll even qualify them to be voted on for endorsement. We endorsed Mac and have already run several phonebanks and sent a number of people to canvass. Yesterday I made a couple of hours of recruitment calls to our members and signed several people up for canvassing or phonebanks in the coming week, and I’m going to do some door to door for Mac later today.
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p>MassEquality, SEIU, and a few other endorsements, fall into this category, but they’re a minority. The Boston Globe is not one of these. Most endorsements, like the Globe’s, don’t bring people power directly. And, unlike the sometimes naive or uninformed comments on web forums seem to believe, they aren’t mainly about changing people’s minds, either. Although I have on some occasions met people who decided to support a candidate because someone they respected endorsed him or her, that’s the exception.
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p>What most endorsements do is help define a candidate in context, and the perceptions people have of who’s for or against the candidate, how serious they are, how many other people support them, which movements or groups or political threads they’re identified with, and so on.
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p>Each endorsement has a niche – some shared with others – in this vague but powerful system. For example, if a candidate is endorsed by a bunch of progressive groups while their opponent isn’t endorsed by any of them, the clear message is “this is the progressive choice” – which can sway people who want to support the progressive movement within the party but find things to like about both candidates.
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p>The Globe’s niche is, among other things, a stamp of seriousness. When people see that the Globe has endorsed a candidate, the unspoken implication that they feel, even if they don’t consciously think about it, is that “this is a legitimate, serious, respectable choice, someone who a lot of people will be voting for.” Is that going to take a Lynch supporter and get them to vote for Mac? Of course not. But it may:
– get a voter who didn’t take Mac’s challenge seriously, to reconsider that
– provide an extra push to a voter who favors Mac but might have neglected to vote, depending on how their day went on Sep 14
– give cover to some other endorsing organization or locally influential person who leans towards Mac but was worried about taking a risk in speaking out
– nudge someone who was going to vote but hadn’t thought much about this race (maybe they’re a fan of one of the auditor or treasure candidates, for example), to give them a positive opinion of Mac that might turn into a vote for him
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p>and so on.
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p>I have definitely seen some close races in Massachusetts swayed by the newspapers’ endorsements. They’re not all-powerful, but they do matter.
when a major paper endorses a challenger like this. It will make at least some difference in the race, although it obviously won’t determine the outcome by itself.
I’d say it’s a serious thing that the regional paper of record steps out of its way to endorse a newcomer over a heretofore very comfortable incumbent.
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p>It gives others a confirmation of what those of us on the “inside” (ie, those who have been volunteering and enthusiastically supporting for a while now) have known all along… Mac is the real deal, and we CAN do better in the 9th.
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p>Please, BMG, give $$$ and time and your contact list to the cause. Get me a better Congressman for my birthday, I’d really appreciate it.