The Scottosphere

Today is the spe­cial pri­mary elec­tion for Mass­a­chu­setts’ Eighth Suf­folk Rep­re­sen­ta­tive District.

How would I know that? And why was I so excited to vote?

For starters, F and I have met both can­di­dates for our party–Jay Liv­ing­stone and Josh Daw­son. They have rang our door­bell sev­eral times over the last cou­ple of months. So have many of their sup­port­ers. They have left mes­sages on our answer­ing machine. They have hung tags on our door­knobs. They have slipped notes under our front door that say, “sorry I missed you!”

I don’t think I would have paid any atten­tion to this elec­tion if it hadn’t been for the sheer energy of these can­di­dates. With the stakes appar­ently so high for these guys, I felt obliged to cast a vote one way or another. But how? Their plat­forms are so sim­i­lar. Liv­ing­stone got a lot of key endorse­ments, but Daw­son even­tu­ally earned the Globe’s. Both nice peo­ple with sen­si­ble views. Happy smil­ing fam­i­lies. Both live in my neighborhood.

I’ve never seen an elec­tion like this. (Per­haps this is because I don’t live in a swing state.)

When I got home from work this evening, there were four mes­sages on our answer­ing machine: two from Livingstone’s vol­un­teers, one from Dawson’s staff, and a final mes­sage from Daw­son him­self, men­tion­ing me by name and say­ing that he would be hon­ored to have my vote.

Well, Mr. Daw­son, I am happy to say you earned it. I am dis­ap­pointed to see that you may have lost this elec­tion. Best of luck next time.