After one full hour of questions and answers for democratic state senate candidates Jack Hurd and Ken Donnelly, I can safely say I now miss Bob Havern and Jim Marzilli like I miss Hubert Humphrey.
It isn't that Hurd & Donnelly didn't run the gauntlet on taxes, energy, schools, state aid to localities, home heating oil, climate change, affordable housing, public transportation...it is just that there is damn little daylight between the two men.
And no one wants to talk about that...
The one issue where they clearly differ is still casino gambling with Hurd against and Donnelly more or less for, but with a bigger straddle than we heard two months ago.
A lot of people, some of whom I actually respect are doubling the carbon footprint of Arlington with hot air extolling Ken Donnelly as the one true progressive in this race...I don't see it, frankly Hurd matches Donnelly moonbattery for moonbattery right down the line. Frankly everyone in this race so far wants to be Jim Marzilli, it is just they don't wanna be photographed with him.
So how to decide?
Therein lies the rub.
If I had to score this confab last night (well attended by democrats despite Edward Maximus' twilight of the God's act out at the Denver Convention)I'd be again almost be tempted to score it for Hurd who was a bit more forceful than usual without coming off as a ranter or anything. He is pushing his credentials from neighborhood joiner to Town Hall fixture hard as the experience base for the sinecure. Whether that sells in Burlington and Billerica is as yet unknown.
Ken Donnelly on the other hand still has issues with blustering, a pronounced tendency to lower his register and groan out his bona fides he also seems to be talking like an incumbent for some inexplicable reason...it is a little off putting.
Be that as it may, my one enduring observation about Ken Donnelly is that he consistently debates very poorly and still runs very very hard on primary day he has money and volunteers and that counts for a lot in this race.
If I had to give either man advice I'd tell Donnelly to lay off all the palaver about tax increases (literally he answered five separate questions last night with plans to increase revenues...it is a bit much as my old mother would say) and perhaps start discussing substantive public pension reform. I mocked Donnelly's pension bombast last fall but the Arroyo affair in Boston has brought some harsh things to light, Ken could speak out on this topic with some unique authority.
As for Hurd the man is a joiner from Little League to the Board of Selectmen...that is fine if your goal is a kinder gentler sort of Babbitry. However I'd like to hear Jack talk more about his experiences as a manager at Polaroid a company that went from global domination to bankruptcy in just ten short years. A lot of voters have known similar situations and Hurd is in a position to speak to the uncertainty and anguish of that experience.
So as yet, no decision.
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