Disingenuousness from Green-Rainbow Candidate for Governor
Any activist knows that actions like the immigration rally on the Commons yesterday are a great opportunity to for organizations and individuals to get their message out – even if they’re just loosely connected to the topic at hand. Yesterday everyone was out passing handbills, seeming to outnumber those in attendance with no message to hock. By the end of the event I had flyers advertising protests against Condoleeza Rice at Boston College, an anti-war march in D.C. this Saturday, and reasons why I should join the Revolutionary Communist Party.
At one point a woman approached to hand me a poorly photocopied green flyer. Turns out the flyer was advertising Grace Ross, Green-Rainbow Party candidate for Governor of Massachusetts. After briefly glancing at the piece and examining the hard-to-see photocopied picture, I realized that the woman who handed it to me was Grace Ross herself. She noticed my look of recognition and said: "yeah, that's me," she said very matter of factly, "I'm running for Governor, the only non-millionaire in the race."
Huh?
I thought about it for a second and remembered the whole issue of Tom Reilly encouraging his opponents to release their tax returns. Obviously the issue is the Attorney General, who I’ve heard still rents his home in Watertown, trying to paint his primary opponents as out-of-touch millionaires. While I don't actually think it's a big deal in this race, the fact is Deval Patrick, Chris Gabrieli, Kerry Healy, and Christy Mihous are all millionaires. Tom Reilly is not.
As a strong Deval supporter it's not usual that I find myself defending Tom Reilly. But I found this statement by Grace Ross to be quite dishonest, especially coming from a candidate whose party tries to position itself as the moral alternative to the crooked major parties. So, I called her on it.
"What about Tom Reilly? He's not a millionaire either."
She realized that I caught her and tried to backtrack. "Yes, I guess that's true," she responded, "but his campaign has millions. Mine doesn't."
Since Tom Reilly isn't a millionaire and he does have millions in his campaign chest, it's only logical that he hasn't loaned much to his own campaign. I'm sure a lot came from union and other Political Action Committees, but I'd bet most are private donations from individuals.
So with Grace Ross' logic, her inability to fundraise is the best reason to vote against Tom Reilly? Not a very convincing argument.
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