Bottom line is was a good event, the Twin City Tea Party it forces local media to at least notice Tea Party events without putting a set of horns on us, local reps were put in the position to answer voters directly and we got to see their prospective replacements function when challenged. Kudos for the Border Grille & Bar for hosting.
Yesterday we had the video of the State Senate candidates, today we have the candidates for State rep for the 37th Middlesex District at the tea party candidate forum.
Jen Benson is the Democrat in her first term:
She made the case against term limits, and she pointed to the federal mandates in what we can and can’t do, it’s a fair point.
I know this next clip is kinda short but I had to break them up.
Next up is Kurt Hayes:
As the republican he had more in common with the crowd.
Hayes and Benson were both impressive, it is interesting to see that both argued against Term Limits (I say we have term limits, they are called elections and if we don’t take advantage of them it’s our own fault. As a native of NH Benson seemed a lot more conservative than the avg democrat and that has some appeal to this crowd.
As a bonus extra here is Scott Bove candidate for Sheriff of Worcester County, he only had 5 min:
His point about experience in the system is a very good one.
Overall this was a superior exchange to the first one. Benson was making the case that you need one term to get to speed but I don’t know if that’s the right take to make (true or no). Neither candidate hurt themselves and I personally think Benson helped herself more than Hayes simply by exposing voters who would normally vote against her to her positions
Update: That was Kurt with a K. My bad there.
Here is the video of Jen Flanagan and her opponent Neal Heeren at the Twin city Tea party on the 28th
I recorded these in about 10 minutes swatches based on my camera and the space on my two cards:
I actually think she made a good presentation. I thought her answer on “Tea Party Extremism” was a safe answer, but I think her answer on NH was week.
She did meet with people privately and talked for a while, as I said before she deserves a lot of credit for showing up.
Here is her opponent Neal Heeren
I missed the start of his speech as my batteries needed switching.
Without a question Heeren was a weaker speaker, he had to refer to his notes quite a bit on opening and seemed very uncomfortable on stage, rather odd for a lawyer. On the issues he was more correct but you have to be able to make the case to people. That’s a skill he can develop but if Flanagan keeps showing up and manages to make credible explanation and presentations it will be harder for him.
This more than anything illustrates why Flanagan’s presence was smart! Rather than avoiding the Tea Party in fear she confronts it directly. Were all her answers good enough? Likely not but you can’t beat something with nothing. She is an experienced pol and a personable lady. There is no reason why she shouldn’t make a good impression on the people she represents.
If what you believe is right it can stand up to argument. Liberals in fear of the tea party have conceded that argument. If they follow the example of Flanagan for good or ill that might change.
I’ll have Jen Benson and Kurt Hayes up later tonight
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 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.
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 