Carl Sciortino Wins!!!

[boywonder.livejournal.com]

From the Somerville News:

Trane concedes, Sciortino wins on stickers

By George P. Hassett

Carl Sciortino's name was not on the ballot yet he still managed to hold onto his state rep. seat today, defeating challenger Bob Trane on a sticker campaign.

A few minutes ago at the Sons of Italy in Medford, Trane conceded the race and told cheering supporters, "We went up against a machine and fought the good fight."

   

Early unofficial returns point to a Sciortino victory. With seven precincts reporting, he led Trane 1,780 votes to 1,472, according to unofficial results.

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

carl's website says that Bob conceded: http://electcarl.org/

[gilana]

Woohoo! *happy dance*

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

From Blue Mass Group:
"That is some bad-ass organization you can believe in, my friends."

[fefie.livejournal.com]

This is great news! (I was so wishing i could vote for him, but I'm in Denise Provost's district.)

"We went up against a machine and fought the good fight."

More like Sciortino's stellar record of work for Somerville and Medford.

[cos]

Pretty much, yeah. We had 400 volunteers. I've never seen that on a state rep campaign, and that's what it took to win with stickers against a candidate on the ballot. Carl won because he had enough enthusiastic supporters to make that happen.

A political "machine" is one in which election work is rewared with patronage jobs and contracts. That's how Tammany Hall and Chicago's Mayor Daley (senior) and so on worked. You got out the vote in your precinct, you got a job. You did it really well, you got to be ward committeeman, and the alderman for your ward had to do what you said. Rise through the ranks, and you could start a consulting or contracting business and get lucrative city contracts without having to compete with other bidders, and then you'd be expected to hire people who the city machine told you to hire.

See anything resembling a "machine" in Somerville politics today? (I do see bits of resemblance, though not a full fledged machine... but the bits I see all relate to other candidates).

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

YAY YAY YAY!

[nalz.livejournal.com]

Nice. Does anyone know what percentage of people voted in this particular race?

[mattdm.livejournal.com]

Not yet, but the details will be here:

http://www.boston.com/news/special/politics/2008/state_primary/house_34th_middlesex.html

Do you mean absolute turnout in terms of population? Very, very low.

[cos]

Turnout was about 5200, which is pretty high for an election like this. (though still tiny compared to the ~40,000 population of a state rep district)

[ron_newman]

Last I knew, George Hassett wrote for the Somerville News, not the Journal.

[agnosticoracle.livejournal.com]

It is Somerville News:

http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2008/09/trane-concedes.html

[boywonder.livejournal.com]

You are correct! correction made.

Great news, but

[agnosticoracle.livejournal.com]

This is great news (I worked on Carl's campaign so I'm bias, perhaps you should sue me). But there is something odd here.

Carl Sciortino lives in Medford. Bob Trane lives in Somerville. Based upon names and addresses which would you assume would be holding their election night party at the "Sons of Italy in Medford."

Re: Great news, but

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Sons of Italy in Medford is on the line - it's right across from Trum Field.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

HOORAY!

"Up against a machine?" Are they serious? I know the News endorsed Trane but I'd hardly call a two-term state representative "a machine."

Yup, the machine won...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Come on now--that was a machine. I'm a Carl supporter, but the number of calls, visits, and mailers I received was astounding. Carl's success in this election is due to massive support from one or two special interests that put on a massive get out the vote effort.

[ocschwar.livejournal.com]

So, when's the machine going out for beer to celebrate?

[georgy.livejournal.com]

They're all at Sabur right now. I was there, I shook his hand! But it looked like he was drinking water :-)

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

one or two special interests

You mean like teachers and nurses and service workers and queers?

Look, Carl had great organization - and you're going to hold that against him? Personally, someone who can run a tight and organized campaign like that gets my vote over someone who does nothing but put a negative/smear flyer in my mail slot every 6-8 days and then throw a veritable hissy fit via suing a local newspaper. Do you think Carl should have run a weaker, less organized campaign?

I don't like the way "machine" is used in this context. On the one hand - "working like a machine" means working efficiently, tirelessly - that's a good thing and Carl definitely did that. But Trane is clearly implying that Carl is part of the entrenched establishment "machine" which, is a joke. Trane benefited far more from the "old boys' network" kind of machine than Carl. True, Carl has a different network but it's based more on what he's done and his political platform than who he knows. The man deserves a medal for ridding of us of Vinnie Ciampa - for me, everything else he's done has been gravy.

When you lose to a competitor who did it better than you, it's generally considered poor sportsmanship to attribute your loss to anything other than the fact that you both tried your best and that the other guy was ultimately better.

I agree. Trane uses "machine"

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

in a negative way. I think it's flattering, actually. It means many people worked well together and managed to achieve something that most people thought would be an unlikely goal.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Okay, four special interests. But no, I don't hold it against him that he ran a heck of a campaign. Perhaps the reason I didn't find the use of the word "machine" offensive is that, even though I support Carl, I wasn't as firmly in his camp as I suspect you are. I hesitate to defend Trane in this forum, but in my view, he did more than put negative flyers in my mailbox. He also responded to every email I sent him in his capacity as Alderman in a thoughful and engaged manner, and he got pedestrian crossing signs put up on Broadway --the original one in Teele Square he paid for himself, or so he told me. This sounds like a trifling issue, but it's the sort of thing an Alderman should do, and he did it well.

The signature thing and the way Carl handled it always bothered me, and it's the reason Carl needed to make such a big push to get re-elected. So where does that leave him? Stronger or beholden?

Apparently, the Somerville News doesn't buy it.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Grouchy bunch those Nortons.

"Election day here was interesting to say the least; a lot of “Out of Towners” flocked to Somerville and Medford the night before handing out stickers where they could for Stickers Carl. Some even looked too young to vote, and even lost looking for houses and numbers. Funny how four years ago when they had a sticker candidate the rules were different. Many times, in one precinct, workers were crossing the 150-foot boundary drawn up by the Election Department - some were caught on video."

Re: Apparently, the Somerville News doesn't buy it.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

The Somerville News needs to drink a glass of prune juice and LET IT GO.

What? Canvassers within the 150 feet line?

[gruene.livejournal.com]

The shock! The indecency! Nothing so outrageous has ever happened in an election before! Certainly not in Somerville, unless you count when Nancy Trane was standing directly in front of the door to the Teele Square Firehouse telling everyone to entered to vote for her son... Oh, Wait.