still undecided with only a few hours before polls close

[totient]

The Progressive Democrats of Somerville have endorsed only two candidates for Alderman at large: Bill White and Fred Berman. I agree with them, and generally think it'd be nice if Bruce Desmond were not reelected. But I'm not at all convinced that voting for, say, Dennis Sullivan and Tony LaFuente is the right move, for all that Dennis appears to be a reasonable enough guy and Tony seems to have gotten with the progressive program since his last run for office four years ago. Bruce is likely to win election anyway and this year I'm more concerned about electing Fred than I am about defeating Bruce.

Comments

[scooterbird.livejournal.com]

Is this for a primary or a general election? And are the candidates running in a non-partisan race? I'm curious about the Progressive Democrats and their independence.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

General election.

The candidates are running in a non-partisan race, four chosen out of six.

[palmwiz.livejournal.com]

This being Massachusetts, the assumption is that most folks are Democrats. We found out recently that Bill White was actually a Republican, but that hasn't stopped the PDS from endorsing him -- he's pretty awesome on the issues, at least at the city level.

[ron_newman]

Bill White changed his registration to Democrat last year.

[cos]

... though I think PDS also endorsed him for alderman at-large in 2005 (and 2003?), before he changed registration.

As a PDS participant, my impression is that the main reason we like Bill White is that he actually wants people outside of city government to know what's happening in city government.

[ron_newman]

In 2003, I think a majority of PDS voted to support Bill White, but not the (then) 80% required for an endorsement. Same thing happened to Lafuente when he ran for mayor that year.