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

[ceo]

I'm confused by this. If primary losers can run in the general under the same party, what's the point of primaries?

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

Well, in most places and most races, primaries don't have any official weight, they are just a bunch of folks (the party) having a private election funded by the state. If, for example, the winner of the republicrat presidential primary turns out to be a video-confirmed child molester, rest assured he won't be that party's actual candidate in the election.

In most places, the primary just decides who the party gives their official support to, usually in the form of rubber-stamping X-thousand pre-committed signatures onto their nomination paperwork and funding their further campaign.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Hm.. I wonder if this is really true about "most places"? I moved to MA from MD just around voting age, but I vaguely remember it being similar there to here.

The Primary process you describe seems like a colossal waste. But this does sort of explain why Primaries have what seem to me to be extraordinarily low voter turn out. If they matter in some states and not others then when people move from state to state they might not understand the process well.

I wish we had nationally standardized rules for Federal Level elections at least.