Hey, there! Log in / Register
Menino, Flaherty win standout war
By adamg on Wed, 09/02/2009 - 6:17pm
The mayoral campaigns organized standouts outside WBZ studios in advance of tonight's debate.
Menino and Flaherty supporters were out in force along both sides of Soldiers Field Road. Scores of them and they just kept coming.
Some Yoon kids and grandparents showed up relatively late and never tried to muscle into the fray - maybe the beefy union workers for the Flaherty and Menino campaigns scared them, so they stayed clumped together more than a block away. They did have cute little maraca-like shaker things - which were completely inaudible to anybody driving by, unlike the air horns that a number of Flaherty men blared.
McCrea people? When we left, around 5:20, we hadn't seen a single one (and we walked up and down the road a couple of times). Maybe they got stuck in traffic on the way over from the South End.
Neighborhoods:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Oh, Adam
:: meow ::
Yoon really wins
Only Yoon's people seemed interested in supporting their guy.
Flaherty bussed in non-interested union people from New Hampshire and Connecticut. And Menino's city hall workforce were nearly falling asleep holding their signs. Yoon's crew were loud and passionate!! That's the people I would want on my campaign.
Ah, that would explain the Flaherty people with clipboards
Going up and down the line asking people to sign in.
It's called organizing
There were no people bused in from New Hampshire or Connecticut. All volunteers are from Boston, I was one of them. We were signing people up to volunteer on election day, its called organizing. Flaherty's field campaign is real, Yoon's people (including this blog) are astro-turfing.
Does Flaherty know that "his people" are
...posting on UH, dissing other candidates' campaigns?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Not dissing, just calling it like I see it
Nothing against Yoon's campaign but....
Yoon's 30 volunteers...good, Flaherty's over 200...Better
I am a volunteer, I support Michael.
If there is any
If there is any astro-turfing as you claim, please explain why you think so.
[size=9]www.[color=#FF0000]C[/color][color=#FF9933]O[/color][color=#CC00CC]L[/color][color=#339900]O[/color][color=#3300CC]R[/color] OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition![/size]
Coordinated efforts to grow support artificially
When I am on this blog and others I notice lots of Sam Yoon supporters who have the same blogging format. First sentence: negative comment about another candidate. Second sentence: positive comment about Sam Yoon. 5 coordinated comments in a row immediately following new articles where the message and tone sound the same. They play very well together; they are posted in quick succession. It a coordinated effort to grow support artificially.
I am a volunteer, my opinions are mine, and I don't get daily bullet points from the campaign.
Coordinated, OK, but artificial?
I suppose it's possible that he's paying people on Mechanical Turk to post pre-fab blog comments, but probably not. I'm guessing they're genuine volunteer supporters just like you, but the campaign has organized "talking points" regarding various issues that come up. I'm not working on any mayoral campaign (though feel free to write me in), but I've worked on many campaigns, and it's pretty common for campaign people to distribute daily or weekly e-mails with "cheat sheets" about what to emphasize when asked where the person stands on a particular issue.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
the pattern
I'd love you to point out the pattern to me so I can judge for myself.
Repeating talking points is one thing. It's coordinated campaigning.
Astro-turfing requires corporate funds to hire lobbyists who have front organizations so the can appear to be grass-roots.
Instead, consider that the people who post here have been atracted to this site for a reason other than politics, it appeals to them, and they've been posting here long before Yoon ran for anything.
[size=9]www.[color=#FF0000]C[/color][color=#FF9933]O[/color][color=#CC00CC]L[/color][color=#339900]O[/color][color=#3300CC]R[/color] OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition![/size]
Paid lobbyists or not its still astro-turfing
Whether it be volunteers from Arlington and Cambridge sitting together in a campaign office blogging about a Boston mayoral race or paid bloggers posting about US Senate seat 3,000 miles away, it is still the same thing. A campaign that artificially tries to show grassroots support is just that, artificial not organic. That is what I have seen from the Yoon campaign on many of the blogs and comments section over the past few months IMO. Again I will reiterate I am a volunteer and nothing more for Michael Flaherty. I make calls, I canvass my neighbors and do whatever is asked of me by my local VOLUNTEER coordinator. I have not spoken to anyone on the paid staff of the campaign other than to say hi. This race got me to start posting on UHub and get involved in local politics for the first time. That is a good thing and I hope many Boston voters do the same. I have met many of my neighbors for the first time and have a better sense of where I live. I also love reading UHub everyday and I visit it as much as I visit Boston.com in my daily if not hourly website checks. This race is good for the city for all of these reasons.
Yoon volunteer
I want to put your mind at ease, stevenismyname. Having paid campaign staff isn't the same thing as "astro-turfing." Yoon has genuine, local support. Go ahead and Google me. I live in Boston, involved in my community, not a shill for anybody.
I'm all for discussion and differing opinions, but I also hope that everyone plays fair and at least tries to inform the discussion in a constructive way.
Still no examples
Still no examples of what he has see, not withstanding his claim that it is going on here, by Yoon supporters. SHOW US. (Do you know how to link to comments?) and no willingness to engage in a conversation about astro-turfing by defining the term.
Is that what you get from a Flaherty supporter, someone who wants to do all the telling but not substantiate their claims?
[size=9]www.[color=#FF0000]C[/color][color=#FF9933]O[/color][color=#CC00CC]L[/color][color=#339900]O[/color][color=#3300CC]R[/color] OF CHANGE.org Sign the petition![/size]
Yoon tube
Check out Yoon Tube for Sam's volunteers. Look pretty enthusiastic to me.
http://www.samyoon.com/category/yoontube/
Spam
Knock it off.
Maybe this is the sort of
Maybe this is the sort of comment the guy complaining about Yoon was talking about. There always seems to be a Yoonie around to post video, website links or sing his praises.
Looks like it: Blog
Looks like it:
I'm all for supports coming here and having a real discussion, but trying to use it as a soapbox, Adam, do you really want that?
and who are you anon???
and who are you anon???
Polly wanna vote Yoon!
Scrawk! Yoon is the best! Scrawk!
Bored out of their minds...
While Menino and Flaherty's camps may have had more people, they were all about 2 seconds away from falling asleep. You could tell that they were a bunch of City Hall employees and union reps that were there only on a mandate from the top. Better hope there's not a serious fire in Boston tonight because the entire dept. was falling asleep on the sidewalk holding Flaherty signs.
Yoon's team might have been small but when we drove by, they were screaming and waving up a storm. At least you could tell they actually supported the guy!
And all of this matters...how?
I mean, I know I'm voting for the candidate who can sing In-a-gadda-da-vida (the whole thing!) in one breath!
Whoever's campaign lackeys jumped around the most on a curb doesn't matter at all, people.
Man, if you're going to argue this crap, you're going to
get the candidate you deserveforce the candidate you deserve on the rest of us.PS - the hard part is going to be holding enough in for the second half through the entire drum solo...
Ooh, where and when?
I would like to attend the Kaz mayoral candidate forum. Please provide details.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com