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Herald gets wish: Gloves come off in race for mayor
By adamg on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 1:35pm
John Connolly today signaled his disgust with that smiling bald guy who ran all those pro-Walsh ads and others of his ilk; Walsh retorted Connolly's just a corporate lawyer.
Connolly this morning asked Walsh to sign Rob Consalvo's pledge against allowing any third-party expenditures on his behalf:
Between now and November 5, we can have a campaign about the issues. We can have a race about my vision and Marty’s vision for Boston. But to make sure we have this kind of campaign - one that’s not warped by outside special interests - we need to follow the example set by past campaigns here in Massachusetts and put a stop to spending by outside groups.
It worked for Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown. It worked for Ed Markey and Steve Lynch. It can work for me and Marty. It is the new standard by which races in Massachusetts are conducted.
Connolly noted that while he refused to actually sign a piece of paper previously - in fact, he called Consalvo's idea a "gimmick" - he did reject a planned $500,000 push from a pro-charter-school group and then said he would ask any outside groups to stay away.
Walsh fired back that Connolly's engaging in a bit of sophistry because the pledge allows for paid canvassers - which he impugned Connolly needs while he doesn't, since he has so many actual volunteers:
And now - what a surprise - yesterday, we saw an advertisement from a third-party organization looking to hire Connolly canvassers. This is a great second act in John’s ongoing piece of political theater. This is what corporate lawyers do. He was right when he said it was a gimmick. He flip-flopped. I agreed with him when he said it was a gimmick. Let’s talk about the issues - ALL of the issues.
To which the Connolly camp replies:
In July Representative Walsh said he would sign the pledge if the other candidates would agree to sign the pledge. John will sign a pledge, so that should satisfy him -- he's the only other candidate in the race now. It’s not clear what has changed in the last couple of months that Representative Walsh now says he won’t sign a pledge. Marty should join John in signing the pledge so we can keep special interest money out of this race and focus on the issues that matter.
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Comments
Isn't Connolly supported
by Democrats for Education Reform (DFER)??
Yes Connolly is supported by DFER... and Stand
Yeah, they like to fund candidates who will vote for more charters schools. DFER are investment and Wall St types who want to get their hands on new market tax credits ($130,000,000) and the income stream of tax dollars from the school district. They are into Connolly for about $200,000 just in July and August.
If Connolly gets in you'll see in Boston what happened in Chicago and Philadelphia. The public school system is gutted and investment companies run the boards at charter schools and siphon off tax dollars.
Connolly
is a gimmick! I can't wait to get anonymous hate mail from the Connolly campaign.
What union are you in?
and which suburb do you live in?
Actually
I live in West Rox and work in the private sector. How long have you lived here?
How long have I lived here?
Not relevant at all- I'm registered to vote here.
I'll admit that I'm not a Boston lifer so I can't take credit for supporting Dapper, Ray Flynn and all other dirtbags who put Boston in such a bad place a few decades back.
Again with you
Unintelligent assumptions, you know my age because.....
And you not being from here is VERY relevant. A lot of transplant have no respect for the families who have been here for generation and have help to shape Boston. You may not be here in 10 year but those of us who have deep roots will.
F_ME
I made a lot of errors. I'll just blame my blackberry!
Been in WRox for 20+ years
tried to get involved in many things. I sometimes succeeded, but ALWAYS found a kind of wall built by those who grew up in WRox/Rosi. Kinda the opposite of Welcome Wagon. Hard to respect that attitude towards "newcomers."
21 years in WRox for me.
21 years in WRox for me. Howdy neighbor!
What an embarrassing, small minded post.
It's 2013. Global economy. The internet, etc. Boston is competing with the world now - it needs to attract the best and the brightest people and their ideas to succeed. Your kind of bullshit cronyism was wrong when the Brahmins were doing it. It's not any better 100 plus years later.
Typos aside....
I don't get it. Sure, I'm not from here, but I'm raising my kids here. Most of my neighbors in Roslindale aren't from Boston originally. The best teacher my kid has had was a Boston resident but isn't from here. Our esteemed U-Hub host isn't from here. Etc... Who cares? This is a city built on waves of immigrants going back hundreds of years - this 'deep roots' stuff sounds like nonsense unless your last name is Weld or Winthrop. Oh, your parents grew up here? Good for them - they probably bought their house for $30k. They each get a vote, just like you and me. Sorry if that's a disappointment for you.
Boston is a good place to live because it is a dynamic place where you can run into people who have chosen to live here from across the country and the world, not because it's a parochial backwater.
Anyways, vote Walsh if you'd like. I'm pretty sure his parents weren't from Boston though.
Connolly walks the narrow line between unethical and illegal
You're referring to Connolly's race for City Council when he sent out mailers not identified as from his campaign that smeared his opponent. When he got caught, he defended them as 'legal' and never apologized.
Trashing his opponent anonymously is called r*tfucking -- a term coined by Nixon's plumbers. Justifying the anonymity as legal, after he got caught, is lawyerly slimeball all the way. I don't want a mayor who walks the narrow line between unethical and illegal.
Big Dig 2.0
Marty is gonna
put all his union cronies to workcreate jobs by building a new City Hall.Overtime and summer homes "down Cape" for EVERYONE!!!
But don't worry minorities, women, and Boston residents, there is a place for you too at that trough, per order of the Boston Residents Jobs Policy.
Well, if we can somehow delay
the process for another decade, then Boston CIty Hall will be officially eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
Oh wait, I forgot that historical significance doesn't apply to buildings people don't like.
The lives of young black and Latino males
Does anyone have a record of John Connolly talking about the lives of young black and Latino males before he ran on a charter school platform? I ask because the charter school industry, which Rupert Murdoch refers to as a $500 billion year market, frames it's case for expanding charter schools (at the expense of public schools) as a civil rights issue.
What's implied is that public schools cannot do the job. That is false. Boston public schools are the best urban schools in the nation. They have improved steadily and will continue to. We don't need to save young black and Latino males from public education. Turning to charters as the solution for improvement (fewer than 15% of new charters maintain increased test results) is putting education budget resouces in outsourcing while leaving the rest of BPS behind.
I wish someone would talk
I wish someone would talk about Rev Eugene Rivers remarks in the Boston Herald today. In one paragraph people of color are a majority in the city, then in the next they are minorities? He concludes by saying that the black community is to blame for the fact that "a white Irish man will again lead the City of Boston" - if these remarks were ever uttered by someone who was not a person of color-it would be the lead story on the 6 oclock news and that individual would be run out of town on a rail. It is such a blatently racist perpsective yet nobody calls him out on it - Rev, consider yourself called out.
So, go on the news then and call it out.
Where were you when Deval Patrick was re-elected?
How come I didn't see you on the news back then saying "oh great, just what we need, another term with a BLACK man running this state right into the ground"?
Those kinds of remarks ARE uttered by "people not of color" all the time, only just to other "people not of color" and definitely NOT on the news.
Why? Well because people know deep down that to say something like that is actually wrong, even if you can't articulate why it's wrong. It's like my folks always said, if you have to stop and think if it is right or wrong, it's probably wrong.
Also, there is NO SUCH THING AS REVERSE RACISM. And there won't be, at least in this lifetime.
PS: My interpretation of that was that though blacks make up the majority of the overall population, blacks are still considered "minority" as a term of class.
So you're
saying the Rev IS a racist!
Maybe no reverse racism, but bigotry flows in every direction
Maybe because - and this is just a guess - above anon doesn't believe that? The opposite of A>B bigotry is not B>A bigotry.
Personally, I think Eugene Rivers is a sloppy thinker and more than a bit of an attention hog. Eg, I think calling either Walsh or Connolly "Irish" is pretty hilarious and about as accurate as calling the president a Kenyan. But what would you expect from someone who starts a lament about the lack of a unified minority electorate with a couple softly bigotted put-downs of two historically oppressed peoples? (Three actually, if you consider he throws his "own" under the bus in the next sentence).
Who is advising Connolly and
Who is advising Connolly and thought this was a good idea? It's so obviously a flip-flop and transparent. Way to hand this one to Walsh on a silver platter. Cmon.
Wow that was FAST
How did the people's pledge go from a 'gimmick' to a serious proposal for John Connolly in two days? Has he offered an explanation? How about an explanation for the DFER folks advertising to hire canvassers to campaign for John Connolly just yesterday? Why is that a 3rd party expense not covered by the agreement? Connolly is kind of slick. Ask Stephen Murphy LOL. I hope Connolly has some good answers.
"Walsh fired back that
"Walsh fired back that Connolly's engaging in a bit of sophistry because the pledge allows for paid canvassers - which he impugned Connolly needs while he doesn't, since he has so many actual volunteers"
"Volunteers" ie. union cronies.
Somewhat disconcerting that
Somewhat disconcerting that Connolly is apparently looking for paid canvassers - I've volunteered to canvass or make phone calls more than once using the form on his website and nary a response back other than 'someone will be in touch'. He did send a thank you email for the donation though.
union cronies!?!?!?!?!?? I'm
union cronies!?!?!?!?!?? I'm not union. In fact, no members of my household or extended family are union and we have and will continue to volunteer in support of Walsh's campaign. We are registered to vote in Boston and we like him for mayor – these are actual facts, whether you accept them or not….you might wanna re-think your focus before your out of time to explore actual issues.
Who's rubber and who's glue?
David Bernstein wonders: Who Is The Bigger People’s Pledge Hypocrite?
Suburban issue
It's the kind of thing that gets traction in a state-wide race where suburban independents are key swing voters. In Boston, things like keeping branch libraries open, letting people hold their parking spaces with broken chairs, and the school assignment process is what gets the electorate's attention.
Councilor Connolly responsible for censoring public records...
Councilor Connolly has been responsible for the censoring of public records of Boston City Council... including the full plain English text Stenographic Record of Public Meetings of Boston City Council.
a) Full plain English text Stenographic Record of Public Meetings of Boston City Council not disclosed readily.
b) Lack of Captioning on webcasts of Public Meetings of Boston City Council for hard of hearing folks in Hyde Park.
c) Stenographic Records are recorded by the City Stenographer E. Fritch at weekly Public Meetings of Boston City Council.
d) The Stenograph machine http://stenograph.com includes a Captioning function.
e) The City Stenographer didn't find it easy to interpret the Manual at http://stenograph.com/pages.aspx?docid=744 to operate the Captioning function of the Council Chamber's Stenograph machine.
f) The City Stenographer has been resistive to call the toll free telephone technical contact at Stenograph http://stenograph.com for detailed instructions.
g) Bids for the stenographic services at Boston City Council has been not advertised widely.
h) A grandfathering in of the same stenographic services is unfair to competing stenographic services that offer...
i) better services,
j) lower cost,
k) more up to date hardware,
l) more up to date software.
m) Open source stenographic software http://plover.stenoknight.com/ is available.
n) Making available the full plain English text Stenographic Record of the last Public Meeting of Boston City Council gives City Councilors a greater opportunity to let the people know their testimony.
o) Making available the full plain English text Stenographic Record of the last Public Meeting of Boston City Council gives hard of hearing folks and all the people greater opportunity to contribute feedback, comment, suggestions, questions to the text of a favorite City Councilor.
p) Public funds are used for the Stenographic Record.
q) Original City Records in this case the Stenographic Record is removed from City Hall not in accord with the guidelines for keeping original City Hall municipal records at City Hall.
r) Minutes are heavily edited, too brief.
s) A copy of the Stenographic Record can equally be used for editing the Minutes.
t) Invoke Principles of Open Government.
u) Making available the full plain English text Stenographic Record of Public Meetings of Boston City Council opens municipal government more for folks hard of hearing, deaf, ESL English as a Second Language, dyslexic, attention deficit, cognitive difficulty, concussion recovery, stroke recovery, elderly folks.
v) City Council Communications internal and external are improved by making available the full plain English text Stenographic Record of Public Meetings of Boston City Council.