Let me admit up front I just don’t get it. In fact, until this whole charter school “ed reform” mess, I have come to realize that I have walked through most of my life oblivious to what has been going on politically. Forty years ago today, on September 8, 1974, I remember “checking out” when Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon.
Sure, I’ve had isolated, dissociative, out of body, political experiences since. Like when Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was riding around in the army tank, and when the “vapid” Vice President Quayle spelled “potatoe” wrong to a group of school children. Then there was Sarah Palin, whose “SarahPAC” left me “speaking in tongues” to myself at 2am. Most recently, after the Boston Mayoral campaign, I was jolted awake by Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) when, after “strongly supporting” John Connolly, they tried to brownie up to Marty Walsh! You’ve got to love these people at DFER for their gall!
DFER talks a lot about helping “the children,” but I’ve never seen a selfie of Liam Kerr, shooting a few hoops with the kids from The English High School or any other Boston school for that matter! No Tweets of DFER staff dropping off a couple of boxes of Xerox paper, or buying an ad in a BPS high school yearbook, or taking a schools honor roll students out for a tasty lunch on Newbury Street or the Waterfront. That would really mean something to “the children.” who have never been taken out of their back yards in some of our urban communities to see the other, more affluent parts of our city.
Why, I wondered, does DFER exist? DFER doesn’t seem to do anything, yet they appear to have a lot of money to throw around. So, with tomorrow’s election in mind, I checked out DFER on the OCPF (The Massachusetts Office of Campaign & Political Finance) site to see who they were financing this election with their usual last minute advertising blitz. It is a quick way for me to see who I am NOT going to vote for.
In the past 4 days DFER has given Barry Finegold $125,627.35 for phone banks, surveys and direct mailings! WOW! What that money could have done for the Ebola crisis…just saying! On September 2nd, DFER gave Pavel Payano $5,627.70, Elisa Zawadzkas $3,278.46, Neil Kinnon (of Mystic Valley Charter School Fame) received $2,655.55, Jose Tosado $2,03261 and DIANA DIZOGLIO $525.08.
You know I’d really like to see some PAC election reform, and a list of the candidates that turned down DFER!
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