Election roundup: South Shore pol, 'dark' money from away line up behind Walsh, who becomes victim of push polling

I wonder where the money for increased pay and benefits for the unions will come from? Surely not the residents of Boston, right?

Look at Linehan trying a last minute appeal to the South Boston yuppies with American Provisions and Southie Grows! Too little too late, especially after his moronic stand against bike lanes on Broadway a few months ago.

The barbarians are gleefully waiting at the gates to loot America's Athens should their chosen Trojan Horse be allowed through the gates into office

A few weeks ago, I received a call from a similar push poll - supposedly independent, but this one was clearly pushing Walsh. They made several positive statements about Walsh, and mostly negative statements about Connolly and asked how knowing that information affected my vote. One statement was that some of Connolly's relatives are republicans. Sorry, that info, if true, is not going to sway me. One thing that is going to sway me is the fact that Walsh is getting so much union cash. Why, oh why, are the unions so desperate to get him elected? Oh the future contract negotiations...

Before the preliminary election my street in Roslindale was heavily visited. The only way to shut my two dogs up when the door bell rings is to open the door, and there were a couple of nights that multiple campaign workers came by. One evening I opened my door to someone I assumed was campaigning for one of the candidates. She introduced herself as being from Working America and asked if I had time to answer a couple of questions about my concerns going into the election. Suffering from doorbell fatigue, I said I had no idea, she rattled off a list of possible options, I think I picked the economy and increasing transparency and made up some reasons why while she took some notes.

Then she asked if I had given any thought to who I would be voting for. I said no, told her it would be a game time decision and she proceeded to pull a Working America for Mary Walsh flier out from under the paperwork on her clipboard and said that based on my concerns I should seriously consider him. She said that her organization wasn't working for him but that they supported his campaign and hoped I would as well.

They've since returned twice now and I'm not falling for it again. Now I just say "I'm voting for Connolly" when I open the door to avoid discussing my concerns and the "Please support Walsh" sneak attack.

I swear I've become "poll king" with all of the surveys I've been answering, which makes me a sucker for actually having a land line and answering it. I've gotten push polls for Connolly ("after hearing that, do you want to change your choice") and for other candidates. The other day I got what I thought was a push poll, so I lied. It really did seem like a push poll, and it was computerized. At the end they noted the organization, Public Policy Polling, which is a real outfit. I felt a bit bad for lying, thereby skewing the results, but whatever.

I think we hoped this would stay clean, but with this lineup, it wasn't going to happen.