Left In Lowell

He’ll vote for the Wall St reform bill. Maybe he really wants to get reelected after all.

It won’t make me vote for him, and I sure as heck want to replace him in 2012, but he’s doing the right thing - protecting the people from abuses by people in power (in this case, monetary power). So, today, a kudos and a thank you. Without him, this bill would be dead.

This says it all. BMG links to a CNBC report on how Massachusetts cracked the #5 slot for its annual ranking of business-friendly states, surprising…CNBC.

This was after getting to #15 in 2008, #8 in 2009, and now, #5 this year. As David says, “interesting that MA’s three highest finishes ever have been under Deval Patrick’s governorship.”

As noted in comments, so, Charlie Baker, is this the wrong direction you want to run against?

Someday, I hope that people realize it’s not super-low-tax-burden and no regulations that are business friendly. That might be what (some) businesses want, but what makes the economy tick are Democratic policies - regulation to create a fair playing field, and taxes at a level that can sustain an educated and talented workforce, a safe environment, and a high quality of life. These things, at the core Democratic principles, are what have made our country great, and the loss of them has been what has made the country sag in the last couple of decades. Under Bush (and Romney) this country and state stagnated, at best. Now we reap the fruits nationally of long abuse by Bush, and reap the benefits of four years of Patrick, locally, as we see our prospects increase faster and stronger than most of the rest of the country.

Word to the wise in politics - you might want to give your out of state pollers a call list scrubbed of all political bloggers before commissioning what amounts to a push poll. Dick Howe has a really good rundown of the call - I was also polled as well. (Interrupted a nice game of Dominion, too. I had no idea it was a 20 minute poll! Ug.) I was going to write about it a couple days ago but got caught up - however, Dick’s post prodded me.

The motivation for the poll was so plainly clear, I almost hung up midstream, but like a diligent blogger, also someone who likes to make sure my opinions are heard, I stuck on to the end.

Specifically, I too noticed that there were a lot positive “Doherty-based questions” in the poll (”how important do you rate” questions had a lot to do with his experience in Leone’s office) and a lot of negative Donoghue questions. One section of the polling asked about “rumors” - was I concerned that “people were saying” various things…one in particular, Dick forgot to mention, was the “rumor” that Donoghue was only running for office because three years as a Rep would double her state pension. Who the *f* is saying that?? Oh right, this poll is.

There was some issues polling which amounted to, largely, are you pro law and order (kind of pandering sorts of questions, to which most people knee-jerkingly rate high, and I don’t, because I don’t like to be manipulated). A few other issues too. The beginning of the poll was largely higher offices and favs/unfavs sort of questions.

Now, this was a damned long poll, probably the longest I’ve ever taken, and I doubt many people would stop to take it. (Political nerds aside.) The push polling “rumors-that’s-what-they-say” parts were long into the call. Not a great plan, if you want them heard by wavering voters (I am not one of these). But even worse is polling the city’s longtime political bloggers, who are going to analyze the poll right in public view. I was pretty disgusted at the poll, which clearly was doing more than just polling. Many of the “rumors” questions were not rumors, but literally the first time I heard them was during that call.

My analysis: it confirms, should this poll have been proven to be commissioned by the Doherty campaign, that they are (admittedly amateurishly) playing dirty, or that they are trying to take advantage of the dirtiness that inhabits Lowell politics. Either by polling to see if it plays so they can use it, or, if I am correct, by effectively push polling (insinuating under the guise of a poll) misleading or, in my humble opinion, lies about his opponent.

Really? This is how you want to run your campaign? I’d like to know if this was a Doherty campaign poll, because if it was not, then he might want to talk to whoever did do it. If he did, I think we can take the measure of the campaign from this and his other actions to date.