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There once was a man from Nantucket
By adamg on Wed, 10/15/2008 - 6:57pm
Dear Doug Bennett,
It's cute and all that you've moved up here from Nantucket so you could run for an at-large city council seat. And, gosh, we appreciate the advance robo-call to let us know you'd be in our neighborhood today and I surely did miss meeting you, even though I was home all day and never heard anybody knocking at my door, because I can certainly appreciate a candidate who is for less crime, better paying jobs, lower property taxes and clean streets (unlike all those other candidates).
But, Doug, look: I don't know how they do things down on the Islands, but up here in the big city, people don't really appreciate having campaign palm cards taped to their doors. So if you promise not to do that again, I promise not to try to make up an entire limerick about you (or rather, another one, since the first one was pretty bad). Deal?
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
That's nothing!
Have you been around downtown Hyannis? There are DB bumper stickers plastered all around town from when Bennett ran for Senate. Do you think he's been back to clean up? Ah, nope.
And if you were around for that same senate race, his 'supporters' plastered the inside of a hotel elevator during a convention: http://www.ack.net/Bennett081706.html
I guess you should be happy you don't have a lot of rotaries...
Wait, he's a Republican?
Not that there's anything wrong with that ...
doug bennett, DB
you give me chills
A New Englandism?
What does a counselor at-large actually do that's different than a regular counselor?
Not much
Supposedly, the four at-large councilors represent the interests of all Bostonians, since they're elected by the entire city, as opposed to the nine district councilors. But otherwise, somebody who is cynical might see the positions as mainly holdovers from the days when white politicians wanted to make especially sure they maintained a firm grip on city government, since back then, it was impossible for a black or Hispanic to get elected citywide. Nowadays, it seems more like a potential springboard to higher office (except for poor Steve Murphy).
Which would Dianne Wilkerson
Which would Dianne Wilkerson more likely win - a district seat, or an at-large?
Great hypothetical question
On the one hand, she'd get almost no votes outside her core precincts, and the reality is, West Roxbury and South Boston way outvote Roxbury. And I don't think it would be a racial thing, unless she makes it one (as she did after this year's primary) - didn't Didn't Andrea Cabral do well in West Roxbury last time out? On the other hand, look at what bullet voting did for Felix Arroyo when he actually spent more than 10 minutes campaigning. However, Arroyo didn't have a couple of decades' worth of accumulated legal issues.
No way
I'm willing to go out on a limb here & say no way would she win an at-large seat.
At-Large
They serve at the pleasure of MORE people than district-councilors
Doug did knock on my door
So perhaps I was busy upstairs brushing my teeth or something and didn't hear him. I know because he called me right before the debate to see if there was a time we could get together after reading this post (so look for an interview here, well, once I get my act together and figure out my schedule so I can propose a time to him).
Candidate Forum?
Ooh are you doing a candidate forum? You boston-blog heads should get together amongst yourselves and draft some questions that you can all post on your blogs!
When I was working with DFA groups in Boston / Cambridge that was what we tried to do, and it was usually successful.
Most cool idea!
Something to work toward! However, it's a bit early to try to arrange a debate for the November, 2009 elections, I think.