Our One Hundredth: Senate Politics for Breakfast...

(WMassP&I)

CHICOPEE--At a handful of tables in the Knights of Columbus hall, Democrats in Western Massachusetts' second largest city, scarfed down a breakfast of eggs, bacon and other staples and presented their own Democrat of the year award.  Area political luminaries were present including the city's mayor Mike Bissonnette, State Senator James Welch, whose district includes a sliver of the city, and Ward 4 Councilor E. Henry Twiggs, Springfield's Democratic Party leader.  The award went to School Committee member Michael Pise, but he was not the only Democrat gaining attention.  US Senate Politics were also afoot.

Among those in attendance were State Rep. Tom Conroy D-Wayland and consumer advocate and former White House adviser Elizabeth Warren.  Both are candidates for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate.  Because virtually all municipal elections in Massachusetts are non-partisan and local party politics--in Greater Springfield anyway--are not particularly visible, events like these often go unnoticed.  However, with a nomination for a prized US Senate seat at stake, any local party event has the potential for much more.

Rep. Conroy & Mayor Bissonnette, 3rd & 2nd from right

Nevertheless, nearly all of the audience hung in even after Conroy and Warren spoke.  Pise, who declined to run for the school committee again after 20 years as a member of that body, is presently a candidate for an at-large city on the city council.  He received accolades from Welch (who also stood in for Chicopee rep Joseph Wagner) and aides for Congressman Richard Neal and Senator John Kerry on behalf of their bosses.

The small crowd let out strong cheers and applause for the Senate candidates.  Before the breakfast officially began, both candidates worked the room, but Warren, the chief architect of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, seemed to be the favorite.  Many more wanted to have their picture taken with her than Conroy.  Of course the elephant in the room was that Warren had netted millions of dollars, largely from small donors, in her first fund raising quarter compared to Conroy, who did not.  Conroy was overheard saying that he had 30 of his colleagues in the House supporting him.  The Wayland Democrats appeal to the audience focused mostly on his work for Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, his time spent overseas and his win over an incumbent Republican that won him his House seat.

Elizabeth Warren (WMassP&I)

Warren, too, stuck with biography, recalling her earliest job as a babysitter at the age of nine for a "colicky baby" and her next job as a waitress at thirteen.  She also described how when she applied for law school, she was doing something nobody in her family had ever done before.  When she graduated, finding work was difficult because she had another baby on the way, her son, Alex.  However, she told the audience that she ultimately gravitated back to teaching, a job she had when between her time as an undergraduate and a law student.  Her overarching message, a central part of her stump speech, was that the America she grew up in offered the opportunity to the daughter of a maintenance man to become a professor at a "fancy-pants university" like Harvard.  "We lost our way," Warren said of the last twenty to thirty years and called for America to once again invest in its infrastructure, energy and the next generation.

After her remarks, Warren spoke about her campaign in a brief interview with WMassP&I.  Responding to a question about the urban problems facing cities like Springfield and Chicopee, Warren highlighted the some her signature priorities, namely education, infrastructure and renewable energy.  On education, Warren advocated for great financial help from Congress to struggling urban school districts to better prepare cities' populations.  

Her point on infrastructure and the need for greater help from Washington to maintain it was particularly instructive.  She explained that the mayor of Salem told her during a recent visit that aging water pipes are among that city's most troublesome infrastructure problems.  Warren noted that repairing such infrastructure as it broke down cost more, not only in repairs, but in time lost to residents and business affected by hastily arranged street closures and torn up roads.  Even, so she noted that cities like Salem simply did not have the money for fuller, more effective repairs.   Finally on renewable energy, Warren called for further investment in greener sources of electricity as a means to bring down energy costs and improve Massachusetts and its cities competitiveness in the national and international marketplaces.

Warren with Michael Pise (left),  Bissonnette (right)
and a supporter. (WMassP&I)

Warren, who is teaching a class at Harvard this semester, was also asked about balancing her academic career against her new life as a Senate candidate.  "It energizes me to be out meeting people," she said.  However, Warren noted that the law school's semester ends after Thanksgiving meaning she'll have more flexibility for her campaign come December.

In May Senate Republicans drafted a letter that announced their intention to block any nominee, although by implication especially Elizabeth Warren, to lead the CFPB unless it were partly defanged its independence were gutted.  This letter, among other factors, likely contributed to President Obama's decision to nominate Richard Cordray and not Warren to lead the new agency.  However, that effort may lead those same Senators to a time and place where Warren is a colleague of theirs.  If that happens, it may be among Senate Republicans' worst mistake yet.  In response to that scenario, Warren was philosophical, "Sometimes the ball has a funny bounce."  She made clear though that she did not dwell on such things.  Rather, her focus was making critical changes before its too late.  "I just want to help," she said.

(WMassP&I)

During the October 4 debate among Democrats in Lowell, Warren and her opponents were asked about illegal immigration.  While nearly all of the candidates offered support for proposals like the DREAM act, which offer a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrant children who graduate college or join the service, Warren offered a more personal take on immigration.  She noted that her son-in-law is an immigrant.  Warren told WMassP&I that he was from a small village in Northern India, to the south of Kashmir.  She beamed with pride talking about him, her daughter Amelia and her three grandchildren.  Her son-in-law, she said, "saw America as the land of opportunity."  

That's something Warren says she want to see remain true for both immigrants and native-born Americans alike.  To do that the US must consider what its values are and what it can do to "help create the conditions" for the next generation to succeed.

Our One Hundredth: Pikachu and Scott Brown, Posers All...

Pikachu's Pose/Taunt in SSBM (Youtube)

There's a bonus in the Gamecube video game Super Smash Bros. Melee (and its sequel) called Poser Poseur.  You earn it if you push your taunt/pose button immediately after another player (or the computer) has just done the same.  To your right is an adorable Pikachu posing like so!  The point of the bonus appears to be award points mockingly (there are many such bonuses) for lame and/or tasteless maneuvers on the part of the player.

Elizabeth Warren has only been a candidate for office formally for three weeks now.  Her bid has solicited frustration, anger and, dare we say, fear among some of her opponents.  In the case of Scott Brown, it has largely been an effort to paint Warren as living in an Ivory Tower called Harvard blissfully aware of the real world.  That strategy has not produced any results thus far.  Warren remains statistically tied with Brown.  Nevertheless, the de facto Brown-Warren campaign has been largely fought as a fund raising tool for Brown....until today when Brown opened wide and deftly inserted his foot into his mouth.

At Tuesday's debate, Warren and her fellow Democrats were asked how they paid for college.  The student panelist who asked the question was actually a young member of the Melrose Republican Committee.  There was some debate among the folks at Blue Mass Group as to why this was, but nevertheless, the panelist Scott Conway seemed to do a good job.  The exchange between Conway and Warren went as follows.

Scott Conway: To help pay for his law school education, Scott Brown posed for Cosmo. How did you pay for your education? 
Elizabeth Warren: I kept my clothes on. [laughter] I borrowed money. I was somebody who went to school and got student loans. I went to a public university at a time when they were well supported and tuition was cheap. And I had a part time job. So the combination got me through. I paid off my student loans about 10 years after graduation.

Elizabeth Warren (Facebook)

Thursday during an appearance at a Boston classic rock radio station, Brown was asked for his response to Warren's statement, "I kept my clothes on."  Following a short chortle, Brown exclaimed, "Thank God!"  He went on to say that he did not go to Harvard, but rather the school of hard knocks.

Needless to say Brown's remarks caused twitter feeds and news websites to explode with condemnation of both Warren and Brown, but the majority were largely aimed at the latter.  The response to Brown boiled down to you just don't say that about a female candidate.  It is not about political correctness or not, rather the reality is that, although men can be objectified like women, they usually are not.  Plenty of people have made that point, however.

Our One Hundredth: A Little Lowell Lovin'...

With the field more or less set, Democrats vying for their party's nomination to challenge Scott Brown debated for the first time at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell this evening.  The debate was moderated by UMASS-Lowell Chancellor and former representative Martin Meehan with questions from a student panel.  Having six participants, the word debate seems a little silly.  It was almost like a candidates forum, but with poorly enforced time limits.  In any event it was an opportunity for the candidates to introduce themselves to a wider audience.  We will do no less, but start with a couple of points.

With Elizabeth Warren very far ahead of the others in the polls, the former White House adviser had the traditional benefits and risks of frontrunner status.  Her goal was not to screw up.  She did that very well.  The phrases we have heard for three weeks now were, to those who have been following, a bit old.  However, her best moments were clearly the least scripted ones as on military service and immigration (her son-in-law is an immigrant).   If by the next debate she can talk about the middle class without repeating any of the phrases in her announcement video, she'll be just fine.

The other detail has to do with the implicit attack on Warren for receiving money from political action committees, namely the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and EMILY's List.  While both groups are left-leaning national groups based in Washington, neither are beholden to corporations or moneyed interests like Karl Rove's PAC's.  The PCCC may seem to be an example of the uncompromising left, but by all accounts they, like MoveOn.org (who also support Warren) began from the grassroots left.  EMILY's List is an organization dedicated to electing Pro-choice Democratic women and had similar humble roots in the mid-1980's.  It has been behind the election of most Democratic women senators in the past 25 years, beginning with Maryland's senior Senator Barabara Mikulski.

Finally this "debate," as said, was really more a showcase than anything else.  Although Bob Massie and Alan Khazei jabbed Warren's PAC money, the rest of the debate was civil and the candidates were largely in a agreement on the issues.  As the Twitterverse commented, the debate possessed something much of the GOP Presidential debates lacked: sanity.

Now, the Candidates!

Tom Conroy: The state rep turned Senate candidate appears to have stuck to basic liberal Democratic ideas.  His sell was that he beat a popular Republican in his State Rep district.  It is important to note, however that a State Rep seat has about 40,000 people in it.  Population of Massachusetts? 6.3 million+.

Marisa DeFranco:  The Twitterverse said she was gunning for the Mike Capuano vote.  She talked about not "capitulating."  While the Democrats have done their fair share of that, some things, like the Health Care Law, which some saw as a "capitulation" has been staunchly defended by Capuano.  DeFranco's argument about being from Essex County, a place Scott Brown largely won, also seemed weak.

Alan Khazei: Khazei emphasized his work with creating non-profits almost ad nauseum, but it was clear that he had what it takes to take on Warren past the convention and onto the primary.  Little, if anything distinguished him from Warren, but he did sound like he was trying to sound like he was just like her...only better.  His distinguishing remark, he enjoyed smoke pot at least once in his life.

Bob Massie: There is no doubt that the man has lived an impressive life, but it felt like much of his argument was "You don't know what you're missing."  The hits on Warren for PAC money was mostly from him and his evocation of Ted Kennedy, seemed misplaced.  To take back the people's seat, which Brown has used like a commode, we cannot wax nostalgic about Teddy.

Herb Robinson: The engineer who essentially called himself the Democratic counterpart to Scott Brown's everymanhood had some laughs, but seemed largely devoid of anything special.  He seemed nervous and struggled through many answers.

Elizabeth Warren:  See above for more, but did a very good job.  Expectations were sky high and, well, frankly her supporters would not be disappointed and her detractors would not be either.  If today was the introduction, now she needs to start sharpening her message.  That is extremely tough this early in the calendar and incredibly risky, but to keep the momentum, she's got to keep them interested and keep them coming back for more.