by Dorie Clark in Politics
Posted on August 15, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Last Modified on August 16, 2008 at 1:56 pm
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SOMERVILLE: The Committee to Re-Elect Rep. Carl Sciortino today announced the launch of a new website and mailing to residents of Somerville and Medford to raise awareness about Rep. Sciortino’s write-in campaign for re-election on September 16th.
Although Sciortino’s name will not be on the ballot, voters in the 34th Middlesex district will be able to re-elect Sciortino by either writing in his name or placing a sticker on the ballot. Voters should do either in the “Write-In” space under the heading “Representative in General Court.”
Both the mailing and the website—www.writeincarl.com—include a picture of a sample ballot and instructions for writing in Sciortino’s name or affixing a sticker to the ballot. Sciortino’s campaign will be distributing stickers through the mail and at the polling places on Election Day.
Several steps are required for candidates’ names to be printed on the ballot. Sciortino collected more than enough signatures, which were certified by the cities of Medford and Somerville. Before turning the certified signatures in to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Sciortino left them in his office. When he returned to pick them up, they were gone.
“Leaving my signatures in an unsecured location was an error in judgment,” Sciortino told voters in the mailing. “I take full responsibility for this mistake, and I apologize for the distraction it has caused. Although my name will not appear on the ballot, you will be able to vote for me either by placing a sticker on the ballot or by writing in my name. I hope that I can still count on your vote. Together, we have accomplished a lot for the families of Medford and Somerville over the past four years, and I want to continue that work. I ask for your vote in the Democratic primary on September 16.”
In addition to www.writeincarl.com, Sciortino has redesigned and updated his main web site, www.electcarl.org. This web site provides information for constituents, a list of legislative accomplishments, and outlines Sciortino’s positions on a variety of issues.
Carl Sciortino is a two-term Democratic State Representative in the 34th Middlesex District, serving parts of Somerville and Medford. Rep. Sciortino has been endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers-Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Boston Teachers Union, Mass Alliance, Massachusetts NOW, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, the National Association of Social Workers-Massachusetts, Neighbor to Neighbor, the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund, the Progressive Democrats of Somerville, MassEquality, Democracy for America, and the Young Democrats of Massachusetts. A strong advocate for issues such as education, economic development, and public transportation, he is running a sticker campaign for re-election on September 16th. To learn more or get involved, visit www.electcarl.org.
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Why was my earlier post censored/deleted? Is that what progressive candidates now have to resort to? Censorship. I thought this was Somerville Voices? tsk…tsk.
Let me restate what I said; did Carl punish his dog yes for eating the signatures? As a voter in the 34th it would be nice to get an honest answer to why he coudln’t get enough signatures. I believe he doesn’t have enough support in the district. He said someone stole them and he lid. He knows the truth, but he won’t say it.
I fully suspect this post to be deleted too. All in the spirit of the progressive movement and the good of the party. Right?
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Imux, the moderation policy lists all the reasons a post may be rejected. As you know, you’ve been kicked off the Somerville News blog before, so finding your comments outside the bounds of permissible discourse is certainly not limited to this site.
As for your current comment, like many of your comments, it contains falsehoods. You say that Carl “coudln’t (sic) get enough signatures,” but that is untrue. Carl gathered ample signatures and had them certified by Somerville and Medford City Halls. The problem was that all of the certified signatures didn’t make it to the Secretary of State’s office, because one batch went missing (he believes stolen) from his State House office.
After spreading false information, you continue by claiming “He said someone stole them and he lid (sic). He knows the truth, but he won’t say it.” That is an unfounded accusation, one of the possible violations of the moderation policy.
So we get false information and an unfounded accusation in the same comment. And you wonder why you get banned from sites and some of your comments rejected?
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Greg is right. Carl had more than enough signatures certified at the city-level. Before they could be certified a the state-level, some signature papers were taken from his office. Let Imux’s comment stand as a prime example of one that merits removal due to unfounded accusations and misinformation.
Quoting from the post above:
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Barry/Greg, if he had enough signatures then why weren’t they certified at the state level? He could have made copies, right? It’s a serious question. Lost? how do you lose hundreds of signatures!?
Either Carl is a liar – and he never had any certified anywhere – or he is a gross incompetent. Neither is something that centrist democrats (like myself) or progressive democrats should support.
Now you may proceed with your progressive censorship if you like. Sadly, the progressives in power – who held such promise – have now been shown to be worse than the old-time hacks we had in Somerville for decades. At least the oldtime hacks didn’t attempt to censor any and all opinions that differ with theirs. You may have had to throw some punches at them, but at least they’d hear you out and at the end of it your voice was heard.
In the 34th, we need real change and that’s why I think someone like Bob Trane will do a great job. Most people know and like Bob. I know of maybe of only 2 or 3 people that have ever even met Carl and you can forget liking him. He looks down his nose at everyone.
And I said, when I requested a meeting with Carl; he completely blew me off and said he was too busy to hear the conerns of a longtime resident and business owner. And now he wants us to “sticker” him in. Over my dead body.
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Imux, for someone who clearly knows so little about the signature process, you are awfully certain about what must have transpired.
Signatures aren’t certified at the state level. They are certified by the cities and then the candidate must turn the certified signatures over to the state.
No.
Precisely 72 signatures went missing, not “hundreds.” You make up facts as you go along. For good measure, nobody used the word “lost” either. How does one steal 72 signatures? Just pick up a few certified signature papers and walk away.
There are a variety of views on the site that differ with those of the editors and moderators. You are the only one to have posted comments in violation of the moderation policy. As stated, you have been banned before from the Somerville News, hardly a bastion of progressive opinion.
I’ve never heard you utter any opinion generally considered to be “centrist” or in line with the Democratic platform. I know of no “centrist Democrat” who claims to be a fan of Free Republic and refers to Barack “Osama”. Nice try, though.
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Imux, it is a verifiable fact that Carl had more than enough signatures certified at the city level. It’s simply ridiculous to think he would risk his reputation and his career on lying about this.
Carl has publicly taken responsibility for not securing his office while his signature papers were inside. However, that does not come even close to the level of gross incompetence. It’s not as if he left his papers outside in the park. I think it is extremely unfortunate and suspicious that someone took his papers from his office.
Imux, it is hard to imagine you speak for centrist democrats, progressive democrats, or anyone besides yourself.
The Somerville Voices team stands by our moderation policy and our prerogative of taking down comments and posts that violate it. We do not censor material based on politics.
Carl does not look down at anyone. You contradict your own account of what happened when you asked to meet with him. Rather than blowing you off, he invited you to meet him at a local cafe. Sounds to me like he was ready to hear your concerns. Quoting you from July 11th:
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Greg/Barry, I have always assumed I was temporarily banned at SN simply because Jamie was hitting the bottle. Hard. Again. That and you guys whined so much. Once he saw the error of his ways that situation was rectified. Apologies issued all around, beers flowed and back I was/am.
On the Carl lost signature thing…. just so I am following this clearly — Carl had enough signatures certified by each city. Right? He then left ALL the signatures on HIS desk where they were stolen by Bob Trane (Carl did claim that in the multiple court appearances). That’s what he screeched out in court anyway. How did Bob get into Carl’s office? What gave Carl the idea that the signatures were even stolen and not tossed by the cleaning lady? Did he have any proof? No, but he made unsubstantiated claims to that effect. That doesn’t make Carl a bad or evil person, but it does cast him in a very bad light. IF – IF Carl had taken responsibility right from the get-go then he would looked much better.
I sincerely believe that Carl really doesn’t want the job — subconciously. He may have sabotaged himself by losing the signatures just so he would have a real reason to not be on the ballot. I really believe that.
I never said I was a Free Republic fan. I am no fan of Obama — the man in a first term senator with absolutely no experience. Maybe after a few terms he would be qualified to become POTUS, but he is not even close now. Thankfully he has fallen behind in the pools and it looks like John McCain is going to surge (pun intended) to victory.
And gentlemen, we may respectfully disagree on politics and the issues, but debating the issues is what a democracy is all about and no one should EVER be censored. Shame on you for even requesting it.
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Imux, you just continue with the poor conduct.
I;m no fan of Jamie Norton, but ad hominems against someone are also a violation of the moderation policy. At the end of 2007, Jamie "un-banned" everyone he had banned in the past year and a half, including yourself, but he never admitted to any “error in his ways”. You all were given a second chance but were reminded to “behave yourself”.
An important clarification. Carl did not leave “all” his signatures on his desk. He left those that the cities had finished certifying, while he was waiting for the rest to be certified. It was the pile of certified sheets, amounting to 72 signatures, that were stolen.
You continue with a blatant falsehood. Neither Carl nor his lawyer ever claimed the signatures were stolen “by Bob Trane”. He claimed they were stolen, but he never said who he believes stole them. Considering Trane doesn’t work at the State House, he seems an unlikely culprit anyway.
How did someone get into Carl’s office? That was explained several times. He normally leaves his office unlocked and did so that day as well. That is a mistake he made and owned up to.
Carl doesn’t want the job “subconsciously”? So the endless door-knocking and campaigning, the vigorous fund raising, and the impressive campaign apparatus is for what end exactly?
So you never said you were a Free Republic fan? Hmm, you said exactly that back in May on this very blog.
There are definitely good reasons to censor certain communications on a blog. That’s why most every blog has some form of moderation policy, as do newspapers and every respected form of media. You yourself asked Jamie Norton to censor those who were impersonating you on the Somerville News. The moderation policy, which prohibits impersonation among other things, is pretty standard and available for everyone to read.
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Greg, more to the un-banning story at SN then you know. We’ll leave it at that. Beers flosed… I will say no more.
You’re cutting it thin when you claim that Carl did not blame his opponent for the signature loss. He did and it was despicable.
I get a lot of good information from Fox and Free Republic as the MSM has completely gone in the tank for the “Chosen” one (Obama), but I am no fan of any news source. I am independent like that. Different sources to get the full picture. You should try it sometime.
Censorship is the ailment of the despot, festering festering in a slough of cowardice and fear.
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Actually, Imux. Carl never blamed his opponent for the signature loss. Again, it’s ridiculous to think he would risk his reputation and career on accusing someone of theft without proof. Unlike you, Carl does not make wild and unsubstantiated claims. It would be totally out of character for him to do so.
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Barry/Greg, I would love to agree with you folks about Carl, but because never took the time to meet with me (and I am not alone about him not being willing to meet) — I have no positive experience with him.
It does appear that – thankfully -Bob will easily win, so I am hoping that you can get behind Bob as much as you have Carl.
Now we just all have to get behind John McCain and we will have a winning person at local and federal levels.
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Imux, as I pointed out in comment 6 above, by your own account, Carl did offer to meet you at Soleil Cafe when you contacted him. If I had a penny each time you contradicted yourself or told a lie, I’d be rich by now.
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Barry, yes… Carl did say “I am down at Soleil Cafe on (I forgot) mornings”. Bob dropped by my house and office. Oh.. and on a few occasions bought me a beer. See the difference?
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Imux, I guess now that you finally concede that Carl did offer to meet with you, that you’ll waste no time in apologizing for disingenuously lying that (in your words) “he completely blew me off and said he was too busy” and that he “never took the time to meet with me”.
Personally, I think it’s a little unreasonable to expect elected officials to make house calls and buy their constituents beers. Carl regularly holds office hours in his district, but I don’t believe that’s something Bob does.
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Seeing as you don’t disclose who you are, Imux, we have no way of corroborating your dubious tales.
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Greg, if you’ve lived in Somerville for then 1 or 2 decades you would know who I (Imux) am. I’m a legend in my own mind.
Barry, there was no lying; I am a longtime resident and business owner. You’d think that Carl would take the time to stroll down and say hi (IT AIN’T A FAR WALK!). To me that is blowing me off and never taking the time to meet me. I reached out to him to stop by and introduce himself – he did not and Bob did.
It’s just funny that most of Carl’s supporters are from out of the district. What is up with that? As Tip used to say “All politics is local”. Carl needs to learn that lesson if/when he ever decides to enter politics again.
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Imux, how do you know most of Carl’s supporters are from out of the district? What does that mean anyway – that they moved into the district from elsewhere? I’m originally from out of the district, but I live in the district now. And what does it matter? Carl doesn’t have control over where his supporters live or where they are from. It is a credit to his reputation that he has so many supporters in the district and around the state.
Furthermore, the phrase “all politics is local” means that constituents respond better to local issues than non-local issues, but it has no bearing on where most of your supporters live or where they are from originally.
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Barry, I base my comment on Carl’s supporters from being out of the district as the only ones who ever dropped off his propaganda were two younger folks who told me they were from the south end or ptown. They seemed like nice kids, but I couldn’t stop from laughing and then tossed them off my lawn.
Local politics. Exactly! That is why Carl needs to go – he is more concerned with issues that we have no control over (Dafur, Tibet, supporting Barak Hussein Obama) then bringing more services and lower fees/taxes to the 34th. He may not be a bad guy (I’ll never know as he doesn’t have time to introduce himself to residents), but as far as being a good representative for the 34th? We couldn’t have a worse one.
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Imux, it’s quite a stretch you’ve made to generalize on the geographic distribution of Carl supporters from only having met two of them at your door. Take a walk around the district sometime and you’ll notice all the lawn signs up for Carl.
If you take a look at Carl’s campaign website at http://www.ElectCarl.org you’ll find his positions on issues of local concern like Education, Healthcare, and Support for Cities and Towns, but you won’t find any of the issues Imux mentioned.
Actually, we all do have some influence over international crises in Darfur, Tibet. But, obviously, those issues are not central to this race.
You’d know that Carl is a good guy and a great representative if you met him at his office hours or took a look at his website or read any of his literature. All of these things are easy to do.
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Barry, saying Imux met two of Carl’s supporters at his door is giving him the benefit of the doubt. He’s made 8 false statements on this thread alone, countless more on other threads. Conveniently, he never provides any evidence, only personal anecdotes he can never corroborate. There’s no reason to believe anything hes says at this point.
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Greg, I have never made a false statement on this or any blog. I always base my posts on facts and you now that all too well. Next time I will will viedotape my throwing Carl’s minions off my lawn. K?
Barry, I just read Carl’s issues from his website. He was not instrumental in most of the issues he is claiming (green line, senior housing, etc). He is fudging the truth.
And we should have the death penalty and more charter schools. I would also not keep increasing minimum wage (teens won’t get jobs) and I am no fan of gay marraige. Civil unions – no problem.
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Imux, you just can’t stop piling on the lies and mischaracterizations. Let’s see how high that pile stands now:
1. “I have never made a false statement on this or any blog. I always base my posts on facts” – that’s a good joke!
2. You contradicted your own account of Carl’s invitation to meet with you. First you claimed he wouldn’t meet with you, then you admitted he did invite you to his office hours. Then you tried to make an issue out of the non-issue that he supposedly didn’t visit you at your house. I suppose if he would have visited you at your house, but didn’t bring you a beer, then you’d be complaining about that!
3. You made a grossly inaccurate generalization about the geographic distribution of Carl’s supporters based on an alleged visit by two canvassers.
4. You misrepresented Carl’s issue priorities without any evidence to back up your claim.
5. You falsely accused Carl of having blamed his opponent for his signature loss.
6. You misleadingly claimed that Carl did not collect enough signatures, when, in fact, he had more than enough certified at the city level.
Now who is fudging the truth?
One would have to think you are secretly working to defeat Bob… by subversively associating him – through your persistent public support of his candidacy – with your offensive comments.
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Barry, let me correct a few facts in your previous post;
1. I don’t lie in any of my posts. No joke – just the cold hard facts.
2. I reached out to Carl and Bob; Bob dropped by. Carl did not. I have always said that. Where you got any other notions is not my problem. I invited him – he did not take me up on my offer. He appears as an elitist catering to his own clique of far left progressives.
3. The folks who came to my door for Carl were not from this area. Not even close. They were brought in. That’s what I am going on. What else do I have, but my personal observations.
4. His priorities are obvious, but since you share his socialist agenda you refuse to acknowledhe that fact. Not a big deal.
5. If he had enough signatures then he’d be on the ballot. He is not. He did not. It matters not that he almost had the required signatures into the hands of the folks that needed to have them. In the end it will read that Carl did not collect enough signatures to appear on the ballot.
Not working for Bob at all. I know Bob only based on the good work he does as an alderman.
Did that clear up everything for you? You and Greg seems like good guys – and it’s great that you defend you guy, but maybe you should broaden your viewpoints and look at the world through other lenses. Carl too.
Lastly, Carl should not be wasting our time and money by running. He has no chance (no one with stickers wins) – he needs to re-evaluate is politics is what he wants to do. I don’t believe it is.
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In fact, Sal Albano won with a sticker campaign. It’s difficult, but it’s certainly not impossible.
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Dennis, people knew Sal. No one knows Carl as he never takes time to meet with folks who are not in his private clique.
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