Dorchester civic leader and former City Council candidate Catherine M. O’Neill shot this touching video in 2005, during John Connolly’s first campaign for an At-Large spot on the Council (he lost but was elected in 2007).
http://youtu.be/M-kN5dhWJ-Q
Please share widely!
🙁
In the video, Walsh is taking Connolly door-to-door to canvass and leave lit, explaining to him the value of making personal contact with voters. Walsh says he met Connolly when the latter was a Statehouse intern, and wants to help him out as a friend. Connolly comes off as raw and even timid, focused more on where to place the lit than how to talk to voters. At one point there is this exchange regarding the law that every canvasser is taught against leaving lit in mailboxes.
Connolly: You don’t really follow the mailbox rule, do you?
Walsh: Yes we do.
Connolly: Really?
Walsh: Yes, but it doesn’t matter! It’s about meeting people!
It’s pretty minor, but Connolly comes off as a guy who assumes campaign laws are made to be skirted.
It was interesting to see them campaign together. It reminds us that politics can tear relationships apart at all levels. I sometimes ask people who run for office and lose if they are glad that they ran. I almost invariably get an immediate and enthusiastic yes. But then people start mentioning the downsides. I especially recall a friend who mentioned that she regrets the enemies that people made and the friendships that were lost because of her race.
I enjoyed the video and wish that it hadn’t been taken down. It was a sweet video.
Both candidates came off well.
A shame it was taken down.
Just Read the Intro….
I thought it worth posting here. It resonates with me and my earlier thoughts of damaged friendships.
They are almost at the finish line.
Candles burning brightly will be taken from a window in West Roxbury and a window in Dorchester; and the warriors will be welcomed home.
They have done an amazing job.
They have been machines.
They have built armies without weapons; just ideas.
They have lifted themselves above an enormously talented field of men; and one enormously talented woman.
One of those candles will be replaced by a beacon we will look towards for at least the next four years.
The tone in the last days has changed, but there is not now, and never has been, a degrading tomahawk chop story line.
My mother wonders why we can’t have two Mayors.
I have never been sadder not voting for someone and more thrilled voting for the other.
I shot this July 2005, when they were being themselves; friends; I hope they can get back to this place.