Anyone else a delegate to the Convention next weekend?
Since the convention is close to home, I might even hit up some parties the night before. It might be fun to meet up with with fellow BMGers.
Please share widely!
Reality-based commentary on politics.
Not sure if I’m going to make any parties Friday night – email me, my address is in my profile.
I can’t find your profile.
Email me here: john (at) tehans (dot) com
I’m curious who is voting for DeFranco as I still question if she’ll hit 15%.
I will not make it, though ironically I will be out west. A best friend of mine from way back has her wedding shower on the same day. I was planning on attending the convention but won’t be able to.
Marissa got the necessary signatures and deserves to be on the ballot-if she is not then the Mass. Democrats have no belief in democracy!!!!!!!
No candidate for state wide office has ever failed to get 15% of convention delegates since the rule was instituted. If DeFranco fails to get 15%, it won’t be because Mass. Democrats have no belief in democracy – it will be because she failed to reach out to enough delegates to get on the ballot, your exclamation points notwithstanding.
because a troll gave himself away either.
Marisa already has the delegates. It’s a lock that she will be on the ballot.
If she is really serious about running, she should release four years of tax returns BEFORE the convention. What is she hiding?
The Warren campaign had a representative at our caucus, the DeFranco campaign did not. Ms. Warren came to visit us in Stoneham, Ms. DeFranco did not. I’ve been contacted several times by the Warren campaign asking for my support on Saturday, I haven’t heard a peep from the DeFranco campaign. Telling me that if I don’t vote for your candidate I don’t believe in democracy does nothing to advance your cause.
Yes, it’s relatively easy and ballot access should not be super difficult. Yet there are candidates who haven’t made the cut. The party historians will point out that nobody has managed to clear the field, but Steve Grossman came awfully close in 2010 to knocking off Steve Murphy and I dare say Elizabeth Warren is generating more buzz than he did.
It’s just not hard to get to 15% at the convention. It’s much harder to get the signatures.
Of course, we don’t really know how Marisa De actually got her signatures. I don’t think that, even if she really had 40 volunteers, that number of volunteers could get 10,000 certified signatures. Remember how Ralph Nader had republican help to get onto the ballot? Do we really know how Marisa got her signatures?
I forget who said so, but there’s another comment on here saying that she hired professional signature gatherers.
said she paid signature gatherers.
That’s how the republicans helped Ralph Nader. They paid people who gathered signatures to put him on the ballot.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-08-11-nader-signaturees_x.htm
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/2427264/voters-outreach-connection-to-nader-campaign?clienttype=printable
One point on which I will absolutely defend her is how hard she has worked over the past few months. She shows up at just about every party event it seems.
She continues to practice law full time. She’s not meeting voters or campaigning.
I saw her at a single payer health care forum, at the first meeting of Progressive Mass, and at several other functions. I introduced myself, explained the type of activist I am, gave her my contact info and asked her to get in touch. I emailed her to follow up, and sent her messages on Facebook. She has never followed up. I agree with bluewatch, she’s not working very hard at all.
Marisa DeFranco did not attend the forum that you are referring to so there is no way that the events you described could have taken place.
Or the first meeting of Progressive Mass?
I was wearing my opera wig. I gave your number to my cousin, but I guess he hasn’t called you yet.
9th, 10th straight one, something like that. Hope people stick through the end, as a resolution objecting to Stand’s attempt to purchase a legal change in workers’ rights in public education will be put before the body.
breakfast?
Setting the alarm extra early just to be there!
Actually Mike Capuano failed to 15% in his first attempt at statewide office (SOC) and Chris Gab just inched by in his run for Governor against Governor Patrick.
It’s a threshold, just like the signatures. And its a test of a campaign’s field just like the signatures. You know you need 15%, you know the number of total Delegates, you can research the usual turnout. Campaigns need to do their homework. Call and ID Delegates. Make sure they are attending. It’s basic GOTV.
No one “gave” the candidates their signatures – they worked to earn them (paid collectors or not). No one should “give” the candidates 15%. They should work to earn the votes at the Convention.
I predict that Marisa gets her 15%. Elizabeth is the overwhelming winner of the Dem Primary on Sept. 6th and the winner of the November election by 2-4%.
There’s no lock on the 15%. I think she falls right below or maybe right above it, if she’s lucky. Given her sullen and defensive manner, and the way she’s glommed onto Brown’s disgusting, racist attack on Warren, I doubt any of the party’s insiders are really going to go to bat for her behind the scenes.
Remember, Gab got his by backroom maneuvering too, it wasn’t like he got them all on his lonesome. That was a three way race of course, but still.
She just does not come across as a serious candidate. That will show on the convention floor, and influence undecided delegates not to bother to help her.
All the anecdotes I’ve heard so far from delegates indicates DeFranco hasn’t even done the VERY minimum of work. One phone call per delegate shouldn’t be any harder than signatures.
“she’s glommed onto Brown’s disgusting, racist attack on Warren, I doubt any of the party’s insiders are really going to go to bat for her behind the scenes.”
I am all for opinion especially on a message board. I am against the spread of misinformation. Doing so is something that we should be all against as that’s what the other guys do.
To say that Marisa DeFranco has “glommed on” to the Cherokee Indian story is completely inaccurate. She IS however repeatedly asked about it during interviews and appearances. Often the talk show host or interviewer may give their opinion on the subject. Obviously the candidate isn’t responsible for the questions asked during an interview, nor is she responsible for the opinions of the talk show host interviewing her.
Her comments have never suggested that Warren was unqualified to be a professor or that her listing herself as a Cherokee Indian disqualifies her from being Senator or an honorable person in general. She HAS said that the whole thing has been handled quite poorly by her and her campaign as it’s still a story weeks after it initially broke. That’s quite different than the right wing argument that you falsely accuse her of glomming on to.
“All the anecdotes I’ve heard so far from delegates indicates DeFranco hasn’t even done the VERY minimum of work. One phone call per delegate shouldn’t be any harder than signatures.”
That’s false too.
I dare you to find a single interview where DeFranco has ever said that Ms. Warren was at Harvard because she said she was Cherokee
You just showed up and you’re lecturing us.
Furthermore, a statement beginning “all the anecdotes I’ve heard” is neither refuted nor even answered by “That’s false too”. We know who Lynne is. We know she’d hear from other activists. We have an idea that she’s an honest reporter.
You on the other hand…
“Furthermore, a statement beginning “all the anecdotes I’ve heard” is neither refuted nor even answered by “That’s false too”. ”
Clearly I was referring to what the anecdotes said not weather she heard anecdotes. I have no idea weather she heard anecdotes or whom she heard them from and it’s irrelevant. The information contained in these anecdotes is false.
“You just showed up and you’re lecturing us.”
I see, so I do not have the right to correct the dissemination of false information because I just got here? Tell me when do I earn that right?
The information contained in Lynne’s post was false and I resent the defense of the dissemination of false information for ANY reason.
One of the anecdotes Lynne mentioned is my story – the DeFranco campaign never reached out to me. Are you calling me a liar?
“One of the anecdotes Lynne mentioned is my story – the DeFranco campaign never reached out to me. Are you calling me a liar?”
John,
Give me your real name and where you are from and I’ll tell you for sure if you are a liar or not, or just mistaken. By the way, this is MY real name and you are welcome to contact me on Facebook if you desire to remain anonymous.
If it turns out that you have indeed been contacted, even if a message was left with a third party that you were not told about are you willing to say so publicly? I’d be happy to do the same.
Keep in mind also that people who were identified as strong for Warren previous to this month were not contacted. Also, bad numbers and full mailboxes were not contacted either.
Roger, I tried several times to get Marisa herself to talk to me. I met her at several events, gave her my card and asked her to call me, I emailed her and I contacted her through Facebook. I’m very active in Southern Worcester County, even to the point of hosting a political show on local access cable – she never called me. After I was elected as a delegate, I was still never contacted.
I replied to you with my full name and a partial list of my progressive bona fides on another comment thread, but here it is again – I’m John Tehan from Milford.
Now you’re going to tell me that I’m mistaken, because the campaign may have left a message with a third party? Or maybe I didn’t get called at all, since I told Marisa’s canvasser at the caucus that I had already decided to support Warren? Or maybe your database will say that I was contacted, and you’ll call me a liar – of course, the person who entered the information saying I was contacted might be the liar, but, whatever…
For me, the kicker is that you’re admitting that the DeFranco campaign didn’t reach out to delegates they identified as Warren supporters. Yet you call Lynne a liar for saying she’s talked to many delegates who said they hadn’t been contacted by the DeFranco campaign. Do you realize how stupid this makes you look?
We’ve got a bunch of convention delegates who are active participants on this site. They’re all saying that nobody from Team DeFranco has reached out to them. So it’s not good enough for you just to say it’s “false” that she isn’t calling every delegate she possibly can.
“They’re all saying that nobody from Team DeFranco has reached out to them. So it’s not good enough for you just to say it’s “false” that she isn’t calling every delegate she possibly can”
The delegates in question may have been correct at the time they posted what they posted. But their statements are no longer correct. Let me ask you this David, do you think that a delegate who claims not to have been called report back to us if they are subsequently called? I would hope out of a sense of honor that one or two will.
*I* am a delegate. I have NEVER been called, nor have I gotten any calls RECENTLY.
Now, call me a liar again. Please.
Lyne-
My hope is that you are just misinformed and aren’t someone from the Warren campaign or one of her supporters spreading lies to prevent Marisa from getting her 15%.
I think you’d agree that such tactics would be pretty disgusting and have no place in the democratic party.
you have just arrived here at BMG, and you expect people to take you seriously by insinuating that one of the longest-standing members of this site is “spreading lies.” Frankly, that’s more than embarrassing.
You are doing yourself and your candidate no favors by charging out of the gate like this. It seems pretty obvious to me that you don’t spend much time on blogs, or know much about how they roll. Here’s an important hint: credibility is earned over time. Lynne and a number of others you’ve attacked have already earned it. You have not. You might want to start trying.
“you have just arrived here at BMG, and you expect people to take you seriously by insinuating that one of the longest-standing members of this site is “spreading lies.” Frankly, that’s more than embarrassing.”
Tell you what. If the person in question would come forward and correct their mistake I would be happy to apologize for insinuating that it was done on purpose. Mistakes happen and are acceptable as long as they are corrected as soon as possible. My hope is that this was all it was.
Site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infantilism_28physiological_disorder29
And you accuse him of infantilism? LOL!!
Better than someone who makes up stories to tear down Warren’s competitors. I understand that you are passionate about your candidate and that’s fine. But to make up stories about MDF as you have done is NOT okay. I have absolutely no respect for someone who does that.
How about some proof of that accusation, Roger?
John-
John you stated above that you had met Marisa DeFranco at the “first meeting” for ProgMass and that she didn’t respond to you. Since she didn’t attend this event there is no way that this exchange took place.
I suppose the MDF campaign can never have enough enemies.
…where you said she wasn’t at “that forum”, but you didn’t specify which one, since I had mentioned two forums in my comment. Now that I think about it, you’re correct, she wasn’t here, and I was mistaken about that specific meeting. We did discuss Marisa’s answers to the ProgressiveMass questionnaire, so that must have been what I was thinking of.
Be that as it may, I have met her more than once, and each time I reminded her that I wanted her to call me. As Outreach Director of the Greater Blackstone Valley Dems, I wanted her to come to a meeting and talk to our members. She never called or emailed, Roger – sorry, that is just the truth.
My comments about your comments are not, in fact, ad hominem. I base nothing on who you are or what your beliefs on other topics are. Your link reads
I advise you to actually read the Wikipedia article. It will prove educational.
Since no one here knows you from Adam, you are not a victim of any sort of ad hominem attack. Instead, here and elsewhere the response has been to the content of what you wrote. If you write stupid stuff and people say, “That’s stupid stuff!” then then it is dressing up your whining in misspelled and misunderstood Latin to write
he’s being attacked and discredited precisely because he’s new here. He hasn’t put in the requisite work to earn your respect, and so you reject his arguments because of that. It is ad hominem rebuttal in that respect. Leave his origins and affiliations out of it and just try to respond to his arguments as if you knew him like your brother making the same arguments.
I remember the good old Typepad days!
Whatever, if he doesn’t think I know what I’m talking about and am somehow a Warren campaign staffer, everyone else knows differently and can judge this guy for what he is – an astroturfer, at best.
Not to give aid and comfort to Mr. Fritz and team, but I did receive a call recently from the DeFranco campaign, and I’ve heard from several other delegates in Arlington who did as well. I assume Marisa doesn’t have a big enough volunteer team to have hit all of the delegates. There was no outreach from her prior to the caucus, though. I find the DeFranco campaign’s argument that it’s somehow more democratic to throw Marisa a vote at the convention, when she didn’t organize for the caucus, very specious and annoying. At our caucus, delegates and were elected on a Warren slate. People were elected based on their support for Warren. It’s disingenuous, not democratic, to pledge to support one candidate to get elected and then vote for someone else.
Calling Arlington is the least a candidate can do. As far as I know, Lowell wasn’t on the list…
Now, I can do a survey and find out for sure, but it seems like outside 495 has been largely ignored.
Regarding the slate thing, precisely. You gotta do the work to get the votes at convention. This is how Deval Patrick got his endorsement – rank, ground-level organizing.
In Lowell, it would have been EASY to get some delegates elected specifically on the DeFranco slate, though we’re largely Warren country it would seem. There are EMPTY seats in many of our wards. This would have been easy to figure out based on past caucuses.
I will say this: DeFranco was AT our caucus herself (and of course made one of her gut-flinching speeches that I hate, where she sounds defensive and victim-y), but there was no organization that I could see. A speech does not delegates make.
That’s pretty amazing for a candidate who you apparently feel is useless and not working hard enough. You really need to take a look at how YOU are talking about M DeFranco. Saying she sounds “defensive and victim-y” is really reflecting more on you than her. I don’t know why you keep saying such things about her AND her supporters except that you really have nothing else to say. You are the one who has been over the top with gut-flinching language and it is hard to watch. Perhaps there are only a few DeFranco supporters commenting here, but I have a feeling that many more are reading. You certainly aren’t softening them up and swaying them to your side with your constant insults. And then, you state that DeFranco’s supporters are reflecting badly on her. Well, guess what? You are reflecting pretty badly on Elizabeth Warren.
I’m sure she would be incredibly embarrassed if she knew how you are insulting voters in this state.
To me, DeFranco’s use of paid signature gatherers really kills this argument that “its only fair to let her on the ballot because she got the signatures.” All along, we’ve heard lectures on this blog and elsewhere from DeFranco that she’s running the true grassroots campaign, but paid signature gatherers really puts the lie to that sanctimony.
As one who froze my bum off many Saturday mornings in front of a Post Office in February and March doing actual, hard work collecting signatures for Elizabeth, I’m seriously put out by this revelation in the NYT.
Getting 10,000 signatures by paying for them — even only some of them — is a hollow victory. If DeFranco can’t even get signatures without paying for them, then what pray tell earns her a place on the ballot?
there are only about 40 blades of grass.
When I was at the 2002 convention, candidates, after they made their 15%, released their delegates to vote for other candidates on subsequent ballots. Do they still do that? I won’t vote for DeFranco, even if Elizabeth Warren offers to cook dinner at my house.
Paying for signatures is the sort of think that you might expect from Steve Pagliuca. Doesn’t make sense coming from Marisa. So, did she get help from the GOP? Just who are those people that Marisa paid to gather her signatures?
“Getting 10,000 signatures by paying for them — even only some of them — is a hollow victory. If DeFranco can’t even get signatures without paying for them, then what pray tell earns her a place on the ballot?”
As a point of information paying signature gatherers is NOT paying for signatures. Weather the signature gatherer is paid or not is irrelevant. Every person who signs does so of their own volition without pay and they don’t know or care if the signature gatherer is a volunteer or a paid participant. Saying that the candidate “paid for signatures”, implies that those who signed the petition were paid to do so, and that’s not right.
… paying signature gatherers by the signature is slimy and creates a scenario where the motivation to sign is one of alleviate the pestering. People do not like to say no. It’s human nature. The second you make it a commission based enterprise, it changes the dynamic.
If the signature gatherers were compensated solely by the hour, then I don’t see the issue, but if they were paid by the name or other variable means, then I consider it less than wholesome.
I wish her, and you, well.
They do a whole bunch of petitions at a time, that’s why they try to sell their services to many candidates and petition drives. They charge between a buck and three or four bucks per signature, and more if you want them to bring the signature sheets to all the city halls by the deadline for you, and the signature gatherers don’t pretend to be anything more than signature gatherers, they aren’t trained to present the candidates message beyond the most basic info like name and what they are running for. They don’t even attempt to explain who the candidates are or what they stand for, they just say “this is a candidate trying to get on the ballot” and enough people think that is enough, they support helping people get on the ballot.
Oh for God’s sake. Trust me, Roger – I know you’re new here, but everyone on this site is sophisticated enough about how the political process works in this state to realize that when we’re talking about paying for signatures, we’re talking about paying the gatherers, not the signers.
But please figure out the proper use of whether/weather…it’s hurting my English-BA-sensibilities…
The rules have since changed so that you only get one chance to hit 15%. Even under the old rules balloting would stop when one candidate gets a majority. Since there are only two candidates then one will definitely get a majority on the first ballot. There is of course also the matter of nobody really being bound to a candidate except by one’s own word, so it’s really not a candidate’s prorogative to “release” delegates.
Then why do I keep hearing people say DeFranco will get 15%. Does she really have that many supporters? I doubt it. Are that many people willing to break with Warren?
I’m not seeing it myself.
My first and I feel like a kid in candy shop, which is pretty funny because I grew up in candy shop.
I’ll be in the Brighton delegation and oh-so-proud to cast my vote for Elizabeth Warren. If anyone would like to meet, email me at dbreiff.at.yahoo.com.
So all the delegates get one vote, for one candidate? I think we’ll see that some high level Democratic loyalists will suddenly “stand up for grassroots democracy” and give DeFranco her 15%. Well, we’ll see that if the votes are made public, are they made public? If it turns out to be party insiders voting to have a primary and not DeFranco supporters, then I think that will prove my conspiracy theory.
as I said, she’s making no friends with the establishment and I doubt Walsh has the pull to give her 15% anyway. What’s he gonna do, go district by district and count ahead of time? Give me a break. There’s no way to rig this vote really.
When there were three rounds of voting, the insiders were able to pull Gabrielli some votes via backchannel deals. However, that was before Walsh’s time, and using an entirely different set of convention rules. If you can say anything for the new rules, it’s that the chips will fall where they may one way or another.
ESPECIALLY after they hear Warren speak vs. DeFranco. A lot of undecideds will go Warren.
Yeah, I think Walsh is going to do a little pre-convention polling, and if he needs to, he’ll direct some party faithful to vote for Marisa DeFranco. Is the vote public? Will we be able to see who voted for her?
The whole point is that Warren will be a better speaker and have more reasonable positions than DeFranco, to give her more gravitas and stature.
Our 30 year old son has taken the day off so I can attend. I won’t be going to any parties in advance this year, because my life has changed so much. I will be going strictly to make the Call to Convention and to cast my vote for Marisa. And I won’t engage in throwing sand or doing any sour tongued nastiness. I will be there to vote for Marisa as I honestly prefer her as a candidate, on the issue of civil liberties and separation of powers (among other issues) as well as her stump speech and personal style. Then I will head back home to tend my husband. I don’t give a damn who agrees with me and who does not agree, either.
Good for you. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
Everyone should follow his or her conscience when s/he votes. To ask for anything less is neither just nor democratic.
We can argue about who’s better, but when it comes down to it, you were chosen to represent your community as you see fit and you should do so.
Sorry to hear about your troubles at home. I’ll keep you in my thoughts.
Post your district, and I’ll try to get around to you and take a picture (if you want to) and then do a convention post on BMG (if that’s okay).
I’ll be in the First Hampden/Hampshire District.
I’ll email everyone who posted their address and maybe we can connect. I’ll see Sabutai at the MTA breakfast.
See you there!
In 4th Middlesex
Really wish I was going. But your best friend (hopefully) only gets married once!!
I’ll be there Saturday only.
The DeFranco campaign made a phone call to my machine last week, but as far as I can tell, she has never campaigned this side of Worcester. Warren, on the other hand, has been out here at least four times.
One wants to win. The other wants to be a gadfly.
Greg I can assure you that Marisa DeFranco wants to win just as badly as Elizabeth Warren does. I thank you for admitting that you were indeed called however.
…for the amount of time it took to go from brand new BMGer to making an enemy of so many of our regulars. Many of our differently winged friends, even when they descend into trollishness, have not managed to get themselves scolded by one of our very (some would argue too much so) patient editors. I also don’t recall any of them directly accusing us of lying about our personal experiences like he has about whether or not the DeFranco campaign reached out to us. Your comments appear to suggest that you are involved with the DeFranco campaign (claiming to know who has been contacted, for example), which you have not disclosed, maybe because you realize how poorly your behavoir reflects on her.
According to the Franklin Democratic Town Committee website, Roger Fritz does indeed represent the Marisa DeFranco campaign.
One can only hope, for their sake, that this is not how they do blog outreach.
Mr. Busch-
Your ad-hominim attacks just show that I have a point. You can’t engage in
By the way, I am a volunteer for the campaign yet speak for myself.
#FAIL
Bye bye. You just lost a BUNCH of votes on this thread.
and you speak about the campaign, you speak for the campaign. You represent the campaign and Defranco, for better or worse.
Christopher-
If someone says that they have met Marisa DeFranco at an event that she did not attend this is a lie pure and simple. I’m sorry that this site is so pro-Warren that they have dissolved into attacking the only remaining Democratic Candidate but that is what has happened and it’s pathetic.
Many of the attacks on Marisa on this site I have found to be disgusting and untrue and I have responded to them of my own volition. You will find that I have NOT made such attacks against Elizabeth Warren.
You want to support your candidate fine. But saying that the campaign hasn’t worked hard to contact every delegate is wrong. It’s offensive to those of us that have given several hours of our time to get a candidate that we believe in on the ballot by calling delegate after delegate.
It is also false and unfair to characterize answers to interviewers questions as “gloming on” to right wing attacks on Warren’s heritage. If you think that setting the record straight on this reflects badly on the DeFranco campaign then so be it.
Unfortunately Christopher you and several of your colleagues have chosen to attack me personally as opposed to respond to my arguments. That just shows me that my arguments are sound and I am making points that you cannot refute. Otherwise you would attempt to refute them as opposed to attacking me.
Quite frankly the behavior of many Democrats towards someone who’s politics they most likely agree with has left me embarrassed for the party. It certainly doesn’t leave me wanting to vote for any of them ever again. Maybe you guys should think about that when you act so hatefully towards one of your own. By the time you are through you won’t have anyone left in your big tent.
And again all of the comments made on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the campaign or the candidate herself.
Our responses have gone over your head, apparently.
But, man, what is your goal here?
Is it to protect your pride or help your candidate?
You’ve reached a point where the two are in contradiction. Before you dig yourself in too much deeper, why don’t you take a breather? Why not contact some of 39 other volunteers on the campaign and get some feedback on how best to proceed?
Undoubtedly your Political Director will have a more effective strategy than picking a fight with everyone on BMG.
See my other post, where I admitted I was mistaken – we went over Marisa’s answers to the Progressive Mass questionnaire at that meeting, that must be why I was mistaken about seeing her there.
Your attitude, Roger, is the same as every other Warren supporter we’ve seen on this board lately. Your behavior towards people you most likely agree with is what is reprehensible, and you’re doing your candidate no favors. You really should quit while you’re behind…
But yeah, I would say this is a pattern, not an anomaly.
In my defense, it was late and I should have been sleeping, but SOMEONE WAS WRONG ON THE INTERNET!!! 😉
Try this.
there at the convention?
I guessed 2500 (big ballpark) with 32 districts. By this guesstimate, Defranco will need plus or minus 350 delegates to get 15%.
There are 40 districts, though 2500 might be about right in terms of number of delegates. I once heard (though there may have been downsizing since) that the MA Dem convention was the largest partisan convention in the country, larger than even the nationals.
Yes, the votes are public. The convention is a representative body and votes for candidates are taken by roll call. There have been rumors at every contested convention I’ve attended of tally-fixing, but I’ve never seen evidence.
Finally, to Roger it sounds like Johnt001 is walking back which exact event he met her, but as an activist I don’t doubt for a second that he did meet her somewhere and did ask her to be in touch. Even if he were legitimately mistaken your accusations of lying are still obnoxious. I still think your more than just a run-of-the-mill volunteer if you can claim to know every place she has and hasn’t been. I volunteer for Elizabeth Warren in Lowell. I know a handful of places she has been where I have seen her, but if you say you saw her at some other event that I happened not to attend, who am I to say, “No you didn’t, you liar!”? I’d also love to know where I attacked you personally. The “worst” I have done is point out where it appeared there were some gaps in your knowledge of how things work, but if that’s personal to you grow a thicker skin. If I do say so myself I think I have a fairly decent reputation here of not getting personal.
Yes, I have walked that back – I was mistaken about the Progressive Mass kickoff, where we discussed DeFranco’s responses to the questionnaire, but she was not in attendance. I have met her on several occasions, and I remember one in particular where I mentioned my frustration that we had had to cancel two meetings of our PAC because senate candidates who were supposed to address the meetings had dropped out of the race. She assured me she would be inn touch, but she never followed up.
And for the record, you are probably the most even-handed person on this board, more willing than most to listen and respond to concerns of our differently-winged brethren without getting personal.
Defranco campaign a day or two ago. I just said I was supporting Warren.
I had a call from the Neal campaign as well. Said the same thing. The Nuciforo people had shown up at our caucus, and I received a couple of phone calls, but running on a platform of term limits and knowing that he had planned to run against John Olver, I had less than no interest in him.
is far too late to get a hold of a lot of undecideds. Unless they truly are going to the convention as undecided, they probably have made up their minds.
I never got a call. Maybe they were smart enough to mark me early as a Warren supporter, but I doubt it – since my blog doesn’t use my last name in an obvious way, and the people doing the marking are usually the volunteers who might not be up on the latest in blogavism.
Calling 1.5 weeks ahead shows me disorganization, though, I suppose, at least it’s something.
to call me.
What frustrates me is the disregard (or ignorance) for how things work. Anyone can declare himself a candidate. That’s not enough to be taken seriously. You need money and/or organization. Not having met or seen her, I’m hesitant to make a judgment about Defranco’s personality. All I can do is make inferences, which, given the campaign and the attitude, are not good ones.
This is a big part of it for me. It’s not like this is some huge mystery. Activists like me work hard on current and on past campaigns to play by the very obvious rules. There is no reason to burn bridges in the process.
I endorsed, and volunteered, for Jamie Eldridge’s campaign for the MA-05 special election primary. But the manner in which the candidates comported themselves therein meant that I had no real problem working for Tsongas when she won (despite the fact she was about 3rd or 4th on my preferred list of candidates). And when Eileen Donughue, who came in second to Tsongas, ran for the state Senate a couple cycles later, I happily jumped on board that campaign.
We’re all on the same side, and the candidate that realizes this can benefit even as the underdog. Maybe now, maybe later. Maybe on just moving the debate and pushing the issues. But a defensive candidate attacking on nonissues who persists in some notion that she just merely deserves consideration for existing, well…if we’re set on edge over this, it’s because the edge was already created.
I’m the FIRST person to debate “on the issues” with a candidate who wants to engage in that manner. Read my posts from the MA-05 race. (Where me and my coblogger Mimi were at odds because her first choice candidate was my second choice, and vice versa.)
Ahh, good times. Especially compared to this flame war we never asked for.
My wife and I will be there as delegates for Warren from the Plymouth & Norfolk District.
So our little friend rogerfritz took it to facebook against me! Someone posted a pic of the front page of the Herald tagging DeFranco, where DeFranco is plastered all over demanding “4 debates NOW!” and I posted something to the effect of, it can wait until she has her 15% if she can get it, I prefer not to waste activists’ time, or somesuch. So our fritzsyguy pretty much copied and pasted his comments from here (nonsensical actually, because it was out of total context and had nothing to do with my comment on FB). It got heated because I laid out as I have many a time elsewhere precisely what my issues are, and another guy (supporter, presumably) was like, “what, you won’t vote for someone unless you get a phone call? Give me your info and I’ll make sure you get one” all sarcastic like…so I responded with the concept of HOW DELEGATES WORK 101. Ie, a rundown of how generally most good candidates do it. And of course, to not bother with me because duh, I was long since past undecided.
The original poster deleted the whole pic. Awww, controversy makes them unhappy.
Can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen, peeps! And if you don’t like being debated, then don’t ask for debates. LMFAO!
It should not be legal to pay people to gather signatures. If candidates cannot generate enough grass-roots support to get signatures with volunteers, then they don’t deserve to be on the ballot.
When you allow payment for people to gather signatures, you also open the door for many possible abuses, particularly in the age of Citizens United.
Most people registered by ACORN are Democrats so can we implicate the Democrats as paying for voters?
Interesting that a GOP troll wants to distract attention away from my comment about changing the laws concerning people being paid to gather signatures.
as paying workers to register voters is “paying voters to register”.
[new] ACORN pays their people to register voters… are they buying voters?,/blockquote>
Most people registered by ACORN are Democrats so can we implicate the Democrats as paying for voters?
Everybody should be registered to vote. It is a constitutional right. The fact that we have to pay somebody to go out and actually register people to vote is, in my opinion, shameful. But the history of disenfranchising voters through purges, poll tests and taxes… in word and deed the difficulty put before many of those who’ve been disenfranchised… makes this the much much lesser evil.
Paying for signatures on a ballot petition or for a single candidate is furthering the interest of one and only one person. Paying for voter registration registers voters.
It’s unfortunate that there is an effort to distract attention from the main issue, which is paid signature gatherers for ballot access.
In my opinion, it should be illegal to pay people to gather signatures in order for a candidate to gain access to the ballot. That signature gathering task should be performed by volunteers. If candidates do not have enough grass roots support to have sufficient volunteers to do the job, then their name should not be on the ballot.
In the context of this discussion, paying signature gatherers indicates that the DeFranco campaign has a shortage of volunteers. That’s not evil or bad or horrible like George W. Bush, Bashar al-Asad, or Rick Perry, but it does suggest that DeFranco lacks the troops for a state-wide campaign.
Sure I suppose there are bragging rights that go with not having to pay, but campaigns pay for this, along with canvassers, phone bankers, etc. all the time It puts a little money in the pockets of college students and others who could use a bit more cash in their lives.
There is a reason that 10,000 signatures are required to have a name on the ballot. It causes a candidate to show that he/she has at least a small level of support in the state. If people can be paid to gather the signatures, then anybody with money can get their name on the ballot.
…but paying people to do the work of the campaign is just like anything else. Those who are approached are equally free to refuse regardless of the gatherer’s status, which they probably are not aware of anyway, as they are free to not respond to a canvasser or phonebanker.