Left In Lowell

The end of the reporting quarter is here (June 30), and this is a great time to donate to Jamie Eldridge’s campaign. I have an ActBlue fundraising page all nice and fixed up for just such a purpose! I’d like to invite you to give what you can, because we all know that Jamie is depending on the people, you and me, for his campaign to work.

Electing Jamie to Congress will be electing a leader who is with the mainstream on the issues…single-payer health care for all Americans, better trade agreements that will cease to merely hurt American jobs but instead truly raise up the rest of the world while not undercutting American workers, strong action on the global climate crisis that will also gain us energy independence, and education that doesn’t teach to the test but lifts our kids to a new standard. If you want an outspoken, bucking-the-leadership-when-necessary Congressional Representative, you want Jamie. He’s proven he can be both a strongly principled legislator and someone who can work with compromise. So if you want Jamie to represent you, please donate today, and volunteer for his campaign, because people power works.

Shrillness in pursuit of getting your candidate elected is unforgivable no matter what side does it. Well, Emily’s List has once again crossed the line.

…5th Congressional candidate Barry Finegold has got himself in a little hot water. At a debate sponsored in part by the Lowell Sun Jamie Eldridge caught Finegold off guard. Eldridge asked Finegold why he had co-sponsored a bill which would require women to wait 24 hours before having an abortion. Finegold, a pro-choice candidate, has since withdrawn his name from the bill but the issue isn’t going away… And there is not doubt it has rattled his campaign. Last Thursday EMILY’s List, which raises money for pro-choice candidates, sent over 42,000 emails nationwide asking members to contribute to Niki Tsongas because “Finegold is not reliably pro-choice” (Eagle Tribune).

I haven’t liked Emily’s List for a long time, for a variety of reasons (one of which being their insider power broker status). For women’s groups, I prefer NARAL and Planned Parenthood. (I have a soft spot for PP, because they were so good to me when we were poor and without insurance. I defy anyone to find a right wing group so dedicated to making sure woman have good reproductive care no matter what their circumstance.)

Now, Barry Finegold should take his lumps for putting his name on a bill without realizing what was in it. Especially given what has plagued his colleagues recently. It’s sloppy, and shows a lack of wonk ability. (I know that Eldridge is doing oppo research and so it’s not too impressive he found this gaffe, but I cannot for the life of me picture Jamie putting his name on any bill that he doesn’t know the contents of, and he obviously read this one more thoroughly than Finegold did.)

But for Emily’s List to claim, as Tony quotes the Eagle Tribune,

Pro-choice advocates…say that Finegold’s involvement in the high profile anti-choice measure raises questions about whether a Finegold victory in the fifth congressional district House race would further tilt Congress away from support for a woman’s right to choose, since the victor will replace the reliably pro-choice Marty Meehan.

Ridiculous, we all know Finegold is pro-choice, and PP Mass and NARAL Pro-choice Mass rightly affirm it. Finegold comes off looking like a bumbling legislator who signs things without knowing what he’s signing, but he’s no liar or closet right winger. Please.

Tsongas, if she knows what’s good for her, should back away quickly from this action by Emily’s List. It’s very dishonest, and it tarnishes Tsongas to be associated with it. Now is the time we will find out if Tsongas is more interested in winning and fundraising, or honesty and integrity.

(For the record, my money’s on the former - winning and fundraising. I hope she proves me wrong.)

The details have been worked out for a meet ‘n greet event with Jamie Eldridge, Sunday July 8th, 6:00pm - 8:30pm at The Blue Shamrock, 105 Market Street, Lowell. There will be refreshments served and this is an open event for anyone interested in meeting the candidate.

If you want to help with outreach for this event (or future events!), please contact Neel at neel@jamieforcongress.com.

The new media revolution is a lot of things…but boring it ain’t. This weekend’s “Column” managed to get in a tiny attack at this blog. More importantly, it’s trying to use that to dig at Kristin Ross-Sitcawich, candidate for Lowell City Council and until recently, a contributor here.

I do want to address this, because of that last fact, and because Kristin’s platform and candidacy is a legitimate one and doesn’t deserve this obviously biased and nasty treatment, feelings about this blog notwithstanding. The offending passage:

NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVIST Kristin Ross-Sitcawich, a challenger, is the first Lowell council candidate to launch a campaign Web site, www.KristinForLowell.com.

Ross-Sitcawich, an outspoken member of Lowell’s political blogging community, has been a frequent poster on the site Left In Lowell where just about any whacky and unconfirmed rumor and government conspiracy gets into cyberspace.

You can be about 95% sure who slipped in that last line. It’s obvious to me that Sun editor Jim Campanini, no matter how many times it’s explained to him, just can’t wrap his mind around the concept of blogging, new media, or decentralized political discourse. He didn’t get it during the Patrick campaign, and it certainly appears he is still waiting for an epiphany.

Here’s my first point: that Kristin is only responsible for the words she posts. She wrote here voluntarily (often covering events in the non-profit sector, in a positive manner) because she believes that discussion and transparency is more important than anything else. She put herself out there, in her own words, and is not responsible for anything I write, or what Mimi says, or the comments posted. People who grok new media get that. No one can say that Kristin’s contribution here has been anything but positive, upbeat, and honest. This attempt to link her to anything else is such a ridiculous notion that the only place you’d find it is in the Column. It’s nuts. Would Campanini hold Matt Murphy responsible for an article by Mike LaFleur? (Not that either of them have ever written anything irresponsible, just using an example.) I didn’t think so.

Besides the swipe at Kristin though, which I felt unfair, this Column “attack” was vastly amusing. So much so, I looked up the word “irony” in the dictionary, and this was the example! Imagine, the Column - that unattributable, anonymously written, anonymously and often single sourced, rumor-and-pony show in every Sunday’s paper, basically calling a blog, whose writers and contributors do not get paid, unaccountable! It fit the text-book definition so perfectly, my head nearly exploded with the dissonance. (Don’t get me wrong, sometimes the Column is very informative, interesting, and fun, but it certainly isn’t devoid of “rumors.”) Threatened much?

Not to mention that this accusation is wrong in the first place. I will note, that in every case where I didn’t have confirmed fact, I labeled the thing as such very clearly; including the meeting that started it all, between Mayor Martin, V. Mayor Milinazzo, and then-CM John Cox. I have never prefaced something like that as fact, but only post that which I think needs further examination. On the Keegan post especially, I used the words “if true” and put a question mark into the very title. If the paper of record (by which I mean its editor) was doing its job and examining these things, I would gladly give it up. However, if this story was so untrue, you’d think that the Column author would want to take that point even further. Instead, they insinuate that this blog posts rumor, without confirming or denying anything specific. Probably because the author knows damn well they don’t have a leg to stand on…so better let sleeping dogs lie, eh?

And lastly, regarding government conspiracies…maybe it was my claim that Bush lied to get us into war…oh no, wait, that turned out to be true. Maybe it was our posts on the illegal spying…nope, also true…hmm, about Cox shutting groups and people out of city government if he didn’t like them? Forget it, that was also true, in spades.

*Yawn*. It’s too bad this one-liner attack wasn’t a little more clever…that was just far too easy, and this being a Monday morning to boot. But, thanks for the free publicity! Our traffic doubles about every three to six months, and it’s due in large part to the coverage we get locally. We really appreciate it.

Last week, the third and final session of the Lowell Downtown Summit took place. Tom Spoth, the Lowell Sun’s business correspondent writes that the presentation “had downtown residents and business owners gushing with praise for the city’s efforts.”

The newspaper article refers to City Manager’s Bernie Lynch Powerpoint Presentation which, as I have come to expect, the entire pdf file is available on the City’s web site. It is 50 colorful pages, giving you a graphic and pictorial explanation of what the plans are to revitalize downtown.

In discussion with friends, some do feel that downtown gets more attention than the neighborhoods. I do not know if that is the case but the center of town is essential for business growth, thus increasing tax revenue, thus increasing level of service, thus increasing a quality of life for all the residents. Why can’t we have both, an active city center and vibrant neighborhoods.

Then there are those who tell me, we have tried all this before. But I am not yet ready to give up.

The presentation focused on Traffic & Parking; Infrastructure, Retail Recruitment & Retention, and Marketing. The plan of action is impressive. If Lowell’s economic is relying more and more on the cultural economy, than marketing, promotion, branding and advertising are essential if we are to succeed. (more…)

This Saturday night, you can come and meet Jamie and find out about his campaign in a meet n’ greet format. It takes place tomorrow, Saturday, June 23, at 8pm, at the Chelmsford Radisson, 10 Independence Drive. To RSVP, contact Mike at mike[at]combsnet.com (replace the [at] with an @). They can also offer you a ride if you need it.

If you’ll be missing this weekend, don’t worry, we’re planning a meet n’ greet event in Lowell for mid July, and we’ll have details soon!

PS: I’m headed out to the GRC this weekend. Check out the workshops and such, lots of great new things to learn.

Today we’re talking festivals with Sayon Sueon, President of the Asian Water Festival; Fru Nkimbeng, President of the African Festival; and Elkin Montoya who will tell us about the Latino festival at St. Patrick’s. We’ll also talk about the ONE Lowell World Cup. There’s lots of culture in Lowell, so tune in and hear about it!

People keep wondering what the fundraising numbers are this quarter for the 5th district race, in anticipation of the reports due out soon. Well, I meandered over to ActBlue because they sent out their monthly newletter, and for grins got onto the US House page for Massachusetts, and took a look at the MA-05 candidates. Here’s what I found:

Eileen Donoghue, Raised across ActBlue: 27 donors, $5,450
Jamie Eldridge, Raised across ActBlue: 382 donors, $71,050
Barry Finegold, Raised across ActBlue: 16 donors, $16,250
Niki Tsongas, Raised across ActBlue: 264 donors, $87,565

If I recall correctly, a month ago when I looked at these numbers Tsongas was pretty far ahead of everyone in online fundraising. This of course is not a shock - her name recognition set her up for being the initial fundraising giant.

However, taking a second look at those numbers, Jamie Eldridge is within about $16,000 of catching up to Tsongas. What’s more, Jamie has over a hundred more donors than Niki does, which means his numbers of small donors may be considerably larger, giving him room to go back to them for more.

Though most of the donations are probably made through the candiates’ account for which there seems no breakdown, people are also allowed to make fundraising pages (like the one I have for Jamie), and you can get the breakdown of the donations made through those pages at least. Looking at Niki’s page, I see a single donor of $900, another one of $1,300, a set of 20 donors averaging $383.50, and the Women for Tsongas at 43 donors averaging almost $300 per. There are 44 averaging under $50, and another 14 averaging between $75 and $106. But in total, 66 of Tsongas’ donors gave over $200, 65 of them around $300 and up.

For Jamie, on the other hand, the breakdown goes like this: 23 donors under $50, 27 donors between $50-$100, 29 under or at $150, and 12 under $200. There are only 2 donors averaging over $200.

Though competative on the lower end, Tsongas seems to be relying on larger donations, which not only could translate to less money later on (ask Hillary about that), but also could be a reflection of people doing more than donating to Eldridge’s campaign such as volunteer work, or showing a larger number will at least make sure show up to vote (if you donate, even $10, generally you care enough to vote). A campaign like Eldridge’s takes more time and effort (and trust) to get going, but it was the strength of Patrick’s win, as well as those of such underdogs like Carol Shea-Porter. This race is fascinating, if only for the compare-and-contrast between methods of campaigning.

Via sco, I found the link to the list of 215 nonprofits (out of 1500 which applied) that received grants from the leftover Deval Patrick inaugural fundraising. Several worthy Lowell groups were awarded the $2,500 award:

Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell, Inc.
Light of Cambodian Children, Inc.
Lowell Transitional Living Center
Lowell Wish Project Inc.
Merrimack Valley Food Bank, Inc.

I’m sure a lot of worthy groups were left out. However, the process for choosing was a lot like Deval’s campaign - a grassroots group of 400 souls were the ones to determine the outcome. Congratulations to all the groups who received an award!

Last night Lowell City Council candidate Kristin Ross-Sitcawich (check out her Lynne-designed web site) launched her campaign with a successful kick-off fundraiser at Café Paradiso. Vice-Mayor Jim Millinazo had his fundraiser at the same time right across the street at Fortunatos. So, the intersection of Palmer and Middle Streets was buzzing with political excitement all night.

It was great to see and meet so many people dedicated to keeping this City moving forward. I had some encouraging conversations with so many Lowellians as well as one Dracuteer who all believe in quality government for the greater good.

A number of other City Council candidates, both incumbents and challengers, visited the two events to wish both Kristin and Jim their best. They included Congressional candidate and current City Council member, Eileen Donoghue; Mayor Bill Martin, Councilors Kevin Broderick, Rodney Elliott, George Ramirez and candidates Mehmed Ali, Joe Mendoca, Jo-Ann Keegan, Curtis LeMay and David Koch. On the School Committee side, I only saw School Committeewoman and fellow blogger Jackie Doherty.

Ed O’Reilly was there also. He is challenging Senator John Kerry in the 2008 election. By the time this election comes around, I predict that he will have met everyone in Lowell.

We should start discussing how to minimize the cost of running citywide campaigns to give everyone a fair chance. We also need to maximize the exposure of the candidates and the issues; maybe use LTC better; more public forums, and of course, web sites and blogs. And we all need to go out and get our neighbors to vote as if their entire future depends upon it; oh, wait it does depend on it.