Three debates between Sen. Pat Jehlen and challenger Leland Cheung - 5/31, 6/8, 6/16

[ron_newman]

State Senator Pat Jehlen, who represents Somerville, Medford, and north and west Cambridge, faces a primary challenge this year from Cambridge City Councilor Leland Cheung. So far, I know of three debates scheduled:

Tuesday, May 31, 7 pm: Somerville High School Library, 81 Highland Ave. Debate is part of the Somerville Democratic City Committee meeting.

Wednesday, June 8, 7 pm: Amphitheater of University Hall at Lesley University, 1815 Massachusetts Ave in Porter Square. Sponsored by Cambridge Ward 11 Democratic Committee. Event listing at NextDoor.

Thursday, June 16, 7 pm: Medford City Hall, City Council Chambers. Sponsored by Medford4MA.

The state primary election will be Thursday, September 8.

Comments

[keithn.livejournal.com]

Does Leland Cheung have a compelling argument for why voters would want to unseat a sitting State Senator who doesn't seem to differ from him on any major issues (and has 11 years of seniority in the chamber)? Aside from "I want a political promotion and the Lieutenant Governor thing didn't work out?"

I'm not seeing any reason to do anything but ignore the primary challenge noise and just vote for Pat.

[ron_newman]

This would be an excellent question to ask at one or both events.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

If someone does ask this, I hope it'll be reported back here?

[ron_newman]

Unfortunately my question was not directly asked. (I submitted it, but I think they preferred questions that were addressed to both candidates.)

[volantwish]

There's also a meet the candidates event sponsored by Medford4MA (20 minutes of statements and Q&A for each candidate, followed by an endorsement vote): Thursday, June 16th, 7-9PM
City Council Chambers, Medford City Hall
85 George P. Hassett Dr, Medford

[ron_newman]

Thanks. Is this listed anywhere else online so we can link to it? I do not see it on Medford4MA's website.

[volantwish]

There's a link to the newsletter (where I heard about it) on their Twitter.

[ron_newman]

Thanks. I've edited this post to include the Medford event.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

https://twitter.com/patjehlen (https://twitter.com/patjehlen)

Well, that was spectacular in a "Carl Sciortino vs. Bob Trane" or "DSLJ vs. Charlie Chisholm's campaign manager" sort of way...

[ron_newman]

You were there? Did you take notes? (I did not.) I felt Leland Cheung failed to persuade the assembled audience, and was evasive on the subject of charter schools.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

No, just following along on Twitter.

Any stereotypes about which campaign would be getting Twitter right totally went out the window last night.

I was surprised that early on that Cheung was trying to go after Jehlen as the "establishment" candidate. I'm wondering if the House of Norton is whispering in his ear as it seems to be ripped from the same playbook Bob Trane was using in...2008? (That long ago? Dang.)

[keithn.livejournal.com]

How so?

[ron_newman]

People repeatedly asked him whether he would vote yes or no on the upcoming ballot measure regarding raising the charter school cap, and he would not answer either way.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

I was asking somertricky about this comment: "Well, that was spectacular in a "Carl Sciortino vs. Bob Trane" or "DSLJ vs. Charlie Chisholm's campaign manager" sort of way..."

[ron_newman]

Ahh, I misread your question as a reply to my comment. (But I do think this was the most notable part of the debate; on all other issues the two candidates seemed to be in agreement with each other and with the audience.)

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

Again, I wasn't there but following @patjehlen on Twitter (@MinkavB was also tweeting a blow-by-blow account); I got the perception that someone underestimated what they're going up against.

In 2008 Trane entered the race guns ablazin' against Carl Sciortino and wound up running such an absymal campaign that he lost his own ward to a write-in candidate. Cheung has targeted Jehlen's contributors on his website; this almost never ends well unless you know the answer beforehand - and I don't think he does.

[ron_newman]

I don't recall Cheung mentioning Jehlen's contributors during last night's debate at all. It was not an issue yesterday.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

I assume somertricky is referring to this: http://www.lelandcheung.com/blog/leland-cheung-releases-donor-names-implores-senator-jehlen-to-d

It seems like a pretty weak line of attack. It feels like Cheung is having a hard time finding solid footing on which to base this primary challenge.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

Ok. I assumed that Pat's twitter feed was going to make it sound like she "won" the debate no matter how it went, so I wasn't putting much stock in it.

[ron_newman]

I agree about the Twitter feed. The audience was clearly Pat's to begin with, and Leland failed to do anything to dislodge that loyalty.

I'm curious to see if this plays out differently at next week's Cambridge event.