You don’t want to hear this, right now. You just ran a race, it drained you and you lost. Likely, you want to ball up in a corner and stew in your own juices. I get it, but have to beg you not to. We need you! The “cause” needs you. What cause? The one you told us you were all about, when you were campaigning. That one.
This one:
Look. I realize I’m disregarding that “kicked in the gut” feeling you probably have. But honestly, those of us still volunteering and campaigning, can’t be bothered with that. Not until November 7th, anyways. You, the former candidate, have proven assets that you alone can fully mobilize to the betterment of the cause.
Personally, I’d like you to walk your campaign over to the Field Director and Political Director of the Elizabeth Warren Campaign. But, I’m being ballsy enough by bugging you, as it is. Pick a campaign. Go to NH, if you think OFA is worth an ounce of sweat.
Please, and I do mean PLEASE, do something with the campaign you built. Walk it over to another campaign, ASAP. I can’t help but believe, if you meant the things you told us, you could simply take your ball and go home.
No one, I’d bet, would blame you, if you did. But, everyone would respect the hell out of you, if you didn’t.
Take a day or two. Lick the wounds. Dab on the salve. Then, put all you shit in one bag and bring it home. This time, we must leave it all in the street.
PS. Some odd glitch in the software allows me to comment on other’s diaries, but not my own. So, I will thank you for picking this thread up and discussing it, in this edit.
well said! it’s time we stand together and speak with one voice!
He was the father of the Massachusetts Democratic Party. When we lost him, we lost our leader. We don’t have a leader. That’s the problem.
Would someone please tell her to stop listening to the “experts” on her campaign team and tell her she still has time to visit every town and village she has not yet been to. She has time to reach out to independents. She needs to visit more coffee shops and diners, more picnics and gatherings. She needs to let people know she is on their side and that Scott Brown is not who he says he is.
A US senator works for all the *people* of the Commonwealth, not all of the 351 funny shaped polygons drawn on a map. Clearly, the candidate (or the 30 year incumbent) isn’t going to meet all the people. So what’s with the obsession of a candidate visiting some people in every single town? Despite being three times as large, are the needs of Tolland really any different than Granville? Everett and Revere for that matter?
Candidates should visit all regions of their district (senate, CD, etc) but this idea of visiting every single town and village has never made any sense to me. Instead, focus on visiting with many people who represent different demographics — -age, income, education, health status, and on and on and on.
The candidate’s most valuable resource is time. Don’t waste it checking off boxes which aren’t important.
Apparently you don’t understand the value of “All politics is local”. Towns and villages are communities. A visit to each one pulls the community together around that candidate and gives it that warm, fuzzy feeling. It makes the community feel important to the candidate. Visiting a region isn’t local enough. But what do I know? I’m only a voter.
I would say that this is one of Brown’s strengths. Voters in the central and western parts of the commonwealth are disposed to view candidates that actually seem to pay attention with kindness.
Otherwise it is another “Let’s raise the tolls between West Stockbridge and 495 and use the money to expand Red Line T service” politician.
but to check off every single city and town seems like an exercise in ineffective time management.
My local isn’t my municipality — it’s my neighborhood, with its ~6000 residents. I don’t expect a candidate to visit my neighborhood, despite that if it were a town it would have a larger population than over 1/3 of MA communities were it it’s own town.
It isn’t the US Senate. Municipalities aren’t important — people are. Even if every single person in Monroe gets warm and fuzzies and votes for the candidate, that’s 121 votes (including felons, minors, and non-citizens). Why spend the time there instead of in Worcester or Lowell or Quincy? Nobody outside of Monroe will notice that the candidate didn’t visit Monroe, and the candidate will earn far more votes gladhanding where there are significantly more voters.
You’re only *a* voter. I’m only *a* voter. Thing is, I’m also a numbers guy. I’d send the candidate to where the numbers are. That doesn’t mean I’d *avoid* a particular community, but to make a significant time commitment to check 351 boxes? Nawp.
I think the central part of the state is important. Patrick did well here, in large measure because of Murray on the ticket. Brown did well here because he did not seem to feel that this is an “insignificant” part of the state.
I have not lived here long enough to know whether the regional divisions in Massachusetts are ancient, or whether they simply stem from the Big Dig fiasco. I do know that resentment of the financial burden of that project lingers still. Brown has exploited it in the past.
I was just out in Barre (Worcester County) this weekend attending State Senator Brewer’s 25th annual Picnic. For those of you who don’t know the area, Barre, with a population of a whopping 5,400, is the local behemoth, home to the region’s junior high and high school. Oakham, the town that I grew up in, boasts barely 1,900 souls. Another town in the district, New Braintree, has a population of less than 1,000.
Elizabeth was out there, getting a plug from Senator Brewer, giving a speech and shaking everyone’s hand. In one fell swoop, she interacted with most of the politically active people in the entire district, the kinds of people who will go home to Hubbardstown and Hardwick and the other towns in the area and talk to their neighbors about meeting Elizabeth and what she had to say (and, possibly more importantly, what Brewer had to say about her).
Yes, all politics are local. But in some parts of the state, “local” is defined slightly differently. I’m not sure, especially this late in the game, that visiting New Braintree merely to cross it off the list helps EW’s campaign all that much.
Definitely a good thing that she went to meet and greet in Barre, but she needs to do a lot more of it. If you ask me, since she was in the area, there is no reason why she couldn’t pop into a few other towns nearby and stop down at the Main St gathering spot and say hello. (did she? I’m not from that “region” so I wouldn’t know) Actually ask people for their vote. Explain she really wants to represent them and bring their voice back to Washington. The attitude that visiting New Braintree only to cross it off the list is part of the problem. You visit New Braintree because it’s important to you. Then you cross if off your list because you’ve done your job. Here is the reporting done with regard to that visit.
You’re not familiar with the region. You as much as said so yourself. Why try to tell others how to campaign in an area you have no understanding of?
Newbraintree doesn’t have a “Main St. gathering spot.” Oakham, with which I am more familiar having grown up there, has one gas station cum convenience store, a gampground with a bar for its guests, a golf course (run by my family) with a bar and a restaurant that, apart from functions like weddings, only serves the general public on Friday nights, an auto body shop and a junkyard. Other than that, it has a few businesses (daycare, tax preparation, etc) that people run out of their homes. All of this is scattered over more than 20 square miles The center of town is comprised of a church, a library (open part time) and the town hall (also open part time). That’s it. No cafes, no diners, no grocery store. Nothing. Not even a post office, which is in another part of town somewhat near the gas station. If you want to take the family out for eggs and pancakes on the weekend, you go to Barre or North Brookfield. New Braintree is half the size and has even less commercial activity.
Are you starting to get the picture? Elizabeth can’t stop by the local high school football game. That’s in the next town over. She can’t meet people outside the grocery store. There isn’t one. The “local” ice cream shop is in Rutland. The “local” pizza place is in Barre as is the local bakery, as is the hardware store, as is the bank.
I understand that you mean well. But you clearly have no clue what this part of the state is like and you’re trying to talk about how to campaign there as if you do. It’s madness.
That’s a fabulous idea! A great place to meet Independents, Democrats and Republicans. And then a quick stop in the auto body shop to let the owner and the employees know she is on their side. Trust me, word would get out that she was there.
review of her visit, but just the same, important that people know she visited. The fact that they wrote so little with part of it asking this stupid question
In an interview following all the handshakes, Ms. Warren was asked yesterday about decisions made by former Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn and former Springfield Mayor Charles V. Ryan — both Democrats — to endorse her Republican opponent, incumbent U.S. Sen. Scott P. Brown, R-Mass.
only reflects poorly on the reporter and the newspaper, not the candidate. It’s media sponsored negative campaigning, and I think it is rejected by most people. What matters to people who live in Barre is that she visited their town. It makes all the difference. She’s got plenty of time to visit more towns.
Not only did John F. Kennedy visit every city, town, and village, but Rose Kennedy held “tea parties” to involve the electorate in the campaign.A tea party is such an intimate affair, far different than a political event where the electorate gathers in a crowd, and the candidate speaks from a podium. Also, since they were specifically targeting women, they were crossing the barriers of party. Instead of holding events that are political party specific, it might be a great idea to hold events that are across a demographic, with a mix of political affiliations. Still, those events should be more local.
I’m sure there is some common interest that would draw both men and women to an event, regardless of party affiliation. Maybe a card party. Bingo as a fundraiser for a worthy cause? (is bingo legal in MA?) A facebook party???? Could still serve tea though.