JOHN CARROLL

The Year of living strangely

JOHN CARROLL — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 18:51:54 GMT

A year in media
So let’s see if we have this straight.

So let’s see if we have this straight.

Some Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed cause rioting in the Muslim world, but the vice-president of the United States shoots someone in the face and it’s no big deal?

The New York Times gets lacerated for exposing the National Security Agency’s domestic spying, but Reuters essentially gets a pass on doctoring photos to exaggerate Israeli air strikes in Beirut?

O.J. Simpson gets $3 million for a book that never gets published, while its would-be publisher Judith Regan gets dumped like a Taco Bell burrito (not that there’s anything wrong with that)?

Steroid slugger Barry Bonds gets outed in the press via leaked grand-jury testimony, then gets a $16 million one-year contract from the San Francisco Giants — the very team he disgraced?

Sure feels like 2006 officially qualifies as a long, strange trip. Among the other high-lowlights for your consideration:

Reporting for Clean-Up Duty
The already shaky reputation of the junior-varsity senator from Massachusetts went to Iraq-and-ruin when he botched a joke in a speech to students in California. Senator John Kerry (D-Can I Get a Mulligan?) told the assembled youngsters, “You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, do your homework, make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Geez, nothing like leading with what’s left of your chin, eh? Kerry said it was supposed to be a swipe against George W. Bush, but it turned into one more blunder by a guy who is now capable of Swift-boating himself.

Governor’s Race (To the Door)
Smilin’ Mitt Romney, whose presidential prospects were on the rise this year, clearly demonstrated that he can’t get out of town fast enough. For one thing, this is where he employed undocumented/illegal workers/immigrants to mow his costly Belmont lawn. For another, this is where he wrote that letter to the Log Cabin Republicans of Massachusetts during the 1994 US Senate race, in which he insisted that we “must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern.”

That, of course, went over like the metric system when it, ahem, came out in the New York Times this month. Straight shooter Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told the Times, “This is quite disturbing.”

Betcha Mitt feels pretty much the same right now.

Governor’s Race (To the Bank)
Massachusetts gubernatorial hopefuls spent more than $42 million this year, only to see “grassroots” candidate Deval Patrick take the corner office.

Mihosed

JOHN CARROLL — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 21:07:49 GMT

Why aren’t Christy’s ads better?
The problem with gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos’s television spots is, they’re not kinky enough.

HOWDY, PARTNER: Kinky Friedman’s ads have made him a popular Texas candidate.

The problem with gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos’s television spots is, they’re not kinky enough.

Kinky Friedman enough, that is. Friedman, who’s running as an independent in the Texas gubernatorial race, is the long-time bandleader of Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, as well as the author of 17 mystery novels starring himself.

(Representative sample: “Cats, country music, and cigars have become the three spiritual linchpins of my life. Actually, I have a few other spiritual linchpins and they also begin with a “c,” but we won’t go into that now.”)

Friedman and Mihos have both hired the legendary Bill Hillsman to produce their advertising. To all appearances Friedman, as he might phrase it, has gotten the gold while Mihos has gotten the shaft.

Hillsman’s North Woods Advertising created the breakthrough and hilarious Paul Wellstone “Looking for Rudy” commercials in 1990. Eight years later it produced the advertising for Jesse “The Body Politic” Ventura’s long-shot gubernatorial victory in Minnesota. This year the Kinkster is Hillsman’s official Dark Horse darling.

Friedman’s TV spots, which he wrote and Hillsman produced, are beautiful, bucolic ruminations on the Lone Star state of mind. One, titled “Cowboy Way,” shows Friedman wandering about his Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch while he narrates: “Folks, when a cowboy shakes your hand, it’s the law of the land. Cowboy doesn’t talk about education, he teaches. Cowboy doesn’t talk about religion, he lives it.”

Another commercial has Friedman saying on-camera, “Look, I’m 61 years old — too young for Medicare, too old for women to care.” His Web site also includes a series of thoroughly engaging Kinkytoons, as well as a Kinky Talking Action Figure — On Sale $20! Save 33%! — that says 25 different things, such as “I can’t screw things up any more than they already are.” (Ventura also had action figure action in his campaign.)

In other words, Kinky is a certified gubernatorial character. Weekly Standard reporter Matt Labash, who tagged along with Friedman on the campaign trail for a spell, related this anecdote:

“Watching his rapport with people, who mob him everywhere we go, I offer that he gives people ‘happiness injections.’ He mulls it over. ‘Happiness injections — that’s a good line,’ he says. ‘Take it,’ I offer. ‘Ehh,’ he says, having second thoughts, ‘It’s kind of gay.’ ”

Ask Spin Cycle

JOHN CARROLL — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 21:17:17 GMT

Campaign advice for the vote-lorn
Here at the Global Worldwide Headquarters of “Spin Cycle,” up to several letters have poured in during the past few days seeking our sage advice on all things electoral.

Here at the Global Worldwide Headquarters of “Spin Cycle,” up to several letters have poured in during the past few days seeking our sage advice on all things electoral. Since we’re nothing if not helpful, we decided to dip into the mailbag this week and, in the best tradition of Big-J journalism, do our best to comfort the afflicted.

Dear Spin Cycle,
Since a certain “DP” keeps dodging a tête-à-tête with me, I’ve been killing time by going to the movies. Last weekend I saw Marie Antoinette (that Kirsten Dunst is so cute!) and The Queen (that Helen Mirren is so frumpy!), and now I am in a quandary.

First of all, a fashion question: Should I pimp my wardrobe and go for a Full Marie, Louis-heeled mules and all? Or should I start to dress more QE II, with sensible shoes and whatnot?

More important, though, whose ruling style should I adopt when I’m elected governor? Of course, M-Ant’s carefree Grande Olde Partie attitude is tempting, but ask me how much I’d like to move into the Corner Office with a couple of Corgis and start tossing around the royal “we.”

I mean, really, what’s a gal to do?

Kerry H.
Prides Cursing, MA

Dear Kerry H,
What, you don’t like those orange jumpsuits your campaign groupies are tricked out in lately? Or is orange too gaudy for you as a fashion statement? Whatever, it’s probably best to forego either queen’s finery and stick with your Rotary Club–luncheon look. Honestly, it becomes you.

As for your ruling style, you might want to take a cue from Napoleon at Elba and brush up on your solitaire game.

Dear Spin Cycle,
How many Slurpees does it take to change a lightbulb?

Ha! Just kidding! Here’s my real question: How come voters aren’t taking my costly gubernatorial campaign seriously?

Christy M.
Aisle 3, MA

Dear Christy M,
Could it be because you look and act like the official nominee of the Looney Tunes Party? Ha! Just asking!

Dear Spin Cycle,
I attended the Barak Obama lovefest at the JFK Library last Friday, where New York Times columnist Bob Herbert conducted an adoring interview with Obama in front of an adoring overflow crowd.

At one point Herbert recounted this story: on the cab ride from Logan to the library, the driver asked Herbert what was going on there. A Barak Obama event, Herbert said. “Barak Obama!” the driver responded. “Our next president!”

‘Sexy projects’

JOHN CARROLL — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 19:11:06 GMT

Brookline’s old-school tax tussle
While gubernatorial candidates Kerry Healey and Deval Patrick go at one another hammer and tongue on the television airwaves, there are hundreds of below-the-radar campaigns being waged town by town across Massachusetts.

SAVING SPACE: Yes for Brookline’s Future’s Web site.

While gubernatorial candidates Kerry Healey and Deval Patrick go at one another hammer and tongue on the television airwaves, there are hundreds of below-the-radar campaigns being waged town by town across Massachusetts.

In Brookline, the biggest battle centers on the ballot initiative to pass the Community Preservation Act (CPA), which would levy a three percent surcharge on property taxes to fund investments in open space, historic preservation, and affordable housing. All worthy objectives to pursue, right?

Not so fast, reply opponents like Jim Conley, who writes the blog onbrookline.com. “Now is the wrong time to do it because middle- and lower-middle-class people are struggling,” Conley says. “You can’t just keep piling it on them.”

According to Roger Blood, head of the Brookline Coalition Against Unfair Taxation, the opposition includes “an interesting alliance of people typically on opposite sides.” Call them the Coalition of the Unwilling. It features, in no particular order:

1) Those who feel taxes are already extremely high and who question the affordability of the CPA, since it’s not really about essential projects;

2) School activists who feel the town’s priorities should be in the educational area and who worry that the CPA will interfere with a possible Proposition 2 ½ override in the future;

3) Other town activists who feel the CPA end-runs “Brookline’s way of doing things,” in that the town has an elaborate budget process where various priorities compete for resources.

One of the things the third group is unwilling to do, Blood said, is underwrite what the town’s CPA Study Committee called “sexy projects” — pet projects that could never make it through the budget process.

Among them, onbrookline.com’s Conley said, is purchasing the reservoir in the tony Fisher Hill neighborhood. “It’s a way to preserve that parcel, a preemptive move to keep development out. They need three and a half million to put the park in Fisher Hill out of reach for eternity.”

So far the media campaign of the CPA opposition has been confined to distributing entirely unimpressive handouts on primary day last month, and running a thoroughly boilerplate ad in the Brookline TAB’s Russian Supplement.

But, according to Bob Sperber, former Brookline superintendent of schools and leader of the Rorschachian-named Partnership to Preserve the Future of Brookline, “We’re doing everything one does in a regular political campaign.” That means “yard signs going up this week, and an ad toward the end of the campaign in the TAB. We’ll also have op-ed pieces and letters to the editor.”

Trail mix

JOHN CARROLL — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 20:34:18 GMT

Ads ’n’ ends from the media front
Could someone please get a temporary restraining order against Kerry Healey’s Deval-Patrick-loves-cop-killers TV spot?

THE AD: Enough already

Cleaning out the clip file while wondering whether Green-Rainbow candidate Grace Ross will accuse us of contributing to the fast-vanishing tree supply in Massachusetts:

Copping a plea
Could someone please get a temporary restraining order against Kerry Healey’s Deval-Patrick-loves-cop-killers TV spot? The commercial — which the average Bostonian has seen roughly 748 times in the past two weeks — details Patrick’s 1980s defense work for Carl Ray Songer (why do these guys always have three names?), who faced the death penalty after killing a Florida state trooper. The spot ends with the question, “While lawyers have a right to defend admitted cop killers, do we really want one as our governor?”

Here’s a better question: while political candidates have the right to carpet-bomb us with hyperventilating half-baked scare tactics, do we really want one as our governor?

And you, Mr. Patrick: wipe that smile off your face. If you don’t stop acting like the Human Fog Machine, you’re going to deserve every distortion you get.

LaGuer est finicky
The other jackpot Patrick finds himself in is the strange and endless case of convicted rapist Benjamin LaGuer, who’s roped numerous local luminaries into supporting his bid for freedom. Patrick wrote letters to the state Parole Board in 1998 and 2000 urging LaGuer’s release and ponied up $5000 in 2001 to pay for DNA tests that actually backfired on LaGuer, who had claimed they would clear him.

Just like the Songer issue, l’affaire LaGuer came back to haunt Patrick. Healey, of course, has jumped on it, and victims’ rights advocates have whacked Patrick for “at every opportunity [taking] the side of the violent offender over the victim.”

Enter LaGuer himself, who only made matters worse by saying he’s not upset that Patrick has moon walked away from him. “In no way do I feel that Deval has betrayed me,” LaGuer told the Boston Globe. (Helpful hint for Deval: when you’re running for governor, try to avoid being on a first-name basis with anyone convicted of rape.)

Then came the finicky part. “I’ve been thrust into a forum which was not unwelcome,” LaGuer said. “I’ve wanted scrutiny of the facts of my case. I’ve not wanted a political fight.”

Yeah, don’t you hate when that happens? Question for Patrick: with friends like Benjy, who needs Kerry Healey?

Cardinal Lawmaker?
Down on Capitol Hill, beleaguered House Speaker Dennis Hastert now finds himself yoked not only to e-mauler Mark Foley (R-Drop Your Shorts), but also to Cardinal Bernard Law, late of St. Enabler’s parish in the archdiocese of Boston.

Primary choler

JOHN CARROLL — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 18:55:13 GMT

Gabrieli ad man whacks Globe
David Eichenbaum has no regrets about the ad campaign his Washington, DC, political media firm Struble Eichenbaum created for local entrepreneur Chris Gabrieli.

David Eichenbaum has no regrets about the ad campaign his Washington, DC, political media firm Struble Eichenbaum created for local entrepreneur Chris Gabrieli. Asked how large a factor advertising was in this year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary (considering that Gabrieli spent about eight million bucks on it), Eichenbaum said, “clearly not as important as we hoped. There were bigger things at play here than positive media were able to overcome.

“We ran a specific kind of race focused on Chris and his ideas. There wasn’t a whole lot different we could have done short of going negative.”

And it wasn’t like Gabrieli was some tomato can of an opponent. “His favorability numbers were sky-high,” Eichenbaum said, “but in the real world of deciding who to vote for, it didn’t really translate.”

Even so, Eichenbaum said, “We accomplished strategically what we set out to do. It wasn’t enough. Something else was going on.” Such as what? “Deval [Patrick] became a movement candidate, which is just what he set out to do. The politics of hope outweighed the politics of results.”

But there was also a thumb on the scale, according to Eichenbaum. “To an extent, [Patrick] was carried more by the press. There was an incredible honeymoon with him and the press. That helped him overcome being outspent.” At this point in the conversation, Eichenbaum started getting pretty lathered up.

“But what pisses me off more than anything, to have three polls come out within two days of the election was so irresponsible. The Globe essentially said, ‘This is over.’”

That last comment refers to the September 17 Boston Sunday Globe front-page story headlined, PATRICK OUTPACES TWO RIVALS IN NEW POLL. The survey gave Patrick a 46 percent to 25 percent lead over Gabrieli. (Patrick wound up with 50 percent of the Democratic-primary vote.)

It appears, moreover, that the Globe’s helpful attitude toward Patrick didn’t stop there. Last Wednesday’s edition, for instance, was a regular DeVal-Pak. For starters, there was the editorial headlined WHO’S SOFT ON CRIME NOW?, which essentially claimed that Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, the GOP gubernatorial candidate, is just as soft on crime as Patrick is, nyah-nyah.

Alongside that pom-pom was a letter to the editor from “a volunteer for the Patrick campaign,” which should by rights have been labeled “Free Political Advertisement.”

But the coup de gratis was that day’s Page One story, headlined ANALYST PUTS INCREASE IN FEES, TAXES AT $700 MILLION. The report referenced an estimate by the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation that Governor Mitt Romney’s administration had “raised roughly $740 million to $750 million per year by increasing fees and corporate taxes.”

Debating pointers

JOHN CARROLL — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:28:45 GMT

Advice to local TV stations
Well, folks, Fox 25 certainly set the bar with its debate broadcast Monday night, don’t you think? So with that in mind, here are some helpful hints for the bake-offs to come. Blue Mass Group's anti-Healey ad (YouTube) Christy Mihos's Big Dig TV ad

EXTRA, EXTRA!: Blue Mass Group’s creepy anti-Healy video on YouTube.

TO: Local television executives

FROM: “Spin Cycle”

RE: Upcoming gubernatorial debates

Well, folks, Fox 25 certainly set the bar with its debate broadcast Monday night, don’t you think? So with that in mind, here are some helpful hints for the bake-offs to come.

Maximize your opening graphics. Fox 25’s “Battle for the Statehouse” theme segued nicely into their Fight Night in Dedham candidate introductions, although they should have given the height, weight, and reach of the contenders. But the station really missed the boat by not having a tuxedo-clad ring announcer saying, “Let’s get ready to ramble!”

Don’t bill celebrities as “voters.” Moderator Chris Wallace promoted the debate’s “unique twist” of including voter questions, which has actually been around since the time of Cicero. But what’s with Shonda (wife of Curt) Schilling and Jasper (no relation to Kevin) White quizzing the candidates via video? C’mon, guys. We’re always busting the candidates’ chops about truth in advertising. Let’s try to set a good example, yeah?

Level the earpiece playing field. For the first half of the debate, Deval Patrick looked like he was auditioning for the lead in some community-stage adaptation of The Bodyguard. Mercifully, the Fox 25ers hid Patrick’s earpiece for the second half of the proceedings. Too little, too late.

Skip the post-debate candidate interviews. How weird was that, having the four opponents do postmortem interviews like it was some juiced-up episode of Judge Judy? Better to have them play Yahtzee for bragging rights.

Blue Mass Groupies?
It’s been interesting to watch the evolution of the liberal blog Blue Mass Group (BMG) over the course of this election. A month ago David Kravitz, one of the Blue Mass guys, told “Spin Cycle” they started the site “to try to elect a Democratic governor . . . We initially envisioned it as a platform to talk up candidates we wanted to back.”

The talk grew into an endorsement of Deval Patrick in the Democratic primary. Now that Patrick has moved on to a general-election battle with Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, BMG has moved on too, recently posting a couple of anti-Healey spots on the video-sharing site YouTube.

One of the videos features creepy organ music and Psycho-style sound effects as the voiceover ties Healey, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney together in a nice little package that’s “too extreme for Massachusetts.” The other mocks Healey as having accomplished essentially nothing her entire life.

Third-degree burns

JOHN CARROLL — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 18:21:07 GMT

Advocacy ads a factor in Governor’s race
Special-interest groups are the kibitzers of the political game, circling the table, looking at everyone’s cards, offering unwanted advice.

SPOTTY AD Kerry Healey is being attacked in ads by a 537 group called Patriot Majority.

Special-interest groups are the kibitzers of the political game, circling the table, looking at everyone’s cards, offering unwanted advice. These advocacy outfits — called 527 groups after the section of the Internal Revenue Service code that regulates them — enjoy tax-exempt status, no financial-disclosure requirements, and the anonymity of names such as “Citizens For a More American Future,” which could represent anyone from the NRA to the NBA.

The most notorious third-party group in recent memory was the inaptly named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose drive-by ad campaign helped sink the presidential fantasies of Senator John F. Kerry (D-See You in Six Years).

This being an off-year election, advocacy groups are free to focus on state races, including Massachusetts. So, how about a big Bay State welcome for the Patriot Majority Fund, a coalition of Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union, the Democratic Governor’s Association, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

The Patriot Majority mélange has jumped into the gubernatorial rumpus with a TV commercial attacking GOP standard-bearer Kerry Healey. The group reportedly could spend up to $2 million by Election Day.

The 30-second Patriot Majority spot accuses Healey of abusing her position as lieutenant governor by “using state employees to staff her political events and state police escorts to avoid traffic.” Beyond that, “Healey opposed property tax relief for seniors. She said they were, quote, ‘overhoused’.”

Then the spot gets a little dicey. The narrator says, “Healey and [Governor Mitt] Romney even tried to cut millions from public education,” but on the screen is superimposed “cut millions from public education” — not “tried to cut millions.”

Why the hedge in the voiceover? Maybe because in the 2004 budget Romney actually proposed an increase in K-12 school spending (which the legislature cut) and a smaller cut in higher education than state lawmakers eventually approved.

On its Web site Patriot Majority has provided a boatload of “Documentation & Citations,” even to the point of footnoting the statement “Kerry Healey just doesn’t get it.” (See Mike Barnicle, Boston Herald: “Kerry Healey is simply clueless.”) But the documentation for the public-education cuts (“Romney Often Casts Himself as Budget Hero But Speeches Omit Some Important Detail,” Boston Globe, October 24, 2005) is used in a way that could be called — pick one — selective, misleading, or deceptive.

Debate and switch

JOHN CARROLL — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 21:22:24 GMT

As The Globe Turns On Reilly
By the end of last Thursday’s Democratic gubernatorial debate, it was Kaddish for Tom Reilly, at least according to everybody in the chin-strokerati (except the Boston Herald ’s Howie “Bleep Conventional Wisdom” Carr).

OFF AND RUNNING: Tom Reilly (center) did himself no favors by attacking rival Chris Gabrieli (left) at the start of last week’s Democratic gubernatorial primary debate, which included Deval Patrick (right).

By the end of last Thursday’s Democratic gubernatorial debate, it was Kaddish for Tom Reilly, at least according to everybody in the chin-strokerati (except the Boston Herald’s Howie “Bleep Conventional Wisdom” Carr). The overwhelming consensus was that soon-to-be-ex-attorney-general Reilly had executed the sort of on-screen meltdown that was formerly the exclusive province of Daffy Duck.

Television newscasts, talk radio, the blogosphere — you name it, Reilly’s flailing debate performance was being panned there. But the real action was at the Boston Globe, largely because Reilly’s meltdown started with that paper’s debate-day page-one story asking what Reilly knew, and when he knew it, about running-mate-for-a-day Marie St. Fleur (D-No Comment).

The Globe piece, written by veteran political reporter Frank Phillips, said the Reilly campaign had an extensive background report about St. Fleur’s various and sundry financial irregularities before the announcement of their peekaboo ballot alliance back in January. At the time, Reilly told reporters he had no specifics regarding St. Fleur’s fiscal fitness.

Cut to debate night: before Deval Patrick had even broken a sweat, Reilly went Chernobyl, accusing venture capitalist Chris Gabrieli of leaking the report through campaign supporter/bigfoot Cheryl Cronin, who Reilly said had been St. Fleur’s attorney earlier this year. And then it got even more interesting.

Why? Because while Gabrieli was issuing a full-throated denial, the Globe’s Phillips found himself in the awkward position of covering a story about the identity of a source that was, in fact, his source.

Paging Mr. Escher, paging Mr. MC Escher.

“I didn’t ask the candidate about the source,” Phillips said the next day, indicating that co-bylined Globe reporter Andrea Estes had asked the question. Beyond that, Phillips said, “If I grant confidentiality, I’m going to honor it, even if [the source] is lying.” (Big flashing footnote: Phillips in no way implied that Gabrieli was his source or that Gabrieli was lying.)

Meanwhile, Reilly’s debate performance was given the thumbs down by four Globe op-ed columnists on Friday, not to mention a Globe editorial that called it “drenched in desperation” and compared Reilly’s 9/11 grandstanding in the debate to Al “I’m in Charge Here” Haig after Ronald Reagan was shot. Ouch.

Regardless, in for a dime, in for a dollar. Saturday’s Globe headline said it all: REILLY RENEWS CRITICISM OF RIVAL; GABRIELI REPEATS ST. FLEUR DENIAL. The story itself featured several priceless moments:

The First Annual Spotty Awards

JOHN CARROLL — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 18:12:03 GMT

Our prestigious award for standout achievement in political something or other
Say, those Emmy Awards last week were something else, eh?

Say, those Emmy Awards last week were something else, eh? Nothing we like better than a television industry kissathon where Will and Grace steals yet another statuette from four more-deserving nominees. Unless it’s an awards show of our own, that is. So “Spin Cycle” proudly introduces the First Annual Spotty Awards™, which recognize the height of something or other in local-campaign spots.

Of course, given these parlous economic times and the escalating production costs involved in staging the Spottys, we’ve had to solicit sponsorships for each of the categories. Hey, that’s the way the world works these days.

Now, without further ado, we present the Down-Ballot Division of the Spotty Awards. (The Gubernatorial Division awards will be announced as soon as we can find more suckers — er, sponsors.)

The George W. Bush "Got Any Documentation For That Claim?” Award
A tie between Larry Frisoli, Republican candidate for attorney general, and perennial Grand Old Piñata Jack E. Robinson, this time running for the Ninth District congressional seat.

Frisoli is airing a radio spot that accuses his Democratic opponent, Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley, of being soft on sexual predators.

“It took Coakley 18 months to indict a man accused of raping his step-daughter because he was a big-time corporate vice-president,” a female narrator says. “After two police officers were suspended for allegedly raping a college student, Martha Coakley refused to bring criminal charges. With Coakley as DA, Middlesex County has become a safer place . . . for predators.”

You just know there’s more to those stories than Frisoli is saying. Beyond that, Frisoli told the Patriot Ledger back in April that Coakley is too much of a career prosecutor; Frisoli is running “because he wants to focus the attorney general’s office more on consumer issues such as auto insurance.” Sounds like under Frisoli, Massachusetts would become a safer place . . . for predators who don’t commit moving violations.

As for Robinson, he’s also on the radio, attacking Democratic incumbent Stephen Lynch. Robinson’s spot says Lynch has received over half a million dollars in contributions from Big Dig contractors, after which the narrator adds, “some even say he’s the linchpin to the problems that plague the Big Dig.”

Some say? Like who? Aside from Jack E., we mean?

The Tim Cahill "Say It With Kids” Award
Four years ago, Democratic candidate for secretary of the treasury Tim Cahill ran television ads with his daughter Kendra urging everyone to vote “Tim for Treasurer.” He won, so this year Democratic lieutenant-governor candidate Tim Murray upped the ante by featuring a gaggle of school kids chanting “Hurry, Hurry, Vote for Murray!” in one of his TV spots.

Putting the ‘e’ in campaigns

JOHN CARROLL — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 20:59:51 GMT

The netroots get real in the Bay State, and the secret behind Joan Vennochi’s e-coup.
It’s becoming clear that there’s more to the political blogosphere than just blahg, blahg, blahg.

‘Real blogs are all about point of view,’ says Blue Mass Group co-founder Charley Blandy. ‘We are partisan, we are biased.’

It’s becoming clear that there’s more to the political blogosphere than just blahg, blahg, blahg. Exhibit A: Ned Lamont’s improbable victory in Connecticut, where the netroots crowd (the electronic version of grassroots) chased Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Get a Dog) off the Democratic ballot line. Now it seems bloggers in Massachusetts want a shot at being election-year players.

Take Blue Mass Group (BMG), which is quickly becoming a full-fledged member of the local chin-strokerati. The site’s three founding bloggers — Charley Blandy, David Kravitz, and Bob Neer — are all Kerry ’04 survivors who, Kravitz said, started BMG “to try to elect a Democratic governor.… We initially envisioned it as a platform to talk up candidates we wanted to back.”

And they’ve done exactly that, endorsing Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Deval Patrick earlier this month (tip o’ the hat to former Phoenix scribe Dan Kennedy, who touted BMG’s endorsement on his Media Nation blog).

Blandy said it was the obvious thing to do. “Real blogs are all about point of view. We are partisan, we are biased.” And the endorsement is a form of truth in advertising, Blandy and Kravitz said in a phone interview. “We’re upfront with our bias. People can evaluate what we say through that prism.”

But BMG is no longer just about backing a candidate, the two said. With some 20,000 visitors a week to the site, BMG wants to provide a Democratic forum that includes comments posted by both ends of the political spectrum.

“With the grassroots community,” Blandy said, “it tends to be an echo-chamber effect. But if they’re not seeing the ads and the arguments of other candidates, they can’t address them.”

BMG has taken other steps to avoid being part of the String-Saving-Shut-In school of blogging. The site posts mp3s of BMG interviews with the local press — NECN’s Chet Curtis and the Boston Herald’s Kimberly Atkins in one; WBZ’s Jon Keller and the Boston Phoenix’s Adam Reilly in another. Beyond that, the BMG trio initiated an event with the Democratic lieutenant-governor candidates, who will be interviewed by Jimmy Tingle at his Somerville theater next Thursday night.

“We’re interested in activism more than strict blogging,” Blandy and Kravitz said. The Tingle event provides “a reason for the site to get involved in politics.”

Plogging away

JOHN CARROLL — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 19:53:17 GMT

Plus, Romney’s small-town clips
When asked about the Internet, most political candidates will dutifully tell you that it’s the wave of the future, or the wave of the present, or the greatest thing since chocolate-chip bagels, or … zzzzzz … wake me when baseball’s post-season starts.

LIKE A HOSTAGE STATEMENT: Deval Patrick’s plog, The Source.

When asked about the Internet, most political candidates will dutifully tell you that it’s the wave of the future, or the wave of the present, or the greatest thing since chocolate-chip bagels, or … zzzzzz … wake me when baseball’s post-season starts.

In reality, most candidates make the least of the Internet, turning their Web sites into electronic corkboards with Mpegs for pushpins. And that’s especially true of what they laughingly call their blogs, which are actually more like plogs — a cross between blogs and plugs.

And even those are scarce. Take Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick’s plog, The Source, which is labeled “the official (v)ideo (a)udio (b)log for the Deval Patrick Campaign.” (W)hat’s (t)hat (m)ean?

Blogs are supposed to have a Dear Diary feel to them, but The Source instead serves up such blandishments as: “Hi, it’s Deval, I finished taping, just this morning, my very first debate, and I have to say it was a good experience. I really enjoyed the opportunity to talk about some of my vision for Massachusetts.”

Geez, reads like a hostage statement.

True, last week amid much hoopla Patrick launched a video Web site, devalpatrick.tv, but when I checked it several days ago, it was a Potemkin Web site — nothing but links to his homepage and volunteer/contribution pages. That’s the Web equivalent of dead air.

Then there’s attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Tom Reilly. His blog, From The Trail, has more plugs than Joe Biden’s head. It’s all about Reilly’s “On Your Street, On Your Side” field trips, from Taunton and Tewksbury to Chicopee and Holyoke. The result is a series of cyber-press-releases, with the very-occasional comment attached.

Sample comment from an “On Your Street in Everett” event: “The people of Everett supported Tom in the hometown fashion the [sic] we are known for. A great crowd for a great man.”

Yeesh.

Look: a blog is supposed to be personal, especially when it comes to whacking around your ideological or electoral opponents. Only John Bonifaz, running against Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin in the Democratic primary, comes close to the real thing. According to campaign manager Juan Martinez, Bonifaz has “the only statewide campaign with a full-time blogger.”

And it shows. Bonifaz’s campaign blog has all the proper accoutrements of the medium, including links to relevant Web material, rampant chest-thumping, and pointed critiques of his opponent. That’s what we’re talking about.

Grading the ads

JOHN CARROLL — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 17:01:18 GMT

Reilly, Healey, and Gabrieli
With just a month to go before primary day in Massachusetts, it’s a good time to issue midterm grades for the gubernatorial advertising campaigns.

POTSHOTS: After a forgettable start, Reilly's getting mean

With just a month to go before primary day in Massachusetts, it’s a good time to issue midterm grades for the gubernatorial advertising campaigns. To determine who should do the judging, we consulted our Decision ’06 Dartboard©, and the winners are: Goofus and Gallant, the civilian version of the standard Democrat-Republican pairing. They might be the only highlight in a thoroughly uninspired political-ad season so far.

Life of Reilly
The Ads: Attorney General Tom Reilly kicked off his advertising campaign last month with a series of eminently forgettable résumé-puffing spots that featured factory-installed Democratic themes: the environment, minimum wage, handgun safety, healthcare, etcetera, etcetera. Last week, though, Reilly launched a trio of potshots at Korner Office Kids Mitt Romney and Kerry Healey (who will no doubt soon be united in political matrimony as RomneyHealey).

Reilly’s beef? 1) Their office is the place where jobs go to die. 2) They want to keep the Children of the Commonwealth uneducated and unprepared for the 21st century. 3) They’re taking food and prescription drugs right out of the mouths of the Massachusetts elderly.

Counterpunch: The Healey campaign showered Spin Cycle with a 9335-word rebuttal, and we’ve applied for a federal grant to read it. In the meantime, suffice it to say that Kerry Healey vigorously disputes every aspect of Tom Reilly’s commercials, including the camera angles.

Gallant says: As the only Beacon Hill insider in the Democratic gubernatorial field, Reilly is making lemonade out of lemons by touting his accomplishments as best he can. Running against RomneyHealey in the primary, though, may not be the smartest strategy in the end.

Goofus sez: Book this guy for the next Insomniacs Convention. These ads are the political equivalent of Ambien, without the sleep-walking, sleep-eating, or — paging Patrick Kennedy — sleep-voting.

Grade: C

HEY, BIG SPENDERS: Healey paints the Democrats in a familiar light

Cash 'n' Kerry
The Ads: Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey is unopposed in the Republican primary, but her campaign has so much dough, she went airborne last month and will stay up through November. She’s run a biographical ad (I only got rich recently), a “Who Wants to Be a Hundredaire?” ad (I’ll suspend the gas tax and reduce auto insurance), and an ad depicting the Democratic candidates as — surprise! — big spenders.

“We know the legislature loves to spend our money,” she says in one spot, “and my opponents have spending ideas even the legislature hasn’t imagined.” The ad then helpfully tallies up the proposed-spending damage: Tom Reilly, $1.4 billion; Chris Gabrieli, $1.47 billion; Deval Patrick, $3 billion.

Spin Cyle: WooTube

JOHN CARROLL — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 22:43:40 GMT

Pols get dirty with video
While the moneybags candidates in this fall’s statewide races (C’mon down, Kerry Healey and Chris Gabrieli!) pump millions into television advertising, some less well-heeled campaigns have turned to YouTube.com, the free lunch of video clips. John Bonifaz's "Where's Galvin?" clip (YouTube) "Wedding Bell Blues: Mitt Romney Edition" (YouTube)

BAIT AND SWITCH: Do a search for "Bill Galvin on YouTube, and you get challenger John Bonifaz's videos

While the moneybags candidates in this fall’s statewide races (C’mon down, Kerry Healey and Chris Gabrieli!) pump millions into television advertising, some less well-heeled campaigns have turned to YouTube.com, the free lunch of video clips. The current most-popular site on the Web — slogan: “Broadcast Yourself” — has lately become a staging area for no-budget campaign promotion.

Log onto YouTube, search Andrea Silbert, and up pops “Andrea Silbert’s Massachusetts Democratic Convention Video, candidate for Lt. Governor of Massachusetts.” Better yet, plug in Deval Patrick and you get 15 videos, ranging from “Deval Patrick’s Convention Speech” to “Deval Patrick on Who You Are.”

“It’s really just another viewing environment for videos of Deval,” Charles Steel Fisher, new-media director for the Patrick Campaign, wrote in an e-mail. “Deval wants this campaign to be about more than 30 second TV ads.”

As for the response they’ve gotten, “Several of the videos have had more than 100 viewings,” Fisher wrote. “You always wish you’d get higher responses, but it is a respectable start. And it is just one of many outreach programs we have using video on the Web.”

But the real video savant this election year is John Bonifaz, the voting-rights advocate who’s challenging Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin in the Democratic primary.

“YouTube is another step forward in the power of the Internet,” said Bonifaz campaign manager Juan Martinez. “It’s a great way to reach out to voters and to spread information, to get people more politically active and educate people about politics in general.”

And about John Bonifaz in particular — even when YouTubers are looking for information about his opponent. If you search for Bill Galvin, the site displays two videos about … wait for it … John Bonifaz.

“I’m not sure I’d characterize it as guerrilla marketing,” Martinez said. “It’s more a concerted effort to spread our message virally.”

Sort of a public service, eh? “That’s our opponent in the race,” Martinez responded. “It’s a good way to expand on educating people about Bill Galvin.” That includes a YouTube installment of Bonifaz’s “Where’s Galvin?” series, which chronicles the challenger’s on-camera attempts to invite the incumbent to debate.

On the topic of “Where’s Galvin” videos, Martinez vigorously disputes a recent Boston Herald item about one of them on Bonifaz’s Web site.

Global Murder

JOHN CARROLL — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:17:00 GMT

Plus, can Healey speak for herself?
Forget the Greens and Libertarians. It’s the Couch-Potato Party that will be the next alternative force in Massachusetts politics.

WHO’S IN CHARGE?: Time to show Gabrieli.

Forget the Greens and Libertarians. It’s the Couch-Potato Party that will be the next alternative force in Massachusetts politics. At least that’s what Comcast is hoping. The cable provider is now “offering political candidates the chance to increase voter interest and understanding by posting video segments ON DEMAND.”

First to post: Democratic lieutenant-governor hopeful Andrea Silbert, who made a strong, self-assured biographical video available throughout July. “We’re trying to break through the clutter,” said campaign manager Christy Mach. “Citizens are choosing media at a time and place convenient to them.”

And how many citizens chose to watch Silbert’s video? “We had over one thousand unique viewers, actually closer to fifteen hundred,” Mach said. At $3900 for the month, that’s about three bucks a pop — a little steep, perhaps, but those viewers, as they say, were cherce.

Since Silbert signed on, the ranks of On Demand candidates have swelled to … none. Stephen Flaim, vice-president of Comcast’s Boston-advertising division, said they’ve approached a majority of the major candidates and found them “very intrigued.” He added that On Demand video segments are “a unique way to get beyond the thirty-second spot and an opportunity to talk about things that are important.”

For perspective, we turned to our Decision ’06 Dartboard©, which determines which candidate to call in situations like this. It turned out to be Christy Mihos’s lucky day. “We were pitched by Comcast, but it’s not something we’re currently looking toward,” said Nicole Nionakis, press secretary for the independent gubernatorial candidate. “We might consider it in the future.”

As for the standards that prevail at On Demand, Comcast executive Jane Bowman said in a statement, “Comcast … reviews all advertising, including advertising distributed via Video on Demand, for compliance with network and internal guidelines.”

Then again, Comcast officials concede that cable networks can’t censor political ads, and they declined to discuss their “internal guidelines.”

As Raymond Chandler might say, thinner than the gold on a weekend-wedding ring.

Murder mystery at the Boston Globe
Last week the Boston Globe ran a front-page profile of gubernatorial candidate Chris Gabrieli’s wife, Hilary, which included a Raymond Chandler–worthy tale about the apparent 1974 murder of her father, Edwin Conant Bacon, by his business partner. The Globe story also included this:

“Gabrieli declined to discuss her father’s death. She and her husband vehemently objected to its mention in this story, saying they were not ready to discuss the details of it with their children.”