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Doug Bennett submits 4,000+ signatures

The candidate for an at-large Boston City Council seat says he submitted 4,013 signatures to the elections department this morning. Candidates for the one of the four open seats need 1,500 valid signatures.

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Comments

More than 4,000 people would vote for this guy? He taped a bunch of brochures about himself to our front door last July. Basically the text tried to beef up his Boston connections — guess he worries he'll be seen as an outsider — and his military service, and talked about how great his wife is. I remember thinking it was lame.

When we removed the brochures, the tape took the paint from our door, and it looked like such a mess. I complained to him in an email, and he wrote this response:

Hi- I'm very sorry for any inconvenience you have had. You have nothing to worry about
now, I went through and completely eliminated both your names from the voter rolls
so you will never receive literature again. Thank you.

Which we interpreted to mean that he somehow "COMPLETELY ELIMINATED OUR NAMES FROM THE VOTER ROLLS!"

I wrote back to say "What the ????" and he replied that he had actually taken our names off HIS mailing list.

I can't help thinking that this guy is a jerk.

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He taped them? Why not just throw them in the mailslot of box?

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Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits any mailable matter such as statements of accounts, circulars, sale bills, or other like matter, on which no postage has been paid, in any letter box established, approved, or accepted by the Postal Service for the receipt or delivery of mail matter on any mail route with intent to avoid payment of lawful postage thereon, shall for each such offense be fined under this title.

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_0...

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It is against the law to put non-mail in the mailslot.

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A mail SLOT just dumps stuff out on the floor, on other side of the door. I don't see how it can be illegal to use that. A mail BOX, on the other hand, stores mail and is definitely subject to this federal law.

This is the rule I've always gone by when distributing leaflets door-to-door.

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I meant not taping it to a door. Just put it inside the door or in the door handle.

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Here's a quote from the bio section of his site. I sometimes do not understand how people get the jobs they get, or what those jobs actually are.

After graduating from Penn State, Doug moved to Nantucket where he was employed as a carpenter. There on Nantucket, Doug got his first taste in political experience, when he was elected both to the Board of Selectman and served as County Commissioner overseeing a municipal budget of $80,000,000. After finishing his tenure in Nantucket’s Municipal and County Governments, Doug moved to Boston to be with his wife, local Bostonian Kathleen Galligan. There in Boston, Doug began his next experience in local government when he was appointed by Superior Clerk Magistrate Maura Hennigan as the Case Specialist for the Suffolk County Criminal Trial Court System. Bennett has remained in this position with the court system ever since.

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Why is that odd? Sounds like some people are scared of this underdog who could win here in Boston.

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it has struck several commenters as odd.

Nobody is scared; we're not running against him. If a few potential supporters read his brochure/site and come away troubled, or have the impression that he may not be the candidate for them, or if they've already, in a brief encounter with him, found him odd, that's notable and leads people to comment on it.

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Is it true that Maura Hennigan fired Bennett from his job after Bill Trabucco and a number of other elected officials, neighborhood groups and residents asked her to do it because he is a nut?

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Could you cite a news story on that? Otherwise, it sounds like drive-by anonymous political mud-slinging, whether or not that was your intention.

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Complete weirdo, he is relentless but clueless. I encountered him on day at the edge of my driveway on his red moped. He was eager to hand out his pamphlet but not so eager to be told he was going the wrong way on a one way street. He gave a "screw you" sneer and putted up the road, I noticed later he had bombed every porch post like a Chinese takeout menu. He gets his signs in bodega windows too, I have to wonder how he sold them on his vague brand of libertarianism.

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Just have a look city owned light poles, electrical boxes, fire boxes - his stickers are all over them. Definitely NOT the type of guy I want in city hall - dumping and sticking his lit all over the public realm.

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He can share a cell with Stephen Fairey.

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...is the dirty little secret that he is a Republican. He won't be telling you that when he knocks on your door.

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Worst kept secret in the city, then.

In practical terms, though, what difference does it make, given that our elections are officially non-partisan?

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Bennett's registered as an independent and I checked the voter rolls the other day. Even if he were a republican, if there are 19 democrats running and only one republican, the democrats will probably split their vote.

Also, Bennett is the only union worker running. My union, the Iron Workers Local 7 union, liked Bennett a lot because he supports construction throughout the city which will create jobs. In fact, we just sent Bennett money.

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Non-Partisan election or not, I don't vote for Republicans and neither do most Bostonians. Bennett must have figured that out and changed his registration because he ran for state office as a Republican. Also, the people getting signatures for him appeared to be all area Republicans.

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bennett must have wrote this... no Iron Worker is going to post here much less support him! he is not a union member and the iron workers would not come near him since, among so many other things, he filed a ethics complaint against menino. talk about calling the kettle black with his criminal rap sheet. how does someone with a criminal record get job in the court system?

I am voting for Bill Trabucco of Dorchester who finally took on Bennett and all his shenanigans: http://dotnews.com/2009/council-hopefuls-chase-sig....

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the statement that Bennet is a union member is a lie... I also know for a fact that Felix Arroyo Jr. is a union member and I believe Andrew Kenneally was or is too...

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I live in Southie and walked into a small shop tonight near my house around Andrew's Square. Upon entering the store I noticed a Bennett sign taped up to the side of the store with a million pieces of tape. I asked the guy if he supported Bennett. He said no and that Bennett had come by the store himself and asked him if he could put his sign up and he said NO. I cannot tell you how pissed the owner was to see Bennett's sign taped to the side of his business, especially after he told Bennett NO SIGN!!! Not only is Bennett posting his bumper stickers on public property, he is also sticking his signs on private businesses without consent and against the wishes of the private business owner.

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Bennett's banner vandalism can also be seen in East Boston on public property at Lexington and Marion Street. Can someone arrest this kid? Can the courts do something? Just because he is a rich millionaire from Nantucket doesn't mean he can vandalize our working class neighborhoods!!!

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