"Brown-Warren race coming up short, some say; A wish for focus on policy issues" by Frank Phillips | Globe Staff, June 15, 2012
Five months before voters go to the polls, political veterans from both sides of the ideological divide are bemoaning what they see as the lack of an elevated policy debate in the Massachusetts US Senate campaign, in contrast to some of the state’s great Senate contests of the past.
I hold the media responsible.
The major policy challenges facing the nation - education, the federal debt crisis, the challenge of an emerging China, climate change, and terrorism - have been left largely unexplored beyond press releases as Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican incumbent Scott Brown parry with each other in a closely watched race that could determine the balance of power in Washington.
Often, when one side tries to engage on an issue, the other tries to divert to a topic less flattering to the opposition. Twice recently during national interviews, when Brown was asked about Warren’s criticism of his Wall Street ties, he instead redirected the conversation to the Native American controversy that swirled around Warren for over a month this spring. “Well, with all due respect, as you know, she’s had some credibility issues lately,’’ he told a CBS Evening News interviewer.
Yeah, Liz Warren lied.
Also see: Warren's Whoppers
More than once.
Warren, for her part, is being criticized for not moving beyond the initial theme of her candidacy - Wall Street reforms and the strains that the economy has put on middle class families - to more fully lay out her policy positions.
Dan Payne, a veteran Democratic media strategist in major Massachusetts statewide campaigns, suggests that the race is like the 1990s television series “Seinfeld.’’
“It’s about nothing,’’ he said. “Warren wants to talk about her father’s janitorial job, and Brown is all about if he can make a half-court shot. Let’s get serious.’’
I never realized it, but Seinfeld was all part of the mind-manipulating agenda. It was about mainstreaming Jewishness neuroticism and making it appear normal.
Related: Little Jerry Seinfeld
Kicking the California Can All the Way to Maine
Sunday Globe Special: Australia's Other War
Sunday Globe Special: War Criminal in Waiting
It's not as funny to me as it used to be.
************************************
Despite complaints about lack of substance, there are still times the campaign dialogue sizzles and even addresses some important issues. Brown and GOP allies have driven hard at Warren’s claim to have Native American heritage, saying she has no evidence to back it up. The Warren campaign and Democrats have accused Brown of taking huge donations from Wall Street while working to protect the interests of the financial sector on Capitol Hill. She has sharply criticized him over his vote on legislation to lower student loan interest rates. He has attacked her as a “an extremely liberal tax raiser.’’
And it’s not as if they have avoided positions on some controversial issues. The Warren campaign has produced a raft of press releases on policies, some sharply criticizing the GOP senator. They are primarily focused on Wall Street reform and middle-class economics, but Warren’s website outlines her stands on a broad range of policy matters facing the nation and the state.
Brown, although far less specific, also describes his positions on a number of issues on his website and in news releases. In addition, as the incumbent he has had to defend himself over his votes in the Senate over the last few months, such as tuition loans, repeal of tax breaks for oil firms, and women’s access to contraception.
Sorry, kids and ladies, but I went on recess for the summer and am celibate right now.
Related: Brown Tries to Drive Wedge Between Warren and Women
He has also used a series of radio ads to explain his position on some of those policies, highlighting his work to help the state fishing industry, to restrict insider trading for members of congress issues, and to allow women in combat.
But other radio ads have played heavily on what polls show is his “likability’’ advantage over Warren, often laced with nostalgic comments on Boston sports. He can also often be heard calling into popular radio talk shows, where the hosts generally treat him with deference.
Readers, this article is turning into a nothing!
His television advertising has also been less policy-oriented. His first was aimed at promoting an image of an independent Republican willing to work with Democrats. Just this week his campaign launched two new ads,portraying him as a supporting husband to his wife’s career and his involvement in raising their two girls.
Warren, too, focused much of her early advertising on her biography, including her family’s economic woes and the blue-collar jobs her father took on to keep the family afloat. More recently, she has launched an ad on the topic that dominates much of her rhetoric: her fight for the middle class and against Wall Street.
That's why she is getting my vote.
Beyond the advertising, much of their public back-and-forth has been drowned out by small-bore arguments: Brown has lampooned her Harvard connections to claim she is an elitist; Warren has swiped at him for taking advantage of the national health care law despite his vow to repeal it. Warren has chided him for embracing Fenway Park and its 100th year anniversary - after having tried to move it out of town a decade ago. Brown goes after her for getting an interest-free loan from Harvard University.
They both squabble over who is wealthier and try to undercut each other’s claims of hardscrabble middle-class roots. The polls show that voters are not dramatically moved by Brown’s attacks on Warren’s heritage claims nor her charges of his close ties to Wall Street.
Related: Checking In on the Ma$$achu$ett$ $enate Race
“We’ve seen this train wreck before,’’ said Richard Parker, an economics professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, pointing to increasing attempts by political operatives to focus on emotionally charged issues that have little connection to important policy issues....
Yeah, we see it EVERY TWO FRIKKIN' YEARS -- and HERE IT IS AGAIN!!!
--more--"
"Warren’s money machine well tuned for congressional run" by Noah Bierman | Globe Staff, June 22, 2012
One undeniable factor helped quickly establish first-time candidate Elizabeth Warren as a credible threat to popular Senate incumbent Scott Brown: her ability to raise cash.
That's how the Globe count$ votes.
Since September, she has hauled in nearly $16 million, more than any of the 1,613 candidates officially running for Congress on the March deadline, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
I know someone who has given here a few dollars.
What sets her fund-raising effort apart, and has helped her raise
cash at almost twice the rate as Brown since entering the race, is the
deep devotion she commands from the left flank of the Democratic Party.
Many view her unbending critique of Wall Street as a rejoinder to the
Tea Party and her toughness as an antidote to what they see as President
Obama’s tendency to compromise.
That's why she gets this Tea-Party Repubs vote.
Polls show the number of voters who view Warren unfavorably ticked slightly upward between March and May, as she struggled to explain why she listed herself as a Native American in a legal directory, even though she lacked documentation. But there was no sign of concern when she spoke earlier this month at the Netroots Nation conference in Providence. Warren was chased by admirers and greeted by dozens of cellphone cameras at the gathering of about 2,700 liberal bloggers and activists.
Her fund-raising network is bolsteredby these diehard activists and their followers. Yet it includes donors at every level of Democratic politics, including mainstream party leaders motivated to retain control of the Senate; the elite from Hollywood, Boca Raton, and Wellesley who give maximum $5,000 contributions; and $125 house party guests in Watertown.
Though Brown is not raising money as fast as Warren, he still has more cash available, the result of $7 million left over from the 2010 special election, plus the $11.9 million raised over the last two years....
Warren has held fund-raisers in Hollywood, New York, and other wealthy enclaves. She even used a trip to her native Oklahoma, where she was receiving an award in November, to hold a fund-raising breakfast at a downtown hotel in Oklahoma City....
Tough news stories about Brown, or his votes on controversial issues, are also grounds for asking for money, including anything that ties him to Wall Street, “big oil,” or Mitt Romney, favorite bogeymen of the fund-raising machine.
Yes, that person that gives money hates Romney.
Those who give to Warren praise her for some of the qualities that Brown criticizes. In describing her, they use words like fighter and uncompromising, words that contrast with Brown’s emphasis on stepping across the aisle to break Washington gridlock.
“She doesn’t give in,” said John Petrowsky, a realtor from Watertown who is cohosting a fund-raiser scheduled for Thursday night at his house with a suggested contribution of $125 to $500. “She doesn’t change her politics to suit whatever the mood is of the crowd she’s addressing.”
That's bad if you are a Repug, right?
“She was exactly what I hoped she would be,” said Joan Ridder Challinor, an 85-year-old historian and newspaper heiress from Washington D.C., who gave $5,000. “Strong, talking about things as they are. There’s very little of that going on today.”
Nearly every top-level Democratic bundler — big-time donors who collect checks from other wealthy donors — in Massachusetts is helping Warren. And Warren’s political celebrity has added a new dimension to their ability to gather checks.
In April, Beth I. Z. Boland, a former president of the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association, and Micho Spring, a public relations executive and chief of staff to Boston’s former mayor, Kevin White, were asked to throw together a luncheon for Carole King, the singersongwriter, who had called the campaign volunteering to help. She would be in town to speak at the Kennedy Library and had a small window.
Figures. My favorite song of hers is "It's Too Late."
--more--"
Ever notice how all the songs I link -- when I link them -- also apply to my relationship with the Boston Globe.
Also see: Brown slammed on ‘kings’ reference
Back to the bulls*** I see.
