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Looks like John Connolly can't control his supporters, either
By adamg on Wed, 10/23/2013 - 6:34pm
During their debate last night, John Connolly said the proof Marty Walsh wouldn't be able to get unions to do anything they didn't want to came in those flyers union PACs are sending out besmirching Connolly as a, gasp, lawyer, even though Walsh doesn't want them to do that.
But remember when Connolly said he didn't want any outside groups spending money on ads for his campaign, how he wanted to win this race the right way, by communicating with voters himself? Yeah, well, so much for that, David Bernstein reports.
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Comments
It's all okay...
... as long as the uncooperative supporters have nothing to do with unions. Big money backing the destruction of public schools and the privatization of public education is no problem, no problem at all.
Big money from unions backing
Big money from unions backing the destruction of public schools and public education since the 1960s is no problem, no problem at all.
Union
Or was it suburban liberals?
Connolly goes negative then lies about it.
Todays Globe ( http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/201... ) shows Conolly has gone negative himself. His negative push poll comes directly from his campaign though. So much for staying positive. This raises some serious questions about him. He has repeatedly bashed Walsh for a negative mailer that didn't come from Walsh's campaign but Connolly's campaign paid for this negative push poll. Worse still he denied it when confronted with the proof that it came from his campaign. This shows a pattern of negative tactics from Connolly and then denying it. He did EXACTLY the same thing in 07. He sent a negative hit piece on Murphy and even when presented with evidence that it came from him he LIED about it. This shows a serious charater flaw. Just like Murphy said back then, Connolly is a liar and a sneak!
Destruction??
Really? Come on. What are they going to "destroy" exactly? The abysmal test scores or the what--maybe MORE than a third of the kids won't graduate high school? Maybe we can get more middle class families to flee the city? There's been a lot of talk this week about union bashing but maybe can we stop pretending that anyone who wants to shake up the school system is a secret Koch brother who eats children.
Just for the record, that mailing was a total POS. I like Marty Walsh but frankly having these folks send out a 100% negative attack-filled flyer accusing Connolly of being an elitist, a fake, and "not one of us" was like a flashing sign saying "sorry--I have no control over these a**holes."
Difference is Connolly doesn't to have special powers over
third parties, which is exactly one of the claims Walsh is making re: the unions.
Walsh never claimed...
... he had "special powers".
Re: Both candidates hands are tied in regards to third parties
Connolly and Walsh can't do anything about this. The law prohibits them or their campaigns from even speaking to these folks. They can state publicly they want the groups to stop, but it's pretty close to impossible to make them.
What Connolly said
In the first article linked to here Connolly said "I'm deeply worried that such groups are going to warp the debate by making large purchases for TV and radio commercials and that they're going to open the door for negative campaigning."
The snarky "so much for that" link points to an entirely positive ad.
Perhaps Connolly has controlled them after all, where Walsh has failed?
False equivalence here
Let's be clear: neither candidate is allowed to coordinate with these groups. That's against the law in this perverse environment that Citizens United has created. That said, only one candidate, Connolly, has spoken out against the outside money and turned it down in the preliminary. Walsh has made no such move at any point.
Further, none of the outside money for Connolly, before or currently, is being used to attack Walsh. This new DFER ad is all about Connolly and education. It doesn't mention his opponent.
The union mailers don't mention Walsh either; they are only about attacking Connolly. They are as purely negative as the DFER piece is purely positive.
Walsh has made his special relationship with the unions his selling point, trying to turn a perceived weakness into a qualification. His inability to get these unions and union-backed PACs to stop their negative attacks on Connolly calls into question that central point on which his entire campaign is based. If the unions won't listen to Walsh on a straightforward matter -- no negative attacks, please -- how can we expect them to listen to him when he is asking for concessions in a complicated and expensive negotiation over a city contract?
Connolly has made no such argument about his relationship with any special interest. None of these groups backing him have contracts with the city of Boston which the next mayor will be negotiating. To try to make Walsh and Connolly somehow equal on this point misses that fundamental difference between their two candidacies.
If Walsh had agreed to the People's Pledge like Senators Markey and Warren and the candidate in the Fifth Congressional primary, there would be a mechanism in place to hold both campaign accountable for the actions of these outside groups. But Walsh chose to have it both ways: making futile statements to the press against negative attacks while benefiting from them.
about DFER
DFER is funded by Bain and WalMart. They want new market tax credits, $130,000,000 worth, and a steady stream of taxpayer funds for every kid they can take out of Boston Public Schools and put in their new charter schools. For every new charter opened, a neighborhood Boston Public School will be merged or closed. Students and teachers not attending these new charters will be displaced and fired. I definitely don't agree that DFER's deep pockets are financing positive ads. I think their agenda is enormously destructive of our public schools system.