"It struck me as odd. He's a guy from Somerville, so I was surprised he was supporting Obama"

[ron_newman]

The above quote is from a parole officer, testifying about an Obama bumper sticker on an alleged murderer's car.

The bumper sticker helped link the defendant and his car to the crime, which is a Good Thing. But I don't get the parole officer's logic at all. How many Somerville people do you know who didn't support Obama over McCain in 2008?

(From the Herald, via Universal Hub.)

(2008 Somerville presidential election results from Boston.com: Obama 26450, McCain 5197, others 700)

Comments

[mjrocks98.livejournal.com]

Well, you can count me as 1 person in Somerville who didn't support Obama over McCain & my roommate at the time who no longer is in Somerville also supported McCain over Obama - so that's 2 of us.

[ron_newman]

Right, I know some of you are out there. But you were a 16% minority in the election results, so I'm baffled by the parole officer's comment.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Don't forget anomie666. He voted for McCain but we luvs him anyway. :-)

[ifotismeni]

methinks that may be an officer who remembers what somerville was actually like 15 years ago or so.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Somerville has been a Democratic stronghold for a long time. It voted for Silber in 1990 when even Cambridge went for Weld. Of course 1990 was a bit of weird election, so it might not be the best benchmark, but Somerville was never a Republican city.

Just as another random data point I found online: Somerville narrowly went for Eisenhower in 1956, 22324-21802, but voted for a Democratic governor by a more than two to one margin (30005-14233). The state as a whole went for Eisenhower 59-40 while electing Democrat Foster Furcolo 53-47, so Somerville was 10-15 points more Democratic than the State average in 1956.

1956 data:
Prez: http://www.archive.org/stream/electionstatisti1956mass#page/310/mode/2up
Gov: http://www.archive.org/stream/electionstatisti1956mass#page/316/mode/2up

[ifotismeni]

that may be true, but that hasn't been the perception in most of massachusetts. in fact a lot people from outside the area still think somerville = slummerville. you'd be surprised.

[jesseh.livejournal.com]

Slummerville doesn't mean we'd have voted for a Republican!

[ron_newman]

I voted for Weld in 1990. Last time I voted for a Republican, unless you count the years that Alderman-at-Large Bill White still identified with that party.

[jesseh.livejournal.com]

Were there Republicans in Mass before Weld? (I'm only sort of kidding.)

But I will confirm that Old School Somerville would be unlikely to have an Obama sticker on the car....

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

Does Weld count as a Republican? :)

[polkaishot.livejournal.com]

Silber is insane

[maelithil.livejournal.com]

I didn't vote for Obama either, I voted for Cynthia McKinney. But I'm a damn dirty hippie, so.

[barumonkey.livejournal.com]

Assuming the officer was a Republican: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

[frank mcsorley (from livejournal.com)]

Wrote in Ron Paul.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

Didn't support Obama either. I looked beyond the hype and the rhetoric, and I think I'm being proved right every day!

[lena-a-mermaid.livejournal.com]

My guess is that the Parole Officer was not surprised that someone from Somerville was supporting a Democrat, he was surprised that someone from Somerville was supporting this particular Democrat. Maybe he thought that everyone in Somerville is a racist and would never vote for a black man for president.

The criminal Edward Corliss in the UH article was said to be living in Roslindale so perhaps he was born in Somerville, but moved to Roslindale.

The Herald Article continues with the parole officer saying “I made a joke about it. He said it was on the car when they bought it.”