Politics

[firstfrost]

I was heading to the T today, when I was stopped by a woman with a clipboard, who asked if I was a registered voter. I said I was, though not in Cambridge. She said that was fine - had I already signed anything to put anyone on the ballot? No? Would I be willing to sign a petition for Martha Coakley?

I didn't remember who that was, so I said I wasn't familiar with her. The woman said that didn't matter, this wasn't a vote for her, it was just to allow her to be on the ballot in order to run. I said no, I'm not willing to give my support to someone that I don't know if I support or not. She got this very unpleasnat look on her face, and started to explain again that it didn't matter, when I said no thank you and kept going.

She could have told me something about Martha Coakley that might have made a difference, but instead, the main position that I will associate with her now is that I shouldn't concern myself with what she actually believes in.

(okay, yes, I shouldn't judge someone by one volunteer... but still.)

Comments

[twe.livejournal.com]

She's the current Attorney General. I think she also ran for governor in big 5 way gubernatorial race a while back.

I agree though that the behavior of the woman with the clipboard was poor.

[kelkyag]

http://marthacoakley.com/ seems to be legitimately her site.

And wow, signature-gathering fail. I suspect that that's a paid signature-gatherer rather than a volunteer, but I don't know. I wonder if that would be worth mentioning to the campaign.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I should clarify that I do know who she is now, since I have reconnected to the Internet and Source of all Knowledge. I just didn't know who she was *then*. :)

[kirisutogomen.livejournal.com]

Well, she's the next Senator from the great state of Massachusetts, unless Paul Revere is resurrected and decides to run for the vacant seat. (Unless there's an interim appointee, in which case she's the next elected Senator blah blah blah.)

She's also the author of a classic quote from the 2007 Lite-Brite Crisis (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/31/boston.bombscare/index.html), when she said, "It had a very sinister appearance. It had a battery behind it, and wires."

[algorithmancy.livejournal.com]

I had a similar thing that happened in Berkeley where a kid basically said "these measures are going to get enough signatures eventually, but if you sign the petition you'll help me out because that's what I'm getting paid for."

[sammason.livejournal.com]

I would immediately suspect that the candidate was BNP.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

... except that you don't have British National Party candidates where you live! I'd forgotten you were Stateside. No doubt you have plenty of nasty equivalents to our BNP.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Sadly, a lot of our annoying/loony politicians and dirty tricks are associated with the two major parties!