About that Register of Deeds primary race

[ron_newman]

My friend siderea spent several hours this weekend researching the candidates for Middlesex South Register of Deeds, so the rest of us don't have to ;-) She recommends a vote for Maryann Heuston, and you can read her totally awesome public post on the subject here:

siderea: : Whatchadoin Thursday? Southern Middlesex Register of Deeds Race

Her post includes links to several relevant newspaper articles and videos of televised debate forums, if you want to look into the matter further before voting this Thursday. The comments are well worth reading, too.

ETA 9/4 14:56: Her post endorsed Maryann Heuston, but now has an addendum saying that she may be changing her mind based on new information, and to check back later tonight. Hmmm.

ETA 9/4 23:55: She now says "My recommendation stands" (for Maryann Heuston).

ETA 9/5: The Somerville News sent a questionnaire to all the Register of Deeds candidates, and got responses back from all of them except for Antonelli. But Concannon seems to have sent them a press release rather than answering the newspaper's questions.

Comments

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

I've never seen this in any of the (4) states I've lived, either. I'd be curious to see links regarding where it's allowed.

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

It's hard to provide links to a negative... Tennessee, for example, doesn't make the distinction in question here. I'm a bit miffed at the idea of an election commission that pays attention to the goings on of non-governmental third parties.

[ceo]

I can think of two examples of primary losers winning the general election offhand. In 2006, Senator Joe Lieberman (then-D-CT) lost the Democratic primary to Ned Lamont, but ran in the general election as an independent and won, helped in no small part by the Republicans throwing their own candidate under the bus and giving Lieberman a ton of funding and support. He is now officially an independent, but caucuses with the Democrats (and occasionally even votes with them). In 2010, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) lost the Republican primary to Joe Miller. AK has a "sore loser" law like the one in MA, so she had to run in the general as a write-in, and still won (it helped that Miller was a particularly loathsome Tea Party nutcase). Unlike CT, she was able to still run as a Republican.