election question

[hvanaels.livejournal.com]

Thanks to everyone who's posted such great info on tomorrow's primaries, especially those who've explained the differences between some of the state house and senate candidates. There's one other contested spot on my ballot that I'm trying to figure out: Middlesex County Sheriff.

Anyone know anything about what the responsibilities of that position are? Or why James DiPaola, Robert A. DeMoura, or Brian M. Gillis should or should not get my vote?

While we're at it, anybody have any $.02 to offer on any other local races that haven't been mentioned yet? The more local the race the harder the time I seem to have finding good info online about the candidates...

Comments

[saraheeyore.livejournal.com]

I found this article (http://www2.townonline.com/belmont/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=81440) this morning. Not sure how informative it is, but it's a start.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

i really like <http://www.vote-smart.org>vote smart as it has lots of objective information about candidates including stuff they've written themselves, ratings from non-profit orgs and voting records.

[hvanaels.livejournal.com]

It's a great site, unfortunately it doesn't seem to have anything for the more obscure local positions. I guess that's my problem - from state representative on up there are great resources like vote smart, endorsements from well known orgs I respect, even well thought out opinions from friends, neighbors, lj-ers, etc., but once you get into county and local positions you're lucky if you can find a couple local press articles and the candidate's own websites. And all of those are pretty much one candidate's word against another's - there's just not much in the way of outside assessment.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

If you are liberal/progressive and you live in Pat Jehlen's district*, you should vote for her. She's been a staunch supporter of gay/lesbian/transgender rights, has worked hard to try to get the Green Line into Somerville, and is just a nifty person.

*DISTRICT REPRESENTED: Twenty-seventh Middlesex. - Consisting of precinct 3 of ward 2, all precincts of ward 3, precinct 3 of ward 4, and all precincts of wards 5 and 6, of the city of Somerville, in the county of Middlesex.

Pat Jehlen

[cos]

And if you live in Somerville, you're either in one of the two districts I wrote about the other day (Green vs. Toomey, Sciortino vs. Ciampa), or you're in Jehlen's district. However, I believe that Jehlen's danger is not in the primary tomorrow, but in the general election in November, since I think her challenger is a Republican.
(And yes, I like Pat Jehlen and hope she wins)

Re: Pat Jehlen

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

You're right, of course...I forgot that she's unopposed for the primary. But yes, she does have a Republican challenger for November.

I'm currently in the middle of arranging a house party for Pat, to take place probably on October 20. I'll likely post it to this forum.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

sadly, both the state Representative and Senator from my district appear to be running unopposed. Gotta love living in a one-party state. :-/

unopposed seats

[cos]

The number of parties shouldn't determine whether people run unopposed. Both of the races I posted about are contested primaries in effectively one-party districts. If someone is running unopposed, there is exactly one reason for it: Nobody decided to run against them. The antidote is simple: More people should run for office. One party, two parties, three parties... it doesn't change that basic reality.

[being-homeless.livejournal.com]

what district?
25th middlesex Carolina Johnson is running against Alice Wolf.
and FYI- Alice Wolf is pro-finneran... Carolina is not.

http://www.carolinajohnson.org

[rmd.livejournal.com]

The more local the race the harder the time I seem to have finding good info online about the candidates...

article from the globe about the race (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/07/08/dipaola_dealt_pair_in_race_for_sheriff/?rss_id=Boston%20Globe%20--%20City%20%2F%20Region%20News)

article from the cambridge chronicle (http://www2.townonline.com/cambridge/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=73691&format=)

[rmd.livejournal.com]

gillis was arrested for DUI and leaving the scene of an accident a couple of years ago (although he claims that he hasn't had a drink since, he was apparently something of a binge drinker before that). he also has a more recent restraining order against him from an ex-girlfriend, and was arrested for violating it.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

he also has a more recent restraining order against him from an ex-girlfriend, and was arrested for violating it.

Hmm. That's not exactly a selling point in a town sheriff.

whoops.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

County sheriff, rather.

[hvanaels.livejournal.com]

The only thing I could find on that is this Lowell Sun article (http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:LOhhkXCKrn0J:www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105~4761~2122248,00.html+%22brian+gillis%22+restraining+order&hl=en) (google cached) which doesn't really explain what happened. rmd, do you know anything else?

[rmd.livejournal.com]

just what's in the articles i posted higher up in the thread (both the cambridge chronicle article and the globe article mention it)

[jadelennox]

Here's what I found this morning

http://www.demourasheriff.com/
http://www.briangillisforsheriff.com/

DeMoura needs some major punctuation help. I know that's not what I should be looking for in a sheriff, but I admit I can't help but be biased by amateur self-presentation in a candidate. Not to mention that his entire platform seems to be "I'm not the other guy".

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Yeah, DeMoura's site is barely literate. That's...disappointing. I also note that nowhere on that site is his party affiliation mentioned. I'd kinda like to know these things.

[kjc.livejournal.com]

One thing I learned from working with Law Enforcement for 8+ years is that they may not be literate but many of them are scary-smart when it comes to handling cases.

I still have trouble discounting bad grammar and stupid spelling, but I try to remember that it's not where their strengths are...

Kelly J.

[mryn.livejournal.com]

According to the first article posted in the comments, all three candidates in the Sheriff race are registered Democrats.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

he's running in the democratic primary, so i assume he's a democrat.