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Occupy Bostoner, Sanders backer upends longtime Cambridge state rep
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Wow.
Just wow.
Wow, I'm impressed!
As much as I made fun of the Occupiers, I'm almost always glad to see an incumbent defeated.
Kudos to the voters.
BTW, why the hell couldn't they hold these primaries on the same ballot as the presidential primary? Instead of on a Thursday when almost nobody knew or cared about the choices on the sparse ballot.?
Who benefits?
Because holding them on the same ballot as the presidential primary would:
3.
Require local candidates (who often already have non-political jobs) to have their campaign machine up and running before March 1 in order to match the absurd Presidential Primary schedule...and then either shut it down for 6 months just to start it up again in time for November or keep it going at a tremendous cost.
Also, to your comments about hacks liking it this way...do you think the hacks like the idea that an opponent who can whip up anywhere from 500-5000 votes when turnout is below 10% could knock them off the ticket? If these were synced with the presidential primary, you'd have every party voter out there keeping incumbent hacks in their jobs based on name recognition alone.
Some of the *Democrats* would have been beaten by 1000 write-in votes in a city with nearly 400,000 registered voters (nearly all Dems). We're not even talking about needing to get 1% of the vote in order to upset the apple cart with a surprise write-in campaign for a state legislative seat. You think the "hacks" want that kind of uncertainty? They'd much rather everyone just filled in their uncontested bubble while voting for Hillary or Bernie in March and then go back to fundraising for November from their hack jobs while their contenders all go back to their regular positions.
Congratulations to Mike Connolly.
I wonder how Liam Kerr feels this morning after throwing the kitchen sink at Pat Jehlen and getting beat worse than Cam Newtons head did last night. Vulnerable, eh Liam.
Who is Liam Kerr?
He wasn't on the ballot. Chung got whupped.
Head of Democrats for
Head of Democrats for Education Reform, which for whatever reason, tried to turn Chung's race into a proxy for Question 2.
He feels good on balance...
DFER-backed Chynah Tyler won the 7th Suffolk Rep race in Roxbury, beating MTA-backed and Tito-backed Monica Cannon. MTA put more outside money into the race than DFER and came up short. Monica's campaign was openly "No on 2."
Some interesting spin
right there.
That's going to leave a mark...
Toomey was in it for the pension(s). One from Cambridge, one from the Commonwealth. Two part time no-show jobs with a combined cash out of six figures annually, for life.
He'll still get the state kiss, but unless/until he can slither into a replacement position (think county level) it will be frozen where he leaves it.
Being a City Councilor is a rough job
You have no power, you show up for a few meetings a week, sit in your office, maybe talk to some constituents, and get paid damn near $80k for it. If you become mayor—entirely ceremonial, and seems to float around the council—you get another $40k on top of that.
Old Two Timin' Timmy (well, I'll have to retire that nickname) doesn't seem to have any other job, just the two he was elected to. Now one. Maybe he can get himself knocked off the city council next year?
And as much as I disagree with Connolly on some issues (I believe he said we shouldn't build any more housing until it can be carbon neutral, which is a bizarre and just dumb policy statement) he set a really good example for the Occupiers and the Bernie Bro types. STFU about Bernie, and push candidates you like in local elections.