By the time the deadline for filing nominating petitions rolled around (29July08) I had collected a grand total of 160 "bankable" signatures, just a few shy of the 2,000 a candidate for congressional office needs to get on the ballot as an independent.
Not that incumbent (for 32 years, consecutively) Ed. Markey would register the least frisson of concern were I to make the ballot — I'm sure he fully expects to expire in office when he's in his late 90s or more, but at least there should be some simulacrum of debate, a soupçon of (where's an s-word? Aah…) sparring. (Who was it that claimed the pen is mightier than the s-word?)
I'm thinking that I didn't even come close (to making the ballot).
One John Cunningham (in the hirsute tradition of so many males these days--like Henry M. Paulson, Jr. and his deputy Neel "Cash & Carry" Kashkari, namely, bullet-headed-bald) has made it to the ballot as a Republican--he promises to be "a Ron Paul Republican"--that is, adhering to the reality-based US Constitution.
And for a guy with a campaign-on-a-shoe-string, John did pretty well, getting about one third of the vote from the 32-year-long Democratic party incumbent.
But, except for the purpose of maintaining gridlock in the statehouse by filling the governor's slot with a Republican, citizens in Mass are about as Democratic as it goes.
However, come 2010, [the good lord willin' and the creek don't rise], I plan on getting started when the petitions become available--in February.
I've also learned the distinction between “encouragement” and “support.”
And I think I've also sussed out of the salmagundi the significance of the concept "free pizza" as figuring in the nominating petition collection operation. And I know how to make pizza, sauce, substrate & all.
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