New Mailers from Sciortino and Trane

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

I figured I'd post the new fliers I got in the mail from the two campaigns. People are still commenting on the last one, so if you'd like to see it, it's visible here.

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Comments

[ron_newman]

Substance versus vapidity.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I suggest this column: http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/lifestyle/columnists/x256659598/Brociner-The-big-lie

Feel free to add a link to it above.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

I only posted the front of Trane's mailer because I love the look on his face.

[ron_newman]

What's on the back?

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

I posted both front/back of each mailer. I just added line breaks and horizontal rules to distinguish front from back. Sorry for the confusion.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

it's not loading anything other than a system error for me.

[ron_newman]

Ahh, I misinterpreted your "only".

[ron_newman]

Link works fine. It's a whole opinion column about this race and why people should vote for Sciortino.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

The site seems to be having issues -- I'm getting that error intermittently on a lot of links.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

I'm getting a system error with that link: here's a google cache. http://74.125.95.104/search?q=cache:-Mg5ErK0itkJ:www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/lifestyle/columnists/x256659598/Brociner-The-big-lie+http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/lifestyle/columnists/x256659598/Brociner-The-big-lie&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

Trane seems to have accepted about $4500 in contributions from people connected to his brother's telecommunications firm. There's a post from a Joe Beckmann on Bob's blog (accessible through the Journal website) identifying particulars of an earlier deal of les freres Trane with the city.

Trane also has contributions from a boatload of city and county employees.

Also, for you conspiracy theorists: Trane also got a $300 contribution from a mail clerk for the Mass. House of Representatives, in the State House. Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm....

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

So, now we know what Trane -won't- do. What -will- he do with all that time he's not accepting contributions to his political campaign? Put more government materials online? I mean that's great to have, but isn't that what interns are for?

I guess I am biased, though, as a member of some of those special interest groups (I ride the T, want to have health insurance, etc.).

[derekp.livejournal.com]

Does Carl have any response to the attacks from Trane? I'm specifically interested in why 62% of his donations are from out of the district. Is this fancy accounting on Trane's part? Is it something that's actually pretty common?

And what's the full story on bullet point #1?

[ocschwar.livejournal.com]

Is it too late to put a nonbinding referendum on the ballot saying "it is the sense of the people that Bob Trane is a horse's ass"?

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

Trane better be careful if he's going to throw around accusations of accepting money from "outside the district".

I'd be happy to examine Bob's donation with an extremely fine-toothed comb, but if you throw out his $16,000 loan to his campaign, Trane took in just shy of twenty grand ($19,615).

Of this amount, 23% alone came from people connected to his brother's firm, which is not located in the district.

Looks like another three grand or so from city employees, not all who live in his district, and more from county employees, who may or may not live here.

I'd be more than happy to fully itemize later. Trane supporters shouldn't be throwing stones, here.

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As far as the donation from Finneran, Ciampa was one of one of his stooges in the legislature, and Finneran financed Ciampa through the primary election. After the primary election, Finneran summarily (and quickly) dispensed a bundle of money to the victors for the general election.

I'd bet if he knew Ciampa was going to run as a write-in in the general election, he would have given the money to Vinnie.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

Im so tired of getting mailers. We get one for me, one for my husband plus whatever gets left on our doorstop. Last week I got so many repeats all addressed to me. Waste of paper.

accessible information about government

[cos]

We do actually have a problem with access to government information online or in general, that won't get fixed until we elect more committed reformers to the state house. Thing is, Carl is one of those committed reformers. Despite what he says, Trane's history suggests to me that he wouldn't be.

For some examples of the problems, try these:

1. Think of an issue that's important to you that you know was voted on in the past couple of years. Try to find out how each member of the state legislature voted on it, without relying on outside sources such as newspaper web sites (or the wonderful Mass Scorecard.

2. Find out what the election results were, by precinct, for the 2004 Democratic primary in which Carl first got elected.

As someone who frequently looks for such information online, I'm very frustrated with some portions of our state government (including the secretary of state's office and the House) about how hard (or in some cases impossible) they make it to find this information online in a useful form.

P.S. Carl Sciortino, before he first ran for state house, was one of the people who made the Mass Scorecard happen. So you can see he's got a history in making government information accessible.

waste of paper

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I got three of the Trane mailers this time, one addressed to me (I voted for Heller in the alderman race and I've donated money to Sciotino's campaign), and two addressed to people I've never heard of before, presumably prior tenants.

I've never voted for a paper-waster and I don't intend to start now.

[cos]

In state rep races that actually matter, yes, it's pretty common. State rep districts are pretty small.

I think it's a non-issue.

I gave Carl $100, and I live in Cambridge. I lived in Somerville for more than 7 years, I know Carl, I think he's done the state a tremendous amount good and it's very important the he be re-elected, and c'mon, I'm in Central Square - does that make me an outside interloper? I'm in Somerville several times a week and more of my friends live there than in Cambridge.

Carl has a lot of very committed supporters, who know what he does in the legislature and want to see him re-elected. If you're a state rep that does a very good job, you gather some attention, and therefore supporters, from a wider area than just your state rep district.

Note also that "outside the district" also probably includes contributions from organizations like MassEquality and SEIU. MassEquality's office address is in Boston, not Somerville or Medford, but it doesn't look good to directly criticize Carl for getting money from them because they align pretty well with the desires of voters in the district.

Re: waste of paper

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

I got mailers from Carl (2) and mailers from Trane (2) plus a few extras...I also got stuff from Carl left on the handle of our door 2x. As did my grandmother who lives upstairs.

So its both of them wasting a lot of paper.

Re: waste of paper

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

well, at least the Sciortino mailer has the stickers you can use to "write in" his vote, so it's not just paper.

Re: waste of paper

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

You're a liar!

Re: waste of paper

[cos]

I would say neither of them are "wasting" paper - it is important for candidates to be able to communicate with voters directly, rather than leaving it all to the press or other sources. Also, if everyone voted in every election it'd be less necessary to keep reminding people that there's an election coming up, but only a very small percentage of people (especially in Somerville!) vote in every election.

In the case of duplicates sent to the same name & address, it is a waste, but clearly not something the campaign would do if they could avoid it because it costs them money and they usually don't have enough money.

Re: waste of paper

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

It doesn't make me want to vote more for them. If anything I equate it to the damn Macys ads and grocery store ads I get every week. I dont even read them...they right to recycling. I feel as though there is better ways to manage their lists.

Re: waste of paper

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

lol no.