Internet or no internet it still take ninety minutes of your life to discover there is almost no ideological differences between the three current democratic aspirants to the late Ken Donnelly's seat in the State Senate.
Where do Cindy Friedman, Sean Garballey and Mary Ann Stewart disagree....exactly nowhere folks.
Sentencing Reform a loud yes from all three, universal health care They are all all for it (but tellingly provide no plan to get there) nobody wants to raise the Charter School Cap and everyone wants to fix the funding issues at the MBTA.
This is not a field given to dissent from the broad range of concerns within the democratic party's base...neither were a lot of new ideas bruited about. If newness is in play it comes from everyone's desire to be a fresh perspective in State Senate.
Given the broad range of consensus in this particular race, I suspect a lot is going to determined by personalities, shoe leather politics, signage, mailings, name recognition and the willingness to spend money somewhat heedlessly.
So as such let me assert that Mary Ann Stewart seems a little more sure of herself behind the podium but her experience is limited to the Lexington School Committee (which admittedly isn't a bad place to start as the schools in that town seem very well run) and a lifetime of activism. In short she seems to understand a lot of the issues in this race from a point of view of the marches she has gone on and the petitions she has signed.
On the other hand, Sean Garballey has been in public life more or less since the day he graduated high school, not sure what his last private sector job was, I suspect it was literally scooping ice cream somewhere. Given that he is a very polished presence on the podium and can quote literally dozens of pieces of legislation he has either "gotten passed" or is "working on"....to hear him tell it, Sean Garballey is a One Man Great Society in the State House of Representatives. Tellingly though, how much of this legislative cataract is gonna be signed by Charlie Baker remains a silent sacerdotal mystery.
Which brings us to Cindy Friedman the Late Senator Donnelly's Chief of Staff a woman with a varied. Resume within and without the private sector, she has a strong insight into the legislative process and the mores of the State Senate in particular. She is funny and honest but very new to the game in terms of being up at the podium out in front so to speak and sometimes that shows....both her opening and closing remarks last night were read off of 3x5 cards, spiels like that ought to be memorized from the git-go.
Those are the choices in the Fourth Middlesex, given the degree of consensus this race may well come down to intangibles like name recognition, "likeability" and just plain luck. Word on the street is, the race is very wery close with a lot of undecideds, (which is to be expected) last night's forum was thankfully well attended which might start turning some of those undecided numbers a bit.
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