Posts Tagged ‘local elections’

Twin City Tea Party candidate forum Democrats attend!

Posted: June 29, 2010 by datechguy in local stuff, opinion/news, special events, tea parties
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The Twin city tea party had its monthly meeting at the Border Grille and Bar yesterday. That in itself isn’t big news.

What WAS big news is that it included a candidates forum and two sitting DEMOCRATIC members of the General Court attended.

Jennifer Flanagan (Sen 4th Worcester district) and Jen Benson (Rep 37th Middlesex District) along with their opponents Neal Heeren (4th Worcester Senate) and Kurt Hayes (37th Middlesex) showed up and took audience questions and stayed to talk to the people at intermission!

The significance of this can’t be overestimated. For over a year the media has been painting tea party members as wild eyed extremists. Congressmen and women have avoided town hall meetings in fear of encountering them and now sitting democratic members of the General Court attend events.

Both Jens deserve a lot of credit for doing so, it shows a respect for the people who will be voting in this election, but more importantly it shows that they are smart enough to realize that pretending a portion of the electorate must be ignored is a losing policy. Rather than giving the floor to their opponents they engaged the tea party members as voters to be persuaded.

Did they win any votes? I don’t know but I think both were impressive and helped themselves. Just as it is hard to stereotype the tea party when you actually interact with them it is hard to do the same with candidates who take the time to talk to you.

Incidentally I’ll have video uploaded and posted later in the day.

Is this an anomaly or is this the shape of things to come? Well as goes Massachusetts…

Update: Instalanche! Thanks Glenn, welcome all take a peek around. Find out why Foster Kamer is Vizzini, why the Iranians are just cowardly bullies, check out my cynical look at Church Closings and Dave Weigel and of course my Amazon reviews.

Update 2: This is actually the Second bi-partisian event held by the Twin City Tea Party. The First was on Flag Day and included the mayor of Leominster. The evidence of change in drawing local pols is evidenced by this video:

When local pols in the most liberal state in the nation feel comfortable being seen at tea party events the worm has turned. I think tea parties nationwide should take a good hard look at what the Twin City Tea Party group is doing and copy it.

Update 3: Here is the video of Flanagan and Heeren

Update 4: And here is the video of Benson and Hayes.

My Latest Examiner Column: Massachusetts Democrats missing the (tea) Party

Posted: April 29, 2010 by datechguy in blogger for hire, internet/free speech, local issues, local stuff, media, opinion/news, tea parties
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My latest column for the examiner is up an excerpt:

…with the April meeting pending; organizer Justin Brooks started contacting democrats either in office or running for office. He left messages or talked to a half dozen different candidates eager to get another perspective, without success. Most office holders and candidates never got back to him, others had conflicts but when the April 26th meeting came around only a single candidate republican Mary Connaughton spoke to the 46 people assembled at the Border Grille & Bar in Leominster.

More details on the meeting are available here.

Remember hits on my examiner articles are the next best thing to hits on the DaTipJar.

Update: Instalanche on the Examiner article. Thanks muchly Glenn! Hits there are a lot more valuable to me than hits here.

Speaking of elections in Fitchburg

Posted: September 22, 2009 by datechguy in local stuff
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Our Mayor Lisa Wong is a very bright young woman, if you meet her you can’t help but like her.

Her visit to our house when she was going door to door was memorable because of something funny. As we were talking to candidate Wong at the front door, my youngest kept trying to pull me away , Dad, Dad come here, I kept telling him it could wait. When she finally left I said what was so important? He led me to the back porch where all over the carpet lay the shattered glass of the pinball machine that broke as he was preparing to put it back on. (Good think it was tempered glass).

Wong came into a mess as as her first term ends it’s still a mess but I so far i like what she is trying to do and truly believe she is doing her best for us.

I also believe she has been marked by the democratic party for higher things, I’m torn by this since on the local level democrats then to remain, well normal but as they get higher up the political ladder the crazyness index goes up Real fast, but if you are going to have people on the other side they should be good people and that is Mayor Wong.

Running against her is. Fuzzy.

That is Michael “Fuzzy” Voisine. Everybody knows him as Fuzzy. Everybody knows Fuzzy. He worked at Espresso Pizza practically forever, before opening Premier Subs down the street. Don’t laugh Espresso has been a Fitchburg Fixture for 45 years, when everything else on main street ran away they stayed even after a devastating fire. There is nobody in the town that hasn’t tried it and it is the single best Italian sauce and pizza in town.

He is an average man who has worked hard all his life, he has both managed and owned a small business in town and done all the things necessary to make things work.

Right now I’m leaning toward the incumbent but it isn’t a clear cut choice for me. The Mayor is a highly educated person who has a lot of theory behind her and is a very hard worker, but Fuzzy has the actual practical experience in real life that is vital on the local level.

Or to put it another way. The education the mayor has Fuzzy (or anyone) can get with hard work. The practical knowledge and decades of real world Experience that Fuzzy has is a lot harder to come by.

It will be interesting around here.

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